People have this tendency Ive noticed to want to cast Stan Lee as nothing more than a promoter/marketer/sales copywriter, or worse as nothing but an editor or even a typist. The argument Ive heard again and again is that Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita Sr., John Buscema, Gene Colan, and Don Heck actually wrote all those comic books. They wrote them in the sense that they created the plots in drawn comic book pages. But to believe that all those words in all those comics were the work of those men, you have to believe that all those men wrote in a seamlessly interchangeable, consistently identical style, and manipulate English itself in very particular ways and do it everywhere the same way, which is just against all logic. If they didnt draw alike, how would they write alike? It makes no sense. Stan Lee hired brilliant artists to create stories in drawn comic book pages. Then he took the power, drama, and wonder of Jack Kirby; the weirdness and eerieness of Steve Ditko, the jazz and punch of John Romita Sr., the visual lyricism and grace of John Buscema, and the atmospheric fluidity of Gene Colan, and crafted words to match. What those artists did in pictures, Stan did with the words and language that he put in the characters mouths and heads, the narrations in the yellow boxes that no one uses any more, and the titles of the stories. Stan is every bit as much an artist as the people with whom he collaborated, and he gave Marvel Comics a feeling and a sound in the minds ear that was unlike anything else going on in comic books. Would Jack Kirby really have made Thor and the other gods, and the Silver Surfer, talk that way? Think about it--really? Would Dr. Doom and Dr. Strange really have had the voices and verbiage we associate with them, left to the devices of Kirby and Ditko alone? All the hysterical witticisms and banter with which Spider-Man taunted his foes as he battled them--was that really the doing of Ditko and Romita? Emulate the Watcher. Stand and observe. Try to fathom the cataclysmic forces that have been unleashed, for you shall never see their like again. As for me, I do not stand silent, motionless, due to lack of concern. Long have I cherished the stumbling, bumbling, but always aspiring human race. Yea, even as I utter these words I am in mental contact with the Human Torch. I am guiding him through the maze of endless galaxies, protecting him from the ravages of infinite space. Did Jack Kirby actually have the Watcher say that in Fantastic Four #50? No, Jack conceived the plot and drew the story he created, but those words--that was Stan, only Stan. Because of Stan, every character had a voice that belonged specifically to that character, and the narratives were framed in a language richer than anything coming out of DC or anyplace else in comic books. It was under Stan Lee that comics first began to aspire to be literature. That, as much as Stans personal showmanship and his uncanny knack for marketing comic books and merchandise, and creating a camaraderie between Marvel and its fans unlike anything else that had previously existed in comics, is what made Marvel--and the comics medium as we presently know it-- what they are. Hate the mistakes and abuses that the man committed along the way; he wasnt perfect and, like many creative people, hes quite the narcissist. (I should know.) He took too much credit for some things, he misused and even misappropriated some of Kirbys work (witness the Silver Surfer), and he played the company shill to the hilt. But creatively, you have to give the man his props. We wouldnt have the comics we have loved and enjoyed for more than 50 years without the innovations that he made.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 19:48:58 +0000
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