The spiritual father of superheroes like Spider-Man and Hulk would celebrate his hundredth today: Stan Lee, born Stanley Martin Lieber, was born on December 28, 1922 in New York. Until shortly before his death on November 12, 2018, he still appeared in public, adored by comic fans.
Lee’s first superhero adventure had few images and no speech bubbles. He was assigned to write a short story at Timely Comics, later Marvel, regarding the war hero Captain America, invented by his colleagues. Fearing that this work might harm his career as a serious writer, young Lieber used his pseudonym, Stan Lee.
Successful self-marketing
Lee is considered a revolutionary in the comic industry because his characters were more complex and sometimes darker than the traditional ones. The stories, like today’s Marvel movies, were intertwined. This is how a whole universe for superheroes grew, the Marvel universe, which Lee himself knew how to successfully market.
On the occasion of the milestone birthday, a gala will be held in Los Angeles in his honor. Marvel Comics has been paying tribute to Lee, now as famous as his characters, in numerous sections on its website for weeks. This commemorates some of Lee’s most popular stories – and his hilarious cameos in the comics. In a 1963 edition of his fictional “Fantastic Four,” Lee and co-star Jack Kirby are uninvited guests at Reed Richards and Susan Storm’s wedding.
Lee was also known for his cameo appearances in films and series as a courier service employee in “Captain America: Civil War”, as a bus driver in “Avengers: Infinity War” or as himself in the series “Big Bang Theory”.
Reading material for fans
Today, people around the world associate his name with the adventures of Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men and countless other superheroes penned by Lee. After Lee’s death, his life’s work was published several times in books, countless biographies bear witness to this. Lee even worked on the photo book “The Stan Lee Story” himself. The first edition from Taschen-Verlag, limited to 1,000 copies, weighed more than twelve kilos, was signed by Lee personally and cost 5,000 euros. In the meantime, “The Stan Lee Story” is also available in a more manageable edition.