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Stan Lee: The Rise and Fall of The American Comic Book
If you don't know who Stan Lee is, you will have little to no interest in this book. But who are we kidding? Any geek worth his or her metal knows Stan "The Man" Lee, the co-creator of Spider-man, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four and countless other beloved Marvel Comics characters. What most people don't really know is the real story behind the creation of these characters. Many have never heard of the artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, who contributed a great deal to the creation and development of these superheroes. In the past years a bit of a rift has formed in comics fandom, the hard-core siding with the late Kirby, claiming that Lee and Marvel did the artist wrong. The other side blithely backs the amiable Lee. Through interviews with artists, family members and Stan Lee himself, Spurgeon and Raphael try to shed some light on the subject.
Anyone who's read Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay will notice a great deal of similarities between Stan Lee's origins and the fictionalized settings Chabon created for his book. Both stories start in the time of the pulps, when publishers cranked out fantastic publications by the truck-load. The parallels are fascinating. If you're a comic book fan and you haven't read Chabon's book, you need to read it.
Anyway, the book I'm supposed to be reviewing tracks Stan Lee's star from his position as a lowly writer at Timely Comics, to the editor behind the most famous run of comic books in history; Marvel's Silver Age comics. This is when the Fantastic Four, Spider-man and The Hulk were born. The book doesn't stop there. It follows Lee through the decades detailing his involvement with the Marvel titles all the way. It examines his rocky relationship with Hollywood and decades of attempts to bring Marvel characters to life on television or in the movies. Even more fascinating are the segments of the book that deal with Stan Lee Media and the enormous financial flame-out that occurred when the business went sour.
The book paints Lee in a very humanistic light. It brings his flaws into sharp contrast and at the same time gives him credit for his amazing accomplishments, unceasing drive and wild imagination. Most interesting is the way the book tells the story of all comics in the context of Marvel and Lee's story. As much as underground geniuses such as R. Crumb or Art Spiegelman must hate the association, it's hard to argue that the fates of all comics are influenced by Marvel's gravitational pull.
There's been a mild knee-jerk reaction in the comics community that the book is blatant attack on Lee, being that both Spurgeon and Raphael both worked at The Comics Journal, a publication that has publicly supported Jack Kirby's claims against Lee. To be fair, the authors put an exceptional amount of work into trying to tell the truth, which is reflected in the sheer number of annotated resources they've provided in the book's source notes.
In all seriousness, try to forget for a moment that I'm friends with the authors. As a lifelong comics reader I found the information presented in this book fascinating. It made me want to run to my comics shop and buy reprints of the old issues. Don't take my word for it, though.
There are several excerpts of the book available online. You can read the prologue at the book's official website. Part of Chapter 17, "Stan in Hollywood" is excerpted at The Comic's Journal's website."
You can purchase Stan Lee: The Rise and Fall of The American Comic Book from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Now I know who I am.. hmm..
There are two kinds of egotists: 1) Those who admit it 2) The rest of us
Is the Things 'thing' made of rock as well?
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
Have there actually been other books about comic books, I must be out of the loop on this one.
Shouldn't Spiderman be prounounced more like Goldman? What I mean is not saying it like it's two words (Spider Man).
Then again, we should have a superhero called GoldMan (Gold Man)! That would kick ass! Why didn't Stan Lee think of that?
...that was NOT the
Worst review ever. </comic book guy>
'Nuff said.
lee did an interview a number of years ago and answered that very question: yes.
i'm not sure whether it's more embarrassing that there is an answer or that i know it...
ed
Holy crap! I suggest you immediately step away from the computer screen, pack a bag, and move out of your parents' basement.
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
a list of recommendations would be greatly appreciated, mister.
"Revemnge of the English Majors . . . "
C-
I think I will wait for the movie adaption of this book. We will see what CGI can do with Stan.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
"Oh, Beneficent Deities Who smile down upon our bandwidth and HTML, please don't make the posting of completely counter-productive and useful-to-no-one "non-affiliate links" assume the same popularity with the /. High School set as "registration free" links, "Soviet Russia" Jokes, "Obligatory" anything, and Subject lines consisting solely of the words "One Word." Let us grow together into maturity, with the realization that even a site catering to the rants and tirades of pseudo-socialist geeks still has to make a buck somehow. Give us the discipline not to try and undermine every commerce-oriented Internet endeavor we stumble across, and the wisdom to find where our energies might be directed to stimulate Growth rather than Anarchy."
Amen.
So it's the most important book ever written, but if I don't know who Stan Lee is, I won't care?
I was so ready to buy the hyperbole, and then you just shot me right down, didntcha.
Ya like Astrix the Gaul, he could kick Spiderman's but anyday.