In an interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, Lee talked about how Stan Lee was his pen name. The popularity of these characters launched Marvel into the public consciousness, and the face of that cultural shift was Stan Lee. What readers and audiences know today about Spider-Man came from Steve Ditko, another writer and artist who did much of the early writing and designed the costume, after he was given just a name and a set of powers as a starting point. Kirby collaborated with Lee to also create Iron Man, Thor, Groot, and the Black Panther, just to name a few.Įven Marvel’s most well known web-slinger was a group effort. Let’s see if we can make a go of this, so from that moment Jack brings in the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk.” Here’s Kruse, “Jack said I’ve got a million ideas. When Marvel Comics was about to shut its doors, but the publisher had already paid a few months advance on printing, Kirby had nothing to lose when he pitched some of the characters who would ultimately save the company. Writer and artist, Jack Kirby pops up repeatedly. If you look up many of Marvel’s most familiar heroes, several names appear alongside Lee’s. Stan Lee was so synonymous with the characters of the Marvel universe, that it’s easier to overlook many of the other contributing creators. Kruse mentioned Jack, as in Jack Kirby, not Stan Lee in speaking about Marvel’s shift to superheroes in the sixties. ![]() But they did not see the kind of audience reactions that came from Jack’s reintroduction of psychologically complex and narratively complex superhero dramas.” “Prior to that they or course had been publishing, but they were publishing a lot of weird suspense and monster stories and things like that I still have a very special place for in my heart and I love. Books in other genres weren’t keeping the company afloat. The period of struggle and irrelevance followed by success, was also how things went for the Marvel comics leading up to the early sixties. Stan Lee’s earliest attempts to bring his creations to the screen failed. In a time when a superhero movie surpasses another superhero movie, it’s easy to forget a time when films based off of Marvel characters flopped at the box office. Four of the top ten highest grossing films this decade were Marvel movies before The Incredibles 2 bounced Avengers: Age of Ultron from the top ten. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been at the center of mainstream cinema for ten years now. “I really believe the Marvel movies in general is one of the major factors that has made it perfectly acceptable to be a geek in the world right now.” Strange was a disciple of Dormammu or what if Peter Parker had never been bitten by a radioactive spider?Īnother what if? What if the characters Stan Lee created had never evolved into the Marvel Cinematic Universe we know today? Here’s Chad Seewald again. What if the X-Men never existed or what if Dr. I was also collecting Marvel’s Secret Wars and the Secret Wars toys.”Īn illustration of the X-Men's Wolverine drawn by Aaron MinierĪrtist Aaron Minier also remembers what comics got him started, the popular What If? Series from Marvel set up each issue with a question. “I was certainly exposed to characters like Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Hulk, and the X-Men very, very young. Starting at a young age, taking interest in comics from friends or looking at comics in the magazine racks on family trips to the store. For Kruse and Minier the path into Marvel comics was similar. The X-Men comics Seewald learned on were part of The Dark Phoenix Saga. ![]() I own Sweets So Geek, custom bakery and confectionary shop here in Fort Wayne, and I learned how to read on X-Men comic books I stole from my dad’s collection, so lifelong geek.” I was also joined by Aaron Minier, an artist and illustrator working in Fort Wayne, and the owner of a certain confectionary shop in the North Anthony corridor. We spoke last year to look back at Fort Wayne’s Summit City and Appleseed comic cons, which Kruse organized. I spoke with Zack Kruse, a Phd candidate at Michigan State originally from Cherubusco. To better understand that legacy, I sat down with three people whose lives have been shaped by comics and the Marvel Universe. Whether it was on the screen or on the page, Stan Lee’s work changed pop culture forever. The worlds of film and comic books, an industry Lee helped define, mourned his passing and paid tribute. Stan Lee passed away last month at the age of 95.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |