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jaipal's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a very short autobiography of Stan Lee (Stanley) Lieber, from his childhood growing up during the Depression to getting a job at Timely comics (later Marvel). As it is a short autobiography, it covers some major highlights, mostly involving the comic characters he worked on, the people he worked with, the war, the love of his life (Joan), and the decisions he made (some bad but many good) that made him a remembered name for many people who read comics (and many who don't).
A few things of note is how he thought that children were smarter than people give them credit for and he fought for comics (and later cartoons) to have complicated story lines and better writing. This decision served Marvel well until today.
The second and perhaps most important thing shows him as a family man. He loved his wife, Joan and daughter very much.
It is a well written graphical autobiography which is a fitting way to read about Stan Lee considering he is synonymous with Marvel Comics.
A few things of note is how he thought that children were smarter than people give them credit for and he fought for comics (and later cartoons) to have complicated story lines and better writing. This decision served Marvel well until today.
The second and perhaps most important thing shows him as a family man. He loved his wife, Joan and daughter very much.
It is a well written graphical autobiography which is a fitting way to read about Stan Lee considering he is synonymous with Marvel Comics.
sqeeker's review against another edition
4.0
- I LOVE the cover so much! I also love what was under the dust jacket!
- The double spread of Stan's favorite books in the beginning was so awesome! I loved it! It was fun to see a collage of so many great characters.
- This was a brilliant graphic novel, and it seriously is the only way for Stan Lee to do his memoir.
- I love the artwork and page layouts so much! It was like reading an old 60s comic. I loved it!
- There was SO much to ooh and aah and geek out over! There were so many great people named and talked about, like Jack Kirby and Roy Thomas. I was sad to learn that Jack and Stan had a sort of falling out.
- The book had a lot of history on what happened with the Marvel company. It was interesting, and I learned a lot.
- I love what Stan had to say about his marriage in the end. Not all marriages last, and I'm glad his is.
- This was a very Stan Lee book. It was full of his charisma and humor. I like he broke the 4th wall and talked to the reader. I also like when he spoke to his younger self.
- A must read for all Marvel/Stan Lee fans!
- The double spread of Stan's favorite books in the beginning was so awesome! I loved it! It was fun to see a collage of so many great characters.
- This was a brilliant graphic novel, and it seriously is the only way for Stan Lee to do his memoir.
- I love the artwork and page layouts so much! It was like reading an old 60s comic. I loved it!
- There was SO much to ooh and aah and geek out over! There were so many great people named and talked about, like Jack Kirby and Roy Thomas. I was sad to learn that Jack and Stan had a sort of falling out.
- The book had a lot of history on what happened with the Marvel company. It was interesting, and I learned a lot.
- I love what Stan had to say about his marriage in the end. Not all marriages last, and I'm glad his is.
- This was a very Stan Lee book. It was full of his charisma and humor. I like he broke the 4th wall and talked to the reader. I also like when he spoke to his younger self.
- A must read for all Marvel/Stan Lee fans!
pixie_d's review against another edition
2.0
I love Stan Lee and enjoyed this to some degree, but it seems aimed at kids, and almost an ad for the movies.
helpfulsnowman's review against another edition
4.0
I don't mind saying it brought a tear to my eye. The story of the lonely kid who grew up to be Stan Lee. Pretty awesome.
The best bit about this book, I feel like they really captured Lee's voice. Reading it FEELS like Stan Lee talking. Full of great anecdotes. The end get a little list-y, lots of stuff happening without much context, but such is life.
There is a weird thing that's addressed here. The relationship between Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
For those who don't know, Jack Kirby was the artist behind a lot of Marvel's greatest creations. Fantastic Four, Thor. And for those who aren't familiar with why lots of people think Kirby deserves more credit, it's because of the Marvel Style, coined and created by Stan Lee.
Marvel Style goes like this: If I'm writing and you're the artist, I give you the general idea of the plot, the characters, and the story. You then illustrate the entire thing, with action and word balloons, and then I come back and fill in the dialog. So the thing is, when we call Jack Kirby the artist, Marvel Style meant he shaped the story a lot more than someone who was drawing to a very specific script with greater detail in the outlines and actions.
And lots of people look at Stan Lee as someone who took more credit than he deserved. Who is really responsible for these stories? How much does the look trump the idea? How much does the shape of the story consist of the story's creation?
It's an interesting question. For example, we accept that James Patterson plots stuff and has other writers do the actual writing. So who wrote those books? We credit writers on improv TV shows, and yet the actors have a lot to do with the creation of those characters.
I don't think it's very useful to say who did exactly what and what percentage of a character is his costume versus the story outline plus dialog. Because there's no definition for this stuff, and we could go back and forth all day.
Instead, I'll invoke a more modern pair, Jobs and Wozniak. J and W are almost the archetype for something we see in a lot of modern, self-starting companies and industries. You've got your quieter programmers, and you've got a boisterous salesman. The salesman slowly becomes the face of the company. And then there's a backlash about how much creation the salesman did versus the Woz.
But part of me feels like the backlash is our own fault. We create the Jobs. We are the ones who read the interviews. We are the ones who want a company to have a face, and excuse me for saying it, I don't think we're ready for a company to have a face that's a nerd. Or unattractive. Or might have a flat personality. And we also have a lot of people who get into something like drawing or writing comics because they like drawing or writing comics, and they aren't particularly interested in running a company.
Jack Kirby wasn't Stan Lee's employee. Stan did try to offer Kirby a job a couple of times, and Kirby turned it down in favor of remaining freelance.
My base opinion on this, I don't feel like there would be a Marvel comics without Stan Lee AND Jack Kirby. And probably Steve Ditko too.
But my larger opinion has to do with a story:
I went to my first comic convention in 2002. It was a weird experience, I'll tell you that. And one of the people they brought out was (if I'm remembering correctly) Martin Nodell, artist who did the original concept art for Green Lantern. The dude would have been in his late 80's, and he didn't seem all that spry.
He was selling sketches for something like $40. And they made an announcement during the day to try and drum up business.
I regret that I didn't buy one. I was 18 and I didn't have a whole lot of money, but still. You know that a guy in his late 80's isn't selling sketches at a con because he's set, financially.
And this is the larger opinion: Comic companies royally fucked the original creators, without exception. I think Stan Lee has done quite well for himself, but he has less than $100 million in the bank. I'm not totally ready to weep for a millionaire, but here's the context: Robert Downey Jr. made $80 million for playing Iron Man in one movie. So there you go. There are people today involved with these characters and stories that have made a shitload of money and have absolutely nothing to do with their creation or, really, their current stories.
And that's what bothers me a lot more. That doesn't feel right. I feel, just a little, like fans are whipped up into this idea of who should be getting a bigger piece of the celebrity pie, meanwhile neither Stan nor Jack have gotten what they deserve. It doesn't have to be about these two men sharing this tiny slice of the pie. It should be about "Holy shit, this is THE biggest pie in the world, and we can do justice to its creators by giving them a nice share without really changing our bottom line."
I will also say this.
Kirby's family did bring forth a lawsuit to try and halt Marvel projects, the big Marvel movies, asserting that Kirby was the copyright holder. The case was set to go to the Supreme Court when Marvel settled out of court, just last year, in fact.
I feel the tragedy here is that Marvel handed over a bag of money, and the Kirby's walked away from what could have been a precedent-setting case. If it was found that Kirby really DID own the copyright, then he'd be cut in on the characters he created. Which would mean that Steve Ditko would have a pretty good shot at some of the Spider-Man money. Which would mean that the Martin Nodell's of the world might actually be able to retire after creating an iconic comic character. They wouldn't have to work in their 80's.
To be fair, I don't know all the details of the case. Maybe there was no shot. Or maybe the legal fees were too tremendous. I don't know.
All I really know is that I wish I lived in a world where these creators got paid for the work they did.
The best bit about this book, I feel like they really captured Lee's voice. Reading it FEELS like Stan Lee talking. Full of great anecdotes. The end get a little list-y, lots of stuff happening without much context, but such is life.
There is a weird thing that's addressed here. The relationship between Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
For those who don't know, Jack Kirby was the artist behind a lot of Marvel's greatest creations. Fantastic Four, Thor. And for those who aren't familiar with why lots of people think Kirby deserves more credit, it's because of the Marvel Style, coined and created by Stan Lee.
Marvel Style goes like this: If I'm writing and you're the artist, I give you the general idea of the plot, the characters, and the story. You then illustrate the entire thing, with action and word balloons, and then I come back and fill in the dialog. So the thing is, when we call Jack Kirby the artist, Marvel Style meant he shaped the story a lot more than someone who was drawing to a very specific script with greater detail in the outlines and actions.
And lots of people look at Stan Lee as someone who took more credit than he deserved. Who is really responsible for these stories? How much does the look trump the idea? How much does the shape of the story consist of the story's creation?
It's an interesting question. For example, we accept that James Patterson plots stuff and has other writers do the actual writing. So who wrote those books? We credit writers on improv TV shows, and yet the actors have a lot to do with the creation of those characters.
I don't think it's very useful to say who did exactly what and what percentage of a character is his costume versus the story outline plus dialog. Because there's no definition for this stuff, and we could go back and forth all day.
Instead, I'll invoke a more modern pair, Jobs and Wozniak. J and W are almost the archetype for something we see in a lot of modern, self-starting companies and industries. You've got your quieter programmers, and you've got a boisterous salesman. The salesman slowly becomes the face of the company. And then there's a backlash about how much creation the salesman did versus the Woz.
But part of me feels like the backlash is our own fault. We create the Jobs. We are the ones who read the interviews. We are the ones who want a company to have a face, and excuse me for saying it, I don't think we're ready for a company to have a face that's a nerd. Or unattractive. Or might have a flat personality. And we also have a lot of people who get into something like drawing or writing comics because they like drawing or writing comics, and they aren't particularly interested in running a company.
Jack Kirby wasn't Stan Lee's employee. Stan did try to offer Kirby a job a couple of times, and Kirby turned it down in favor of remaining freelance.
My base opinion on this, I don't feel like there would be a Marvel comics without Stan Lee AND Jack Kirby. And probably Steve Ditko too.
But my larger opinion has to do with a story:
I went to my first comic convention in 2002. It was a weird experience, I'll tell you that. And one of the people they brought out was (if I'm remembering correctly) Martin Nodell, artist who did the original concept art for Green Lantern. The dude would have been in his late 80's, and he didn't seem all that spry.
He was selling sketches for something like $40. And they made an announcement during the day to try and drum up business.
I regret that I didn't buy one. I was 18 and I didn't have a whole lot of money, but still. You know that a guy in his late 80's isn't selling sketches at a con because he's set, financially.
And this is the larger opinion: Comic companies royally fucked the original creators, without exception. I think Stan Lee has done quite well for himself, but he has less than $100 million in the bank. I'm not totally ready to weep for a millionaire, but here's the context: Robert Downey Jr. made $80 million for playing Iron Man in one movie. So there you go. There are people today involved with these characters and stories that have made a shitload of money and have absolutely nothing to do with their creation or, really, their current stories.
And that's what bothers me a lot more. That doesn't feel right. I feel, just a little, like fans are whipped up into this idea of who should be getting a bigger piece of the celebrity pie, meanwhile neither Stan nor Jack have gotten what they deserve. It doesn't have to be about these two men sharing this tiny slice of the pie. It should be about "Holy shit, this is THE biggest pie in the world, and we can do justice to its creators by giving them a nice share without really changing our bottom line."
I will also say this.
Kirby's family did bring forth a lawsuit to try and halt Marvel projects, the big Marvel movies, asserting that Kirby was the copyright holder. The case was set to go to the Supreme Court when Marvel settled out of court, just last year, in fact.
I feel the tragedy here is that Marvel handed over a bag of money, and the Kirby's walked away from what could have been a precedent-setting case. If it was found that Kirby really DID own the copyright, then he'd be cut in on the characters he created. Which would mean that Steve Ditko would have a pretty good shot at some of the Spider-Man money. Which would mean that the Martin Nodell's of the world might actually be able to retire after creating an iconic comic character. They wouldn't have to work in their 80's.
To be fair, I don't know all the details of the case. Maybe there was no shot. Or maybe the legal fees were too tremendous. I don't know.
All I really know is that I wish I lived in a world where these creators got paid for the work they did.
spookysoto's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5
This is a very cool memoir, is in comic / graphic novel format. It was very interesting and informative, I feel I got the chance to know Stan Lee a bit more.
If you're a fan of Marvel Comics, Marvel movies or Comics in general I highly recommend it.
This is a very cool memoir, is in comic / graphic novel format. It was very interesting and informative, I feel I got the chance to know Stan Lee a bit more.
If you're a fan of Marvel Comics, Marvel movies or Comics in general I highly recommend it.
sleepygirlreads_'s review against another edition
3.0
Originally posted on Brit's Book Nook
Fun Fact: The day I found out about this book, I had planned to go to the library and I found it by accident there.
I feel kind of bad writing this review, because it’s a book about someone’s life, but it just wasn’t as good as I had hoped it would be. I thought that maybe we would see Stan’s struggles and how he prevailed and became so famous, but we didn’t get that. From the memoir it seems as though once Stan had gotten a job at a publishing company everything was pretty smooth from there.
I did like how we got to know exactly how comics are made, because I sort of had an idea how it was done, but now I knew the gist of it. But that part was also kind of sucky since so many names were thrown around I found hard to keep track of them all, even with images.
I did not like how there were bad things said about DC Comics. And it wasn’t just Stan’s past self, it was his present self as well. I get that DC and Marvel are competitors, but the styles are so different that it’s not like one will ever make the other go out of business. I thought that was very low of Stan Lee.
If you’re a major fan of Stan Lee or Marvel I would recommend this. But if not than I wouldn’t bother.
Fun Fact: The day I found out about this book, I had planned to go to the library and I found it by accident there.
I feel kind of bad writing this review, because it’s a book about someone’s life, but it just wasn’t as good as I had hoped it would be. I thought that maybe we would see Stan’s struggles and how he prevailed and became so famous, but we didn’t get that. From the memoir it seems as though once Stan had gotten a job at a publishing company everything was pretty smooth from there.
I did like how we got to know exactly how comics are made, because I sort of had an idea how it was done, but now I knew the gist of it. But that part was also kind of sucky since so many names were thrown around I found hard to keep track of them all, even with images.
I did not like how there were bad things said about DC Comics. And it wasn’t just Stan’s past self, it was his present self as well. I get that DC and Marvel are competitors, but the styles are so different that it’s not like one will ever make the other go out of business. I thought that was very low of Stan Lee.
If you’re a major fan of Stan Lee or Marvel I would recommend this. But if not than I wouldn’t bother.
lrouss89's review against another edition
Witty. Irreverent. Fascinating. Wonderful illustrations (of course).
librarylapin's review against another edition
3.0
This was a fun little memoir written in the style of a comic book. It was interesting and entertaining. I would recommend it for light reading.
dmsreader09's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
3.0
ellelainey's review against another edition
5.0
Brilliantly written with excellent illustrations and a full scope of Stan Lee's life in comics.