No More Hichcock-like Cameos...

All the shit that doesn't fit!
If it doesn't go into the other forums, stick it in here.
A general free for all
Post Reply
User avatar
Lord Jim
Posts: 29716
Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2010 12:44 pm
Location: TCTUTKHBDTMDITSAF

No More Hichcock-like Cameos...

Post by Lord Jim »

A towering American pop-culture figure passes....
A Marvel Of A Man: Stan Lee Dead At 95

Image

American comic book writer, editor, publisher and former President of Marvel Comics Stan Lee died Monday at the age of 95.

Lee gave us over six decades of work like The Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spider-Man — superheroes we could identify with, characters that allowed us to suspend our disbelief because they reacted to bizarre situations like you or I might.

In a 1998 interview, Lee told me, "Before Marvel started, any superhero might be walking down the street and see a 12-foot-tall monster coming toward him with purple skin and eight arms breathing fire, and the character would have said something like, 'Oh! There's a monster from another world; I better catch him before he destroys the city.' Now, if one of our Marvel characters saw the same monster, I'd like to think Spider-Man would say, 'Who's the nut in the Halloween get-up? I wonder what he's advertising?' "

Robert Scott, owner of Comickaze, a San Diego comic-book store, says Lee put the human in superhuman.

"He would talk about prejudice, racism," Scott says. "I mean the X-Men, here was a group of people who were only trying to do good things and only trying to help and they were constantly ostracized by being mutants."

For Lee, having compelling, thought-provoking subject matter was crucial to his business.

"The person viewing the cartoon or reading the book should have something to think about, not just look at mindless pages of running around," Lee said.

Born Stanley Lieber in New York City in 1922, he took the pseudonym Stan Lee to save his real name for more literary pursuits. But those pursuits never came. Instead, Lee devoted more than six decades to the comics industry, co-creating Spider-Man, Black Panther, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man and Daredevil. In 1970, he successfully challenged the restrictive Comics Code Authority with a story about drug abuse in Spider-Man.

But Lee also injected a sense of self-doubt in his characters.

"That was the revolution that Stan Lee did," says David Goyer, who adapted the Marvel character Blade for the screen. "He was the first one to create, with Spider-Man, superheroes who doubted themselves, who were tormented, who were unhappy."

The increased complexity of Marvel's characters broadened their appeal to older audiences. Lee, always a savvy businessman, spearheaded the expansion of Marvel Comics from a division within a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Lee's larger vision was to create a shared Marvel universe in which characters from one series would cross over into another. He cited one example at a 2008 fan convention: "There was one I loved, I think it was the Fantastic Four, and they were at a ballgame at Yankee Stadium and there were a lot of press photographers there. So I told [comic book artist] Jack Kirby to draw Peter Parker in the background with a camera. And we made no mention of it, he was just in the panel, and we got about a million letters saying, 'We saw Peter Parker at the game. That's terrific.' And it made it seem like these were real characters who live in the same world and occasionally they get together. And that was something I got a big kick out of."

Lee built a sense of community between fans and creators. He engaged readers through his column, Stan's Soapbox, and often signed off his letters to fans with the catchphrase " 'Nuff said." And he became as recognizable as his superheroes through his many cameos on TV and in movies.

After entering the comics industry as a teenager and helping the medium to mature and expand, Lee's impact on comics was recognized with numerous awards including the American National Medal of Arts in 2008.

By giving us superheroes that proved all too human, Lee has ensured himself a permanent place in pop culture.

'Nuff said.
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/12/10632283 ... dead-at-95
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Long Run
Posts: 6717
Joined: Sat Apr 17, 2010 2:47 pm

Re: No More Hichcock-like Cameos...

Post by Long Run »

Another giant passes from the scene.

User avatar
RayThom
Posts: 8604
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:38 pm
Location: Longwood Gardens PA 19348

No More Hichcock-like Cameos...

Post by RayThom »

IIRC -- some years ago Lee went to court against the company that owns Marvel (Sony? Disney?) saying that he was cut out and/or cheated of any royalties from profits being generated by the resurgence of comic characters he created. Everyone was making money but him.

He won the case in a big way and a short time later he reemerged from the inky shadows as the force behind most of the "superhero" movies made in over the last couple of decades. He seemed to be making up for lost time and revenue -- and rightly so. Unfortunately, over the last couple of years, and in failing health, I had read where his caregivers (relatives?) where manipulating him and his finances.

Regardless... 95 ain't bad. All in all, he had a good run.
Image
“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.” 

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 18303
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: No More Hichcock-like Cameos...

Post by BoSoxGal »

Image
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

Big RR
Posts: 14053
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 9:47 pm

Re: No More Hichcock-like Cameos...

Post by Big RR »

I'm, not a comic book (graphic novel?) fan by any means, and even when I read them, I always gravitated to the iconic, almost perfect, superheroes of DC comics (like Superman) over Marvel's angst-ridden (super)heroes like Spiderman. But from the little I have seen recently, even the DC superheroes have now moved to this sort of imperfect, unsure type of person and I would credit Lee for that move. I think comic book heroes (at least in the movies, and I understand in the books) are less cartoonish and more fully fleshed out, and I think the efforts of Lee from the 60s on moved them in this way (even funny comics like Archie have done this, and as I recall the Archie character was killed defending a gay senator in an assassination attempt (my understanding is this is just one of many parallel story lines in different books, so Archie still lives on in others).

When I was a kid, the prevailing views of "them" were that reading comic books was a bad thing for kids, but my parents always said it's better to read than not read. And now I think more complex writing and themes are embraced in comics, presenting readers with entertainment ad challenges. And again, I credit Lee with this move. We have gone from truth, justice, and the American way, to an examination of what those terms mean and how we decide how to act. And that can only be good.

95 years is a good run, but his influence will live on long after.

MGMcAnick
Posts: 1342
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 10:01 pm
Location: 12 NM from ICT @ 010º

Re: No More Hichcock-like Cameos...

Post by MGMcAnick »

RayThom wrote:IIRC -- some years ago Lee went to court against the company that owns Marvel (Sony? Disney?) saying that he was cut out and/or cheated of any royalties from profits being generated by the resurgence of comic characters he created. Everyone was making money but him.
It's Disney which paid handsomely for it.

I think you are thinking of the originator (s) of Superman, not one of Lee's babies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright ... s_creators
A friend of Doc's, one of only two B-29 bombers still flying.

User avatar
RayThom
Posts: 8604
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:38 pm
Location: Longwood Gardens PA 19348

No More Hichcock-like Cameos...

Post by RayThom »

MGMcAnick wrote:... I think you are thinking of the originator (s) of Superman, not one of Lee's babies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright ... s_creators
No, it was definitely Stanley Martin Lieber, aka. Stan Lee. Check this link out:

http://www.bobbatchelor.com/blog/2017/4 ... eland-wins
Image
“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.” 

User avatar
Econoline
Posts: 9555
Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:25 pm
Location: DeKalb, Illinois...out amidst the corn, soybeans, and Republicans

Re: No More Hichcock-like Cameos...

Post by Econoline »

  • Image
Who can forget his classic creation, The Malcolm X-Men?
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
God @The Tweet of God

User avatar
MajGenl.Meade
Posts: 20707
Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:51 am
Location: Groot Brakrivier
Contact:

Re: No More Hichcock-like Cameos...

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Day late, more than a dollar short. It could be that Lee's "appearance" in the animated "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" is his last. It was released Dec 1 2018 and for my money (which I paid) it's the best Spider-Man movie. Ever.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

Post Reply