Born Stanley Lieber in Manhattan to Romanian parents, it was under a pen name that he would become known as one of the great bards of New York City. Having worked for Timely Comics since 1939 (with a brief interruption while he served in the Training Film Division of the US Army during World War Two), he stayed with them through their transition to Atlas Comics and then Marvel Comics. But by 1960, he was disillusioned with the work and close to quitting. Two things stopped him: his boss’ directive to create superhero characters to compete with DC’s in the hope of saving the company; and his wife’s suggestion that since the company was so close to folding, he might as well do them his way.
So he did.
With his co-creators, particularly Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Stanley – now writing as Stan Lee – would create the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Ant Man & the Wasp, Doctor Strange, Thor, Daredevil and others besides. For the first few years, Stan wrote every title himself, but eventually the workload grew beyond the hours in the day. Marvel Comics would grow from a modest studio to an industry juggernaut, and Stan – Stan the Man, Smilin’ Stan Lee – would be the face of it until his death in 2018.
