We return for the conclusion of Stan Lee's 1947 booklet on Secrets Behind The Comics-
That offer underscores an often overlooked aspect of Stan Lee's genius. Folks may at times have called him a huckster and slammed him for his self-promotion, and i'm not going to start any defensive arguments. But, while doing so he taps a very real need/desire. It would be decades before budding creators could take their work to conventions for evaluation and review. The only hope in those days was to bus or train to a publishing hub and carry your portfolio from office to office, hoping someone might take a look. An expensive and time consuming affair if one didn't live in New York or Chicago or the like.
Self promotion? Sure. But it takes a special brilliance to sell yourself in a way that makes others happy, and can even be an amazing gift to the buyer. And i can scarcely imagine how cool a look behind the scenes of production must have been in those days when the industry was a complete unknown to the readers.
70 years later, The Man is making folks happier than ever with his unique brand of self promotion. It's hard to imagine a Marvel movie after Stan's not here to make his cameo, so hang in there Mr. Lee!
That offer underscores an often overlooked aspect of Stan Lee's genius. Folks may at times have called him a huckster and slammed him for his self-promotion, and i'm not going to start any defensive arguments. But, while doing so he taps a very real need/desire. It would be decades before budding creators could take their work to conventions for evaluation and review. The only hope in those days was to bus or train to a publishing hub and carry your portfolio from office to office, hoping someone might take a look. An expensive and time consuming affair if one didn't live in New York or Chicago or the like.
Self promotion? Sure. But it takes a special brilliance to sell yourself in a way that makes others happy, and can even be an amazing gift to the buyer. And i can scarcely imagine how cool a look behind the scenes of production must have been in those days when the industry was a complete unknown to the readers.
70 years later, The Man is making folks happier than ever with his unique brand of self promotion. It's hard to imagine a Marvel movie after Stan's not here to make his cameo, so hang in there Mr. Lee!
pages from Secrets Behind The Comics (1947)
The negative aspects of the 'huckster' accusation made by some people annoys me. If it wasn't for Stan, Kirby, Ditko, and others would probably be unknown today. 'Twas Stan who gave Jack his crown.
ReplyDeleteYep. Stan may have been a huckster, but he wasn't a purely self-serving huckster like so many others. He used his powers for good, so to speak, and to create a metaphoric rising tide that lifted the surrounding boats with him. And, as noted above, he used it to build connections with the readers. That 'rising tide' was far reaching.
ReplyDeleteThough it likely was lost and buried after the King Kirby 100 followed a couple weeks later, not for nothing was the first post on this blog a Stan Lee portrait.