So, while i've been in retreat from the outer world, Stan "The Man" had his 95th birthday. Amazing that he still manages to find the energy for self promotion and all those fun cameos while nearing 100 years old. Joan must either be amazing or terrifying. (that's a joke, son. I done my time)
So, still crawling out of the cave, but such an occasion needs must be marked, no? But how does one choose among the many, many, books he's written over the decades?
We don't! Instead, we'll look at Stan writing about writing comics. That makes sense, right?
So, let's go way back - 70 years back, to 1947, to get a glimpse at early Stan teasing hints of the master promoter to come with an odd and amazing little booklet -
This was only a half decade after Stan Lee's first writing job (the text page for Captain America #3), but he was in a singular position at Timely/Atlas/Etc that allowed a perfect view to create this look behind the scenes of comics. While indeed a "little booklet", it does weigh in at 100 pages, but i want to run it in its entirety, so we'll break it up into 3 parts. Settle in and take a look behind the scenes in the early days of the comic industry as Stan Lee shows you the "secrets" of the craft - though much is common knowledge these many years later. Of course, what makes this book truly Odd can be seen on page 6 and the back cover - a facial hair free Stan Lee!
Join us later today for the second part, in which you get to try your hand at writing, drawing, and lettering comics! (I checked - the TOC indicates we need exclamation points)
So, still crawling out of the cave, but such an occasion needs must be marked, no? But how does one choose among the many, many, books he's written over the decades?
We don't! Instead, we'll look at Stan writing about writing comics. That makes sense, right?
So, let's go way back - 70 years back, to 1947, to get a glimpse at early Stan teasing hints of the master promoter to come with an odd and amazing little booklet -
This was only a half decade after Stan Lee's first writing job (the text page for Captain America #3), but he was in a singular position at Timely/Atlas/Etc that allowed a perfect view to create this look behind the scenes of comics. While indeed a "little booklet", it does weigh in at 100 pages, but i want to run it in its entirety, so we'll break it up into 3 parts. Settle in and take a look behind the scenes in the early days of the comic industry as Stan Lee shows you the "secrets" of the craft - though much is common knowledge these many years later. Of course, what makes this book truly Odd can be seen on page 6 and the back cover - a facial hair free Stan Lee!
Join us later today for the second part, in which you get to try your hand at writing, drawing, and lettering comics! (I checked - the TOC indicates we need exclamation points)
pages from Secrets Behind The Comics (1947)
Obviously you don't know that Joan passed away a few months back. Nice to see this again, but why is it so blurred?
ReplyDeleteDamn. I did know that, but the info spilled out one of the gaping holes in my head. It was actually what started me thinking about Stan not making his legendary cameos in the films - the fact that in long marriages like theirs, one often follows the spouse within the year.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope not.
The image quality is due to the source being from one of the college library collections to which i have access. The original scans were pretty wretched - in some cases i had to rebuild pages because they were only partly scanned, and as noted, they're somehow not quite in focus. But the book itself was too significant and odd to pass by, so i did what i could without spending a week on the project with sharpen filters and tedious corrections.
I'd like to see Marvel reissue it as a collectors' item piece. Maybe one of the TwoMorrows mags will reprint it within their pages - that'd be good.
DeleteIt feels like a better fit with TwoMorrows to me. I might be a bit biased, but they've done some fantastic work for both fans and comic historians, and this tucks right into their bailiwick.
Delete(Full disclosure - the King Kirby 100 Crossword Challenge from this blog is scheduled for an upcoming issue of Jack Kirby Collector. But that changes nothing in my comments. The Morrows merit great praise for their publications, and for the people they've brought together to create them.)