Peoples Archive is delighted to present the life story of the writer Stan Lee, creator of many Marvel Comics characters including The Fantastic Four and Spiderman.
Stanley Leiber was born on December the 28th in New York city. He grew up in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Washington Heights with his only sibling Larry who was born when Stanley was nine years old.
After high school he got a job at Timely Comics (later to become Marvel) with the help of his uncle Robbie Solomon, the brother in law of the publisher Martin Goodman. He joined the comic book department which at that time was staffed by editor Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby. Stan published his first story in "Captain America" in 1941 and has not looked back since.
During this time, Stan Lee created many of the characters that made him famous. What was so new and exciting about these characters, the Fantastic Four, Spider Man and the Hulk to name but a few, was that they were not flawless as previous superheroes had been, but were instead normal people who fought amongst themselves, worried about everyday things and suffered from the same emotions as everyone else.
Stan Lee has won numerous awards, among them the Sparky Award in 2000, the Golden Panel Award in 2002 and he was formally inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995. In 2005 he set up POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment, Inc. along with his brother, Arthur Lieberman and Gill Champion.
We suggest the following stories as good places to start within the collection:
