Stan Lee

Creator of Marvel

Stan Lee was born on December 28, 1922
(his full name was Stanly Martin Lieber). He
shortened his name to Lee as a writer, and
was hired as an office assistant at Timely
comics in 1939. He became an interim
editor for the company in the early 1940s.
Stan also served in the army in WW2,
working as a writer and illustrator.

Stans boss wanted him to create and write
his own characters and movies to compete
with DC (detective comics).

With artist Jack Kerby, Stan launched the
superhero team, The Fantastic Four, in
1961, and was soon responsible for creating
popular characters such as Spider-man, X-
men, The Hulk and Thor. Stan soon worked
in a number of comic-related businesses.

Marvel Comics became highly popular, Stan
Lee was promoted to editorial director in
1972. He later moved to the West Coast to
be involved in Marvels film ventures and
eventually became chairman.

Stan started a company called POW!
Entertainment in 2001 and the following
year he published his autobiography,
Excelsior! The amazing life of Stan Lee.
Later in the decade he received a Medal of
arts honor from President George W.

2012 saw more new ventures. Stan co-
wrote a graphic novel-Romeo and Juliet:
The War-which landed on the New York
Times bestseller and launched a YouTube
channel, Stan Lees world of heroes, which
features comic, comedy and sci-fi content.
At the end of the year 2012, the ever-active
Stan Lee turned 90.









Information report
Marvel comics have been around since 1939.
The first Marvel comic that was released was
in 1939and included the character Human
Torch. You might be wondering how much
money Marvel comics make daily. The answer
is $6,795,390,664. Marvel comics have been
trying to overtake the comic brand, DC, and
successfully succeeded, even though DC
began 5 years before Marvel.

The chairman of Marvel comics is named Stan
Lee and started writing comics in the 1930s.
Stan Lee was inspired to write comics, when
the first comic brand came out he
immediately knew what he wanted his career
to be.

Marvel movies are a big part of. Once again
Marvel movies are taking over DC movies. The
last Marvel movie that was released was
Guardians Of The Galaxy. Some upcoming
movies that have been announced are:
Avengers, Captain America 3, Ant-Man, X-
men, Doctor Strange and Iron Man & Captain
America.























Explanation Report

Martin Goodman founded the company
Timely Publications in 1939 (Which later
became Marvel Comics), publishing comic
books under the imprint Timely Comics.
Timelys first publication, Marvel Comics #1
(October 1939), included the first appearance
of The Human Torch. That issue was a great
success. The companies first editor,
writer/artist Joe Simon, teamed with artist
Jack Kirby to create one of the first
patriotically themed superheroes, Captain
America, in Captain America Comics #1
(March 1941). This was a major sales hit, with
sales of nearly 1 million dollars.

Goodman hired his wifes cousin, Stanley
Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939.
When editor Simon left the company in late
1941, Goodman made Leiber- by then writing
as Stan Lee- interim editor of comics line, a
position Lee kept for decades except for 3
years during his military service in WW2.

The post war American comic market saw
super heroes falling out of fashion. Goodman
expanded into a wider variety of genres such
as horror, westerns, humour, funny animals,
mens adventure/drama, giant monsters,
crime and war comics, and later adding jungle
books, romance titles, espionage, medieval
adventure, bible stories and sports.

The first modern comic books under the
Marvel Comics brand were the science fiction
collections of Journey Into Mystery#69 and
the teen humour titled Patsy Walker#95(both
in June 1961). After DC Comics success in
reviving Superheroes in the late 1950s and
early 1960s, particularly with The Flash,
Green Lantern and other members of the
team of the Justice League of America, Marvel
followed suite. The introduction of modern
Marvels first super hero team was in The
Fantastic Four#1(November 1961), began
establishing the companies reputation which
eventually became known as The Marvel age
of comics in the 1960s. The majority of the
superhero titles were written by the editor-in-
chief Stan Lee. Marvel began publishing
superhero titles featuring such heroes and
anti-heroes as the Hulk, Spiderman, Thor, Ant-
man, Ironman, the X-Men, Daredevil and the
Silver Surfer, and such memorial antagonists
as Dr. Doom, Magneto, Galactus, Loki, The
Green Goblin and Dr.Octopus. All existing in
the Marvel Universe, in the real life cities such
as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Lee and Steve Ditko generated the most
successful new series in the Amazing
Spiderman. Marvels comics had a reputation
for focusing on real life characters. This
applied to the amazing Spiderman in
particular. Its young hero suffered form self
doubt and mundane problems like any other
teenager. Marvel often presents flawed
superheros, freaks and misfits unlike the
perfect athletic heroes found in previous
traditional comic books.
Goodman retired as publisher in 1972 and his
son, Chip, became publisher. Shortly after Lee
too over as publisher and also became
Marvels president for a brief time. During his
time as president, he appointed as editor-in-
chief Roy Thomas, who added Stan Lee
presents to the opening page of each comic
book.

Despite Marvels success in the early 1980s, it
lost ground to rival DC in the latter part of the
decade. DC scored sales victories with titles
and limited series such as Watchmen,
Batman, The Dark Knight Returns, Crisis on
Infinite Earth, Byrnes revamp of Superman
and Allan Moores Swamp Thing.

In 1990 Marvel began selling Universe cards.
These were collectable trading cards that
featured the characters and events of the
Marvel Universe. Marvel suffered a blow in
early 1992, when7 of its most prized artists-
Tod McFarlane(Spiderman), Jim Lee(X-Men),
Rob Liefeld (X-Force), Marc
Silvestri(Wolverine), Eric Larsen(The Amazing
Spiderman), Jim Valentino(Guardians of the
Galaxy), and Whilce Portacio-left to form
Image Comics.

On August 31 2009 the Walt Disney Company
announced a deal to acquire Marvel comics
parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment,
for approximately $4 billion dollars.

As of 2008, Marvel and its major long time
competitor, DC Comics, shared over 80% of
the American comic book market. In 2013
Marvel held a 33.5% share of the comics
market, compared to its competitor, DC
comics, who held 30.33% share.