WAITING
FOR TOMMY: TALKING ABOUT STAN LEE
By
Richard Johnston
RICHARD:
Yeah.
JORDAN:
He's just so darn friendly. Exuberant, quick-witted, funny
flattering -- all of the above. I'm not sure if all of that
makes him "special," but it's certainly what makes him so
charming. It's kind of hard to articulate in words; the "Stan
Lee" effect is something that needs to be experienced.
TOM:
I think it's hard to divorce him from the comics, too, and
the experience of reading them, and how he made kids feel
better about the hobby. He gets the Mr. Rogers free pass from
a lot of people.
RICHARD:
I got a bit of that ten years ago when I interviewed him for
a university newspaper in Newcastle. Turns out his wife was
from just down the road, gave him even more of a connection.
It seems hard to believe he could ever have fired anyone,
let alone build and edit a line of comics, then do hard deals
in Hollywood. How much of what he projects is Machiavellian
do you feel? And how self-aware is he of people's perceptions?
And how much is an act?
JORDAN:
I don't think he's necessarily Machiavellian. There aren't
many accounts of him overtly screwing over his artists or
colleagues. And like I said before, the majority of people
who have worked with him really, really like him.
TOM:
You mentioned Stan firing people, and I think one thing that
was pretty clear looking at his life is how miserable stuff
like that made him feel. He was absolutely destroyed when
it happened in the pre-Marvel superheroes days; he felt like
he let people down.
So I
think in general that even on those matters where people really
criticize Stan and his actions, he probably feels like he
was doing the right thing or that his hands were tied.
There
is, however, a kind of steely side that seems to come out
when he thinks that people aren't being loyal, or that he's
being wronged.
JORDAN:
As for his self-awareness, it's a bit difficult to tell. He's
certainly aware of his own persona and how it's received in
certain circles, but I'm not sure if he's 100% versed in the
nuances of the Stan Lee-Jack Kirby and Stan Lee-Steve Ditko
debates that have been raging lo these last two decades. To
be honest, he's probably too busy to care.
TOM:
With more and more mainstream journalists having a more sophisticated
view of comic-book history, Stan occasionally has to answer
questions more complicated than "What was it like when you
created Spider-Man?" and that's probably helped him become
more self-aware.
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