Archive for the 'Stan “The Man”' Category

Marc Bolan with Man-Wolf, Circa 1975

Marc Bolan 1975

The magazine behind Creatures on the Loose #33, identified by Richard McKenna, is Modern Screen (November 1974). Bolan was a huge Marvel fan who interviewed Stan Lee on the BBC’s Today show in 1975, where Lee revealed that Angie Bowie was interested in doing a Black Widow TV series—which would have been so much more entertaining than whatever morbidly expensive glob of superhero goo that came out last week (or the week before, or the week before, or the week before…). Bolan himself was interviewed about comics in 1975 by soon-to-be Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant (credit to McKenna once again). You can read the transcript here, and there’s a picture of the article below.

Bolan Interview

Bonus: here’s Bolan with Stan Lee and Roy Wood (ELO, Wizzard) at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1975. The Marvel exhibit ran from October 18 through November 2. Bolan died in a car wreck two years later, on September 16, 1977.

Marvel I.C.A. 1975

(Photos via @jackellyreed and everything second-hand)

The Art of Earl Norem: The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience (Marvel Fireside Books, 1978)

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You know you’re good when you get asked to redo a Jack Kirby cover. All but one of the Fireside books were color reprints of classic (i.e. pre-1970) Marvel titles and storylines. This one was the exception—an all new graphic novel by Lee and Kirby, and a damn good one that I remember reading and still have. The “Origins” books were a particularly hot commodity at my elementary school, and the Surfer was way up there too. Probably my first exposure to Norem’s work.

Check out ‘Tain’t the Meat for more on the Surfer issue and the Fireside Books series.

(Images via It’s Dan’s World, Dial B for Blog, and `Tain’t the Meat)

Read Magazine #13 (February, 1975): Interview with Stan Lee

Read 1975

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Read 1975-4

I haven’t been able to find much on Read magazine yet, but it seems to have run from the early to late 1970s, and focused on giving young readers fun, relevant stories and articles.

Lots of good stuff in the interview about what does and doesn’t constitute “serious culture.”

 “The public accepts all the media more now,” explained Stan. “Take movies. Thirty years ago movies were considered frivolous and unimportant. Now they’re taught in schools and colleges, analyzed, etc.”

The literary novel was also considered frivolous until at least the first quarter of the 20th Century. Today, graphic novels and comics are taught in schools and colleges, and many universities offer degrees in Pop Culture.

Stan again on “why Marvel’s heroes had so many failings”:

“We’ve always felt that if readers could accept the fairy tale quality that this person has green skin or can burst into flames or whatever, then everything else should be realistic… We can write much more interesting stories with human heroes than with unreal ones who never lose their cool.”

Lee, Kirby, and Ditko created a series of interconnected myths that are just as powerful in their way to the modern world as the stories of Zeus and Odysseus were to the ancient Greeks.

(Images via Steven Casteel/eBay)

Kid Visiting Marvel Comics Headquarters, 1983

Stan Lee 1983

Gulp.

(Photo via JHU Comic Books)


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