Fans of Stan Lee know all about his amazing ability to create fantastic characters and fantasy worlds for us to get lost in. Thanks to the rise in Marvel films in recent years Stan Lee is becoming more of a household name. But what about the man himself? There are biographies written about him, but there are several little-known facts about Stan Lee that you may be interested in, did you know that his wife always cut his hair? Read on to find out more.
- Self Confidence
Stan Lee credits his mother with his self-confidence. He has been quoted as saying that his mother thought that everything he did was brilliant, including when he was just sat reading. As a child Stan loved getting lost in the worlds of Jules Verne, HG Wells and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his mother would sit and watch him read. Who would have thought that something so simple as having a proud mother would lead to creating something so amazing?
- Obituaries
Stan Lee’s early writing career was a lot less glamorous than it is today; he wrote antemortem celebrity obituaries in New York for a while. He found that the job was too depressing and eventually quit, something we can all be thankful for as it freed up his time and his mind to create the Marvel Universe.
- Worked with Dr Seuss before he was Dr Seuss!
Stan Lee worked in New Jersey with the Army’s Signal Corps in their Training Film Division with Theodor Geisel (who is better known as Dr Seuss) creating army training films for future recruits. There was actually a team of writers and directors, some of whom became extremely famous in later years, (just like Stan Lee and Dr Seuss). They included Frank Capra, William Saroyan and Charles Addams.
- Captain America created Stan Lee?
It is very well known that Stan Lee created Captain America, but it could be fair to say that Captain America actually created Stan Lee. The simple explanation for this is when he wrote his very first Captain America comic strip for Timely Comics, he used the pen name Stan Lee. He now no longer goes by his birth name of Stanley Martin Lieber, and legally uses his pen name – a name known and loved by millions.
- The Gray Hulk
The Hulk was originally gray, and only became green by a happy accident. The printer struggled with keeping the hulk a consistent color of gray, so when it came to the second issue of The Hulk comic he became green. It would be hard to imagine The Hulk any other color than green now, it is truly iconic to the character, so thank you printers, you helped to change history.
- Stan Lee’s Lost History
Following an argument with his wife Joanie she destroyed his typewriter. It is the one he used to create the early issues of The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. He has since jokingly said that it is a shame it happened before the days of eBay or he could have auctioned the parts to make a make some money. Unfortunately, that is not the only piece of Marvel history that has been lost. When he first moved to Los Angeles he had a studio in Van Nuys which housed all his taped interviews and talks. A blaze broke out and destroyed the building and everything was lost. It was believed to be arson, although the culprits have never been found.
There is more to Stan Lee than meets the eye, and his star is still rising. The resurgence of Marvel popularity is perhaps boosted by Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and has made graphic novel stories come to life for so many more people.