Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 28, 2024 | 5 comments

The celebrated Mr. K pays a BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE to Stan the Man, born Dec. 28, 1922…

By PAUL KUPPERBERG

How did Stan Lee get to be the Alfred Hitchcock of comic book cameos? According to a Business Insider magazine interview with “The Man” in November 2018, “The artists back then would draw me in as a joke or just to have fun then. And I would put some dialogue balloons there and it looked as if I intended it. I didn’t try to do cameos in those days.”

Maybe…

And here I must pause for full disclosure: I am a Stan Lee fan. All issues of who created what aside — which are not inconsiderable, and I don’t dismiss, but are not germane to the topic at hand — as the prime, and for a while, only writer/scripter of the line, Stan was the author of the unified Marvel Universe. As DC Comics’ system of editorial fiefdoms proved, editors of the individual major characters didn’t need or want the aggravation of sharing with other offices. Team-ups and crossovers in the 1950s were practically nonexistent; Superman and Batman together in World’s Finest were an exception, made possible by the fact that Whitney Ellsworth was the credited editor of all three titles.

But Stan was in it right from the get-go, guest-starring the Fantastic Four in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (March 1963), the same month as The Fantastic Four #13… which guest-starred the Incredible Hulk!

Were the crossovers Stan’s idea or did Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby come up with them?

I dunno.

But putting the crossovers at the heart of the developing universe was ultimately Stan’s decision as editor. He set the template that later creators would expand upon to give us the unholy mess… I mean the rich and diverse modern day Marvel Universe.

Which brings me back to Stan’s modest demurral concerning the origins of his cameo appearances in print. Again, I’m a fan, a reader of Marvel Comics from very nearly the beginning, and fortunate to have been an active fan and young professional when he was still a presence in the Marvel offices and to have several interactions with him back in the day.

But if Stan had a superpower, it was the uncanny ability to attract attention. He was charming and charismatic, an extrovert and, after 20 years of being embarrassed to tell people he met at parties that he wrote comic books for a living, actually being lauded for the work. As talented as they were, neither Kirby nor Ditko had the same talent for self-promotion or ease in the spotlight. Jack came across as stiff and uncomfortable in interviews and Steve didn’t want to give them at all, but Stan was always ready with a grin and a quip or a quote.

So, here’s looking at you, Stan! Remembering you fondly on your birthday, and thanks for your cameos in my life.

Here then, MY 13 FAVORITE STAN LEE COMIC BOOK CAMEOS:

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Terry-Toons Comics #12 (September 1943). “Stan” was being uncharacteristically modest describing himself as “office boy” (“3rd assistant office boy” at that, according to the desk plaque), because he’d been named interim editor in 1941 when Joe Simon went into the army. Artist unknown.

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Margie Comics #36 (June 1947). Margie was your basic teenage romance/comedy comic to which Stan added a healthy dose of meta-fiction by using his cameo appearance to score a date with the title character who had come to the office to tell him off by making her look ridiculous in his fictional depiction of her. Art by Morris West.

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Millie the Model #77 (April 1955). Stan is joined by artist Dan DeCarlo for another metafictional cameo, this one complete with an inside reference to a real world comic, another Atlas teen humor title, My Girl Pearl.

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Homer The Happy Ghost #18 (March 1958). Dan DeCarlo is back with Stan, and so is the gimmick of the characters visiting the comic book creators to complain about the way they’re depicted in the comics. (I don’t judge. I’ve done it myself, recycling the same gag across three separate cartoon franchises.)

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Fantastic Four #10 (January 1962). Stan and Jack Kirby versus Dr. Doom! My money’s on Stan and Jack. Art by Kirby, inked by Dick Ayers.

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The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (1964). In 1964, it came across as gentle ribbing between pals. In later years, in light of subsequent events, artist “Steve Ditko’s” dialogue in Panel Two is too close for comfort.

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Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965). A gentle jibe at themselves by Stan and Jack. Art by Kirby and Vince Colletta.

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Daredevil #79 (August 1971). The next generation of writers picks up the cameo challenge, this tip of the hat to Stan (and wife Joan) by Gary Friedrich, Gene Colan, and Tom Palmer.

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Uncanny X-Men #98 (April 1976). Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, and Sam Grainger have X-Men creators Stan and Jack pop in to check on the new kids at Xavier’s School.

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The Fantastic Four #176 (November 1976). Story creators Roy Thomas and George Pérez appear alongside Stan and Jack, an impossible tale made possible by the Impossible Man. Inked by Joe Sinnott.

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Nova #5 (January 1977). Then Marv Wolfman and Sal Buscema pop in to introduce Marvel’s potential new comic book star Nova to publisher Stan. He is not impressed. Inked by Tom Palmer.

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What If? #11 (October 1978). Kinda speaks for itself.

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Marvel Team-Up #74 (October 1978). Come to think of it, I wonder why this never happened in the real world! Stan hosting SNL would have been a natural! By Claremont, Bob Hall, and Marie Severin.

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Excelsior, true believers!

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MORE

— PAUL KUPPERBERG: A Comic Moment With… STAN LEE. Click here.

— STAN LEE: Ever THE MAN. Click here.

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PAUL KUPPERBERG was a Silver Age fan who grew up to become a Bronze Age comic book creator, writer of Superman, the Doom Patrol, and Green Lantern, creator of Arion Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion, and slayer of Aquababy, Archie, and Vigilante. He is the Harvey and Eisner Award nominated writer of Archie Comics’ Life with Archie, and his YA novel Kevin was nominated for a GLAAD media award and won a Scribe Award from the IAMTW. He also wrote an essay for DC’s Aquaman: 80 Years of the King of the Seven Seas. Check out his new memoir, Panel by Panel: My Comic Book Life. 

Website: https://www.paulkupperberg.net/

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