Guest Post: Barry Pearl's Tales Of The Marvel Age - Part Five...

Stan The Man!

Around the year 2000,while unpacking my comics, I decided it was time for me to finish my enormous book.  I'd started in 1963 or so and I wasn't a typist.  However, now equipped with a computer, a scanner, and desktop publishing I could complete my dream project.  Year before, I'd sent Stan Lee a fan letter while I was in hospital, and he sent me, while I was still in hospital, a large stack of free comics.  I never forgot that.  So I started my book then.  (See here.)

Upon finishing the book, I sent a copy to Stan along with a copy of that 40 year old letter.  He graciously replied that that the book was a masterpiece.  He included it in his donated papers to a University.  He began to email me and we were email friends for about 18 years.

Stan would ask me questions about the Marvel Age:

Stan:  Two writers are currently arguing over which one of them came up with the phrase "Marvel Universe" in the 1980s.  Do you know which one it was?
Me:  Neither.  The first reference to the term "Marvel Universe" is made by Tim Fox in the letters page of Fantastic Four #56.  "Now, I realize that the Marvel universe wherein you find your characters and settings is not governed by the same set of natural laws that hold true in this universe.  But, a continuum whose laws operate one way for one issue, and another for the next, kinda tends to shake me up."

A fan had contacted Stan saying he was the first to use the phrase: "Make Mine Marvel" in the letters' page of an issue of Sgt. Fury.

Stan:  If he's correct, I'll send him a no-prize.
Me:  Nope, you used it in the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins in April 1966, over a year before he did!
Stan:  Hey, many thanks, Barry.  It's nice to know that the expression was mine.  And it's nice to know that you're so helpful.  It's like having my own research bureau! 

Stan:  I'm writing the Spider-Man daily comic strip and he's in jail.  Can Spider-Man bend prison bars?
Me:  Yes, he did so in Amazing Spider-Man #65 when he breaks out of a jail.  And you wrote the story!!!!

We'd also exchange jokes.  After he wrote about some of his favorite villainous names, I wrote to him: Although the Wizard started the Frightful Four, Paste Pot Pete was the glue that held it together.
Stan wrote me back:  'The glue that held it together', eh, Barry?  For that clever remark, by the power vested within me, I hereby award you an oak leaf cluster for your F.F.F.!  Excelsior!  Stan.

I didn't mention to others that Stan and I were emailing because everyone would've wanted me to give them his email address, which I would never do.  In finishing my book, Tony Isabella was essential.  I think he sometimes sounds tough on his Facebook page, but he's a totally kind, helpful and thoughtful person.  He also has a strong moral compass which he gives his characters.  He spent a lot of time with me, and my book would never have been completed without him.  Tony encouraged me to go online and meet people to discuss comics.  I was not an "Internet person poster."   Mostly it was because I had slow AOL with a telephone line connection.  I entered the Internet's posting boards when I got a direct high speed Internet connection.

Now read this with a smile on your face.  It's silly, but true.  Remember, in the year 2000 we had just a few reprint books, no Omnibuses and very few places to find reprints of those old comics.

So I joined a few Yahoo lists.  I met some very interesting, nice and generous people.  But on a few lists, I was considered an outsider with no knowledge of comics and totally ignored.  For example, in a discussion of the Hulk's original colour, I mentioned that he was mostly grey in Hulk #1, but was also seen as green!  I also mentioned that Thor's name was misspelled in Journey into Mystery #83.  I was approached by the Guardians of the Internet.  These were the self-proclaimed "historians" and "authorities" who felt they should control the lists.  The following is a composite of some of the discussions.

Guardians:  How do you know that the Hulk was green in issue #1?
Me:  It's in the comic.
Guardians:  What page?  I don't see it.
Me:  Then you must have a reprint where they fixed it.
Guardians:  You have Hulk #1?  (Or Journey into Mystery #83.)
Me:  Yes.
Guardians:  I don't believe it.  

I often got the reply:  How do you know that, you can't have all those comics. 
Me:  Why?
Guardians:  You say you have all those comics and you discuss things with Stan Lee. What conventions have you been to?  I've never met you.  Where were you all this time on the net?
Me:  I've never been to a convention.  And I just got on the net.
Guardians:  What Comic book shows do you attend?
Me:  None.  Never go, I have all the comics I need.

When one question came up regarding a comic (I think it was the Black Panther) that I didn't know the answer too, I casually mentioned that I would ask Stan.  They went nuts and, again, accused me of lying.

Guardians:  You're a fake.  No one can have all those comics and if you did, you'd be at conventions talking about them.  And you'd be on panels, or having pictures up on a blog.

I laugh, because for twenty years I've been scanning comics for Marvel, Stan, Roy Thomas and more.  Honest!  Just today (Wednesday) Marvel asked me to scan a full comic, which they don't have, for an upcoming collection.  (I can't tell you which one - yet.)  And Roy Thomas asked me today for information on the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins and articles on Marvel.

I'd mentioned that Steve Ditko understood what worked in a comic and what didn't.  For example, Ditko changed Iron Man's armour to make him the jet-setting, streamlined hero he is today.  Ditko added the anger-management issue when he brought back the Hulk.  But I wrote that I often wondered if his Dr. Strange was a "remake" of the failed Marvel hero from Amazing Adventures - Dr. Droom.

Guardians:  You don't know what you're talking about.  How do you know that Ditko was even aware of the character Dr. Droom?
Me:  He inked it!!!
Guardians:  He inked it?  How do you know he inked it?
Me:  I have the comic, Amazing Adventures #1.
Guardians:  Yeah, sure. 

I really didn't know that "Stan Lee Haters" existed until I got on the web.  You can hate Lee if you want, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, they're just not entitled to their own facts.  There was so much garbage, so many untrue things said, that it was annoying - and they often went after me when I either explained or defended him.  I can give you names!

To many of those people Jack Kirby was God.  To them, if you liked Kirby (and I love him) you couldn't like Stan.  My point of view is that Kirby co-created many of the best comics ever, Stan co-created some of the best comics ever, and together, Lee and Kirby created some of the best comics ever.

I helped one person, who I'll call Al, with scans and information he needed on a project.  He said to me that the Kirby Estate should get a pension that was ½ of what Stan Lee was getting.  I said, "You mean Marvel should give the Kirbys residuals, about ½ of what Stan was getting.  Kirby is no longer with us, so a 'pension' is not doable."

"No," Al said to my astonishment.  "Stan Lee, not Marvel, should be giving the Kirbys half his pension.  Every month he should write them a personal cheque from his own money."  I could spend an hour discussing the details of this conversation, but there's no point.  To this day he writes bad things about me although I helped him out when on one else could.

I won't end this on a bad note.  Almost all my experiences on the web have been good, including writing here. People have been kind, informative and generous.  There are just a handful of people who are impolite.