Truly great, but it was sad how he minimized Jack (King) Kirby’s role in Marvel’s creation and success.
Next perhaps to Frank Frazetta, Kirby the greatest artist in comic history.
Bob Kane did the exact same thing to Bill Finger at DC.
Guess the comics were a more cutthroat industry than people realize!
Steve Ditko too. Both were more than just artists. Stan would tell them something like "have this one feature Doctor Doom" and they'd go off and come up with a plot and do all the art for it. Then Stan Lee would fill in the dialogue, which sometimes made the dialogue not quite fit the story if Kirby or Ditko planned a story that spread over more than one issue. In one Fantastic Four example I saw, Kirby had Sue Storm saving the day but Lee's dialogue instead had her praising Reed Richards for using his amazing jiu titsu to solve the issue off panel instead. Lee probably simply didn't realize Kirby's intent when he wrote the dialogue.
Some use that as evidence that Stan Lee was less of a creator than the others. But coming up with the idea and then writing all the dialogue for a dozen comics per month when they were at their peak of success is a formidable creative achievement. His unique writing style gave Marvel a funky vibe across all their books that tied everything together into a common universe rather than a bunch of standalone tales. Very influential.
I agree Kirby was downplayed by Lee.
Still, Lee made a lot of contributions and deserves to be up there with the likes of Shuster, Siegel, Kane, and Finger.
I have never been a huge fan of Kirby’s technical artwork, preferring his idea work instead. Never thought he could compete technically with the likes of Frazetta, Wood, Kubert, or Toth. Course I’m more a Neal Adams, George Perez kinda guy unless your talking paintings then give me Frazetta, Elmore, and Alex Ross.
I’m sure the in his death everyone will be talking about Stan and I think he’ll get a kick out of it since to me he was always trying to get everyone to talk about him when he was alive.
Not many of the Silver age cohort left. I could see Adams as the next to go.
They were both geniuses, but it is sad to see someone claim all the credit as Lee often did. Makes him seem small and petty.
I thought of those two gentlemen also,, all 3 are comic legends .. imho