AMAZING – FANTASTIC – INCREDIBLE
(A Marvelous Memoir)
By STAN LEE and Peter David and
Collen Doran
Touchstone
192 pages
I was a 13 year old comic book
reader when the birth of Marvel Comics launched the Silver Age of Comics in the
early 1960s. That’s why writer/editor
Stan Lee, after family and teachers, has had more of affect on my life than
anyone else in this world. Through his innovative changes to the media writing
imperfect heroes with problems, he elevated the storytelling in comics and for
the first time made them appealing to adults.
It is no small wonder that I grew up wanting to be a comic creator.
So yes, Stan Lee is one of my
personal heroes and reviewing a graphic novel autobiography required a bit of
distancing on my part. What you have
here is a one man’s story of what happened from his early days as a youngster
in New York City
to his becoming one of the most recognizable cultural celebrities in the world. As with all such autobiographies, all we can
rely on is his version and in that regards some of the stories concerning his
conflicts with other well known comic personalities is to some degree suspect.
In all such incidents we understand there was another side and yet Lee doesn’t
shy away from those awkward events that were painful to him and his family. To
his credit, he goes out of his way to credit people like Jack Kirby, Steve
Ditko and all the other amazing creators who built Marvel Comics. I was
personally touched with his tribute to his own younger brother, Larry
Leiber. And whether you choose to
believe his narrative completely or not, there is no escaping the fact that
Stan Lee knows HOW to tell a story.
Which is the part of this volume we
can address with unabashed praise. The
art by Colleen Doran is magnificent throughout and finds her adjusting her
style from realistic depictions of actual people to outlandish cartoony figures
when depicting one of Lee’s many wacky anecdotes. Kudos also go to Peter David, one of the
finest comic scribes in the business. I have to believe he is partly
responsible for taking Lee’s wandering reverie and shaping it into a linear
tale with a beginning, middle and end.
This book is a gem and for this
veteran Marvelite, a treasure. It was
given to me by my family for Christmas.
They obviously know that within this aged body there still resides an
eager, excitable 13 year old who so enjoyed this trip back to a much happier
time. As Lee would say, Excelsior!!
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