I Am Stan
A Graphic Biography of the Legendary Stan Lee
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The first graphic novel biography of the legendary Stan Lee, co-creator of many of Marvel's beloved superheroes, from Eisner-nominated comics creator Tom Scioli.
Everyone knows Stan Lee: His work at the creative helm of Marvel Comics resulted in the creation of many of the superheroes we know and love today, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and more. During his decades-long career at Marvel, Lee turned the comic book publisher into a cultural juggernaut that shaped and defined the burgeoning industry.
In I Am Stan, critically acclaimed artist Tom Scioli reveals the man behind the comics and cameos using the same medium Stan Lee revolutionized. This stunning graphic novel takes readers from his early days in the comics industry through his rise at Marvel (then Timely Comics), where his career was touched by other iconic creatives including Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. Their collaboration would lead to the creation of the most iconic superheroes of today, and bring about the Marvel Age of the 60’s and 70’s that introduced new industry stars like Steve Ditko, and John Buscema. Readers will follow Lee’s trajectory from his daily life at Marvel to his later years as a spokesperson for the company and for comics as a whole, and finally to his last years away from the spotlight. Scioli provides a clear-eyed view of Lee's triumphs at Marvel as well as the controversies that surrounded the creator at the end of his life.
Told in Scioli's inimitable, vividly cinematic illustration style, I Am Stan reveals Stan Lee's life through the medium he knew best and reveals the inner workings of the legendary creator.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Scioli follows up his graphic biography Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics with another fast-paced, comprehensive history of a comics industry great. Tracing the life of script writer and editor Stan Lee (1922–2018) from a childhood go-getter to the self-promoting figurehead of Marvel Entertainment, Scioli's clean and uncomplicated designs bring kinetic energy to what is fundamentally a story told by talking heads. The facts are well-documented and nothing here will be much of a surprise to Marvel fans, but Scioli structures his overview with a breakneck pace to match Lee's bombastic temperament. The panels are filled with cameos by fellow comics bigwigs: Captain America's Kirby and Joe Simon, Spider-Man's Steve Ditko, and Lee's esteemed successor at Marvel, Roy Thomas, among others. Throughout, Scioli highlights his subject's penchant for revisionist history by juxtaposing Lee's claims about creating some of Marvel's most famous heroes with his co-workers' counterclaims, and the consistently entertaining script doesn't shy away from Lee's notorious pettiness or vanity either. It's an apt memorial to a great creative mind who was his own best publicist.