Biography of Stan Lee-By Ryan Chen

            Stanley Martin Lieber was born in New York on December 28, 1922. During his school years, he was very intelligent and was allowed to skip several grades. He also liked to read very much. The Hardy Boys series was a favorite. In 1940, Stanley, just out of high school, was hired by Timely Comics, a comic book company. Stanley used the pen name Stan Lee. Stan’s first comic book story was published in Captain America comics series. The story was a hit for people in 1941. In the same year, Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor and made the US fight Japan in World War II. Soon, in November of 1942, Stan Lee went to serve in World War II. He was part of Signal Corps, which wrote and made training manuals. After three years at war, Stan Lee was hired by Timely Comics as an editor and chief writer in New York in 1945.

            In the fall in 1947, Joan Boocock entered Stan’s life after being introduced at a party. Today, at 2015, Stan and Joan have been married for more than 60 years! In 1950, as the Korean War came out, comic book companies, including Stan’s, made and produced a lot of war comics. In the same year, Stan Lee and Joan had their first child, Joan Celia, but Stan called her Little Joan to not be confused with the mother. Then three years after the first child was born, another child was born but sadly died three days after its birth.

             When Timely Comics was changed to Atlas Comics in 1960, Stan, at the age of 40, decided to quit and find another writing job, but his family outvoted him so he continued on and then created a team of superheroes that was successful. As Stan continued, he worked with his friend artist Jake Kirby, and together they created the Incredible Hulk. At first, Stan wanted to create new character. One day, in his office, Stan was watching a fly climb up a wall. He came up with an idea to create a superhero that could climb onto the wall and ceilings. By 1962, Stan created a teenager named Peter Parker to be his superhero--Spider-Man.  The shy boy had special powers to defeat criminals. Spider-Man was one of the most popular superheroes. In 1966, some of Stan’s characters were made into television series, such as the Marvel Superhero on ABC channel. 

            Finally, in 1972, Stan was promoted to publisher of Marvel Comics after the company’s name was changed again, replacing Martin Goodman, the former publisher. In 2002, the Spider-Man movie finally came out after arguments about which company to film and makes the movie. The movie hit the Guinness Book of Records when in one day, the box office income alone was 43.6 million dollars. It also made a total of $403 million dollars at the theaters.  

 In 2010, Stan Lee created a documentary about his own life, called Stan Lee, With Great Power. At 84 years old, Stan was honored with the National Medal of Arts for his long, hard work contributing to the writing of comic books. He liked to come up new ideas and try new things. We are still enjoying these characters he created through movies, TV, comic books, and novels. Stan Lee will be remembered because he has brought us wonderful memories and happiness. To this day, Stan still continues to work and never stops or gives up.