Quips and Quotations (Comics Continuity, or Lack Thereof Edition)

I decided it was time to let somebody die.

--Milton Caniff, writer-artist of the once-popular (it ended in 1973) comic strip Terry and the Pirates

Please take the skin off the artist who murdered Raven Sherman.

--Letter to the Editor

In 1941 Caniff precipitated a national incident by permitting one of his characters the almost unheard-of comic-strip prerogative of dying. The victim in this case was one Raven Sherman, an American heiress for whom Caniff had won unusual sympathy by portraying her as an undaunted and high-hearted young lady overcoming all obstacles to aid the Chinese in resisting what Caniff, at the time, was calling the Japanese “invader.” Miss Sherman was rudely pushed off a truck, and subsequently died of her injuries. She was buried on a lonely Chinese hillside in a ceremony so moving that millions of funny-paper disciples were plunged into their own peculiar kind of melancholia. Flowers poured into the offices of the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate, which distributes Terry and the Pirates, and several hundred college students in the Midwest felt constrained to bare their heads and turn toward the east in a last reverent gesture.

 --Collie Small, “Strip Teaser in Black and White,” The Saturday Evening Post, August 10, 1946

It saddens us to have to say that the whiplash effect ["SNAP!"] she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her. In short, it was impossible for Peter to save her. He couldn't have swung down in time; the action he did take resulted in her death; if he had done nothing, she still would certainly have perished. There was no way out.

--Marvel Comics editor Roy Thomas

Gentlemen,
 As you said, Spider-Man #121 was a shocker. Frankly, I wonder what kind of home life you people must have, or had, as children.

--Letter to the Editor 

 I was just getting ready to go to Europe on some sort of a business trip...to meet somebody to discuss something about Marvel. And I think I wasn't thinking too clearly, because when they said, "We'd like to kill Gwen Stacy," I said, "Well, if that's what you want to do, okay." All I wanted to do was get them out of the office so I could finish packing and get out of there...and when I came back and found out that Gwen had been killed, I thought "Why would they do that? Why would Gerry write anything like that?" And I had to be reminded later on that I had perhaps reluctantly or perhaps carelessly said "Okay" when they asked me.

--Marvel Publisher Stan Lee, who by 1973 had left the writing and editing of the comic books to others. 

She was a nonentity, a pretty face. She brought nothing to the mix. It made no sense to me that Peter Parker would end up with a babe like that who had no problems...So killing Gwen was a totally logical if not inevitable choice.

--Spider-Man scribe Gerry Conway

To this day people ask me for drawings of Gwen Stacy, and tell me how it hurt them when she died. And I tell them the story when [Dude Hennick's] girlfriend Raven Sherman died in Terry and the Pirates. I was 10 years old, and for the first time I remember grown-ups talk about a comic strip character as if they were alive. I remember somebody said, "Did you hear that Raven Sherman died?" And I thought to myself, "Wow! This grown-up thinks of her like I think of her. That that's a real woman." And he says, "Isn't that amazing that Raven Sherman is dead?" That's the closest I've come to that kind of immortality, when people tell me that they still think about the day Gwen Stacy died. You know how great that makes me feel? I want to buy them a drink.

--Spider-Man artist John Romita Sr., who, in collaboration with another artist, Gil Kane, and writer Conway, chronicled the demise of the lovely Miss Stacy.

Quips and Quotations (Marvel Age of Comics Edition)

Stan Lee 1922-2018

Just some of the characters, or group of characters, co-created by Lee:

The Fantastic Four
The Hulk
Spider-Man
Thor
Iron Man
Doctor Strange
The Avengers
Daredevil
Nick Fury
The X-Men
The Silver Surfer
The Watcher

Note I said "co-created". Lee was a writer, but not an artist, in a very visual medium: comic books. The pictures were left in the hands of the likes of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, while Lee focused on the words. That he's now seen by many (though not without some controversy) as one of the most important people to have ever worked in comics, is testament to just how good he was with words. 

The following quotes has been culled from interviews, books Lee wrote, and the very pages of the comics he made famous. Here then, in his own words, is Smilin' Stan:

Marvel is a cornucopia of fantasy, a wild idea, a swashbuckling attitude, an escape from the humdrum and prosaic. It’s a serendipitous feast for the mind, the eye, and the imagination, a literate celebration of unbridled creativity, coupled with a touch of rebellion and an insolent desire to spit in the eye of the dragon.

[Being a ‘geek’] has become a badge of honor. It’s geeks who really make or break a TV show or movie or video game. They’re the ones who are passionate about these things and who collect [the paraphernalia] and talk about them. A geek is really somebody interested in communication and entertainment and [finding] the best way to avail himself or herself to it..

For years, kids have been asking me what’s the greatest superpower. I always say luck. If you’re lucky, everything works. I’ve been lucky.

I thought it would be great to do superheroes that have the same kind of life problems that any reader—that anybody—could have. ... Just because you have superpowers, that doesn't mean your love life would be perfect. I don't think superpowers automatically means there won't be any personality problems, family problems or even money problems. I just tried to write characters who are human beings who also have superpowers.

Okay! If you've read this far, we figured your hooked! There's no turning back now! So hold onto you hats...Here goes one of the most exciting super-adventures you've ever read.

The editors sincerely feel that this may well be one of the most gripping tales of the year!

[Publisher Martin Goodman] said "Hey, maybe there's still a market for superheroes. Why don't you bring out a team just like the Justice League. We could call it the Righteous League or something. I worked for him and had to do what he wanted, so I was willing to turn out a team of superheroes. But I figured I'll be damned if I'm just going to copy DC.

To keep it from getting too goody-goody, there is always friction between Mr. Fantastic and the Thing, with Human Torch siding with Mr. F.

Although a costume isn't required of superheroes, the fans love costumes. The characters are more popular if they wear costumes (don't ask me why.) In the first issue of The Fantastic Four, I didn't have them wear costumes. I received a ton of mail from fans saying that they loved the book, but they wouldn't buy another issue unless we gave the characters costumes.

Like costumed heroes? Confidentially, we in the comic mag business refer to them as "long underwear characters." And, as you know, they're a dime a dozen! But, we think you may find our Spider-Man just a bit...different!

And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power also comes--great responsibility!

Why don't things ever seem to turn out right for me? Why do I always seem to hurt people, no matter how hard I try not to? Is this the price I must always pay for being...Spider-Man??!

I don't get it! How do other superhuman guys, like the Fantastic Four and the Ant Man, get away with it?? Nobody bothers them! And they always seem to make enough dough!

I wonder how many other guys with super-powers get scolded by their aunts if they don't toe the mark?

Sure! Sure! Every time I turn around I get "doomed" by someone else!

If anyone asks what happened to you guys, make sure to spell my name right! There's a hyphen in it, remember!

Hmm, now what do I do with you? You're too bad-tempered to keep as a pet, and much too old to adopt! I guess I'll just leave you hear 'till the police find you--if you [Kraven the Hunter] promise not to try and hunt the first little bunny rabbit or squirrel that comes by!

Get outta here! You costumed freaks should all be outlawed! Ever since Spider-Man entered my life, even my ulcers have ulcers!

We sort of give the idea that our characters are reasonably normal people who won't turn the other way if a pretty girl comes by. We don't attempt to play up the sex in anyway, but if a story should who is attracted to somebody of the opposite sex or whatever, we try to put it in so it makes sense.

This demonstrates how some people in big positions are idiots. [Lee's boss, publisher Martin Goodman, nixed the idea of calling a group of superheroes The Mutants on the basis that kids wouldn't know what the word meant, so they they became the X-Men instead.]   

I wanted them to be diverse. The whole underlying principle of the X-Men was to try to be an anti-bigotry story to show there’s good in every person.

Have you noticed the sorry mess of  Marvel IMITATIONS making the scene lately? Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery and all that jazz, but we wanna make darn sure no dyed-in-the-wool Marvel Madman gets stuck with one of those Brand Echh [Lee's name for rival DC Comics] versions of the real thing.

Everybody's favorite guessing game these days is trying to figure out the real identity of the Sub-Mariner's powerful penciller, "Adam Austen" [Gene Colan, who was still on DC's payroll.]

I put in everybody's name. I even put the letterer's name down. I wanted it to be a bit like a movie. I wanted the readers to get to know who we were and become fans. I wanted to personalize things and not just "These are the books. You buy them or you don't buy them. You don't know who did them and you don't care." I wanted to give it a friendly feeling, as though we're all part of one group of fans and we enjoy what we're doing and we know each other.

Written in the masterful manner of Stan Lee!
Illustrated in the magnificent mode of Jack Kirby!
Inked in the majestic mood of Joe Sinnott!
Lettered in the nick of time by Sy Rosen! 

Written in the white heat of inspiration by: Stan Lee
Drawn in a wild frenzy of enthusiasm by: Steve Ditko
Lettered in a comfortable room by: Art Simek 


Written by: Stan Lee (the poor man's Shakespeare)
Illustrated by Steve Ditko (the poor man's da Vinci)
Lettered by Art Simek (the poor man's rich man)

Written by: Spidey's godfather, Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Spidey's big daddy, Steve Ditko
Lettered by: S. Rosen (Spidey's second cousin on his uncle's side!) 

Although a costume isn’t required of superheroes, the fans love costumes. The characters are more popular if they wear costumes. (Don’t ask me why.) In the first issue of the Fantastic Four, I didn’t have them wear costumes. I received a ton of mail from fans saying that they loved the book, but they wouldn’t buy another issue unless we gave the characters costumes.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/13/stan-lee-quotes-on-superheroes-and-heroism-as-the-marvel-creator-passes-away-at-95-8134093/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

Another definition of a hero is someone who is concerned about other people’s well-being, and will go out of his or her way to help them — even if there is no chance of a reward. That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero.’

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/13/stan-lee-quotes-on-superheroes-and-heroism-as-the-marvel-creator-passes-away-at-95-8134093/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

 I’m a frustrated actor. My goal is to beat Alfred Hitchcock in the number of cameos. I’m going to try to break his record.

We told you this story would be a bit different, didn't we?? So far as we know, it's the first time in history that an adventure hero had no actual fight with any foe!

Be sure to keep your eyes on the startling Scorpion! We predict he's definitely a candidate for the Super-Villains Hall of Fame!  

Marvel is a cornucopia of fantasy, a wild idea, a swashbuckling attitude, an escape from the humdrum and prosaic. It’s a serendipitous feast for the mind, the eye, and the imagination, a literate celebration of unbridled creativity, coupled with a touch of rebellion and an insolent desire to spit in the eye of the dragon.’

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/13/stan-lee-quotes-on-superheroes-and-heroism-as-the-marvel-creator-passes-away-at-95-8134093/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

Marvel is a cornucopia of fantasy, a wild idea, a swashbuckling attitude, an escape from the humdrum and prosaic. It’s a serendipitous feast for the mind, the eye, and the imagination, a literate celebration of unbridled creativity, coupled with a touch of rebellion and an insolent desire to spit in the eye of the dragon.’

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/13/stan-lee-quotes-on-superheroes-and-heroism-as-the-marvel-creator-passes-away-at-95-8134093/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUFor years, kids have been asking me what’s the greatest superpower. I always say luck. If you’re lucky, everything works. I’ve been lucky[Being a ‘geek’] has become a badge of honor. It’s geeks who really make or break a TV show or movie or video game. They’re the ones who are passionate about these things and who collect [the paraphernalia] and talk about them. A geek is really somebody interested in communication and entertainment and [finding] the best way to avail himself or herself to it..I wanted them to be diverse. The whole underlying principle of the X-Men was to try to be an anti-bigotry story to show there’s good in every person.

Everybody has Doctor Doom misunderstood. Everybody thinks he's a criminal, but all he wants is to rule the world. Now, if you really think about it objectively, you could walk up to a policeman, and you could say, 'Excuse me, officer, I want to tell you something: I want to rule the world.' He can't arrest you; it's not a crime to want to rule the world. So [...] it's unfair that he's considered a villain, because he just wants to rule the world. Then maybe he could do a better job of it. So I'm very interested in Doctor Doom, and I'd like to clear his name.

 'Nuff said!

Although a costume isn’t required of superheroes, the fans love costumes. The characters are more popular if they wear costumes. (Don’t ask me why.) In the first issue of the Fantastic Four, I didn’t have them wear costumes. I received a ton of mail from fans saying that they loved the book, but they wouldn’t buy another issue unless we gave the characters costumes.’

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/13/stan-lee-quotes-on-superheroes-and-heroism-as-the-marvel-creator-passes-away-at-95-8134093/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

Although a costume isn’t required of superheroes, the fans love costumes. The characters are more popular if they wear costumes. (Don’t ask me why.) In the first issue of the Fantastic Four, I didn’t have them wear costumes. I received a ton of mail from fans saying that they loved the book, but they wouldn’t buy another issue unless we gave the characters costumes.’

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/13/stan-lee-quotes-on-superheroes-and-heroism-as-the-marvel-creator-passes-away-at-95-8134093/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

In Memoriam: Steve Ditko 1927-2018

 "When I do a job, it's not my personality that I'm offering the readers but my artwork. It's not what I'm like that counts; it's what I did and how well it was done. I produce a product, a comic art story. Steve Ditko is the brand name"

The son of a carpenter who worked for a steel mill (I confess to not knowing that steel mills even needed carpenters), Ditko grew up in Johnstown, Pennsylvanian, famous for its 1889 flood, though the waters had receded by the time Ditko arrived.

Artistically inclined, Ditko became a fan of comic books, including the publication above, and decided he'd like to someday draw one himself.

That Detective Comics cover was penciled by Bob Kane and inked by this guy, Jerry Robinson (he looks a little like Batman's nemesis the Joker, doesn't he?) After a stint in the army, Ditko found out Robinson was teaching at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (since renamed the School of Visual Arts) in Manhattan. He promptly moved to the Big Apple and enrolled in Robinson's class.

Ditko's first published work was in a romance comic (Daring Love #1, 1953), a genre one usually doesn't associate with him (though a certain future superhero of his does get shot by Cupid's arrow more than once.)

 Ditko next found employment in the workshop of these two guys, Captain America co-creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. In later years, Ditko would find himself in a bit of a dispute with the latter.

"A Hole in His Head" in the Simon and Kirby publication Black Magic (Dec. 1953)

Ditko also found work at Charlton Comics, where he drew his first cover in 1954.

But the comic book publisher Ditko is most associated with is...

 Huh? What th--? Do they publish comic books or maps?

  

Well, whatever. Ditko's first published art for Atlas appeared in Journey into Mystery (April 1956). The story was written by Craig Boldman, who would later go on to write the Archie comic strip.

Ditko had an unusually quirky style for a comic book artist, and it may have become apparent that he would need an unusually quirky writer to do him justice.

Does this guy seem quirky enough? No? Let's jump ahead a couple of decades.

Stan Lee, seen here in the 1970s, was Atlas' sole editor, and primary writer back in the '50s. He and Ditko became something of a team, specializing in goofy science-fiction and horror stories with twist endings.

Like I said, quirky.

Though it had seen success (as Timely Comics) in the early 1940s with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America, Atlas was a ramshackle operation at the beginning of the 1960s. So down on its luck was the company that it could only afford a single writer: editor Lee. Overworked, he soon stopped writing "scripts", i.e., storyboards with dialogue, and simply summarized the story to the artist, who would then storyboard it himself, give it back to Lee, who then added word balloons, all of which would throw "authorship" into question in coming years. But at the time the editor/writer and his artists just went with the flow. There were bigger things to worry about. It looked like Atlas might go under. Decisive action was needed.

 

 So they changed the name of the company again.

And they started focusing on superheroes, a comic book genre that had begun to make a comeback in the late '50s and early '60s. Eventually, it would be dubbed the "Silver Age". Now, Ditko didn't draw the above cover, some "king" did, but don't worry, this new age wasn't about to pass him by. Amazing Fantasy was slated for cancellation, and Stan Lee decided with that last issue he would conduct a little experiment. There had been teenage superheroes in the past, but they had always been sidekicks--Batman's Robin, Captain America's Bucky--and the Fantastic Four's teenage Human Torch (a reworking of a more mature 1940s character) had to share the spotlight with Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, and the Thing. How about a teenage superhero who was front and center?

Lee went to his main superhero artist, Jack Kirby, who had broken with Joe Simon, and was poised to become to one of the greatest superhero artists ever, actually one of the greatest comic book artists ever, maybe even one of the greatest artists ever, no qualifier necessary (his stuff now hangs in museums), and told him his idea. The idea got stranger still when Lee told him he wanted this new hero based on a...

...spider. Ewww! Who'd base a superhero on THAT?

Then again, who'd ever base a superhero on THIS?

  (What's next? Superheroes based on cockroaches? Slugs? Dandruff?)

Anyway, Kirby got to work, came up with a superhero, and, to the Marvel star artist's surprise, was turned down. It wasn't what Lee was looking for, and so Lee turned to Marvel's quirkiest artist, Steve Ditko:

Unusual artwork, unusual superhero. For one thing we see him crying. Well, heroes have emotions, too. Indeed, Lee wasn't interested in a hero for whom heroism was as natural as breathing (though Ditko may have been; more about that in a moment.) In fact, when Peter Parker finds out he has special powers after being bit by a radioactive spider, he does what most of us would do if the same thing happen to us (well, not exactly, as most of us might first go to an emergency room. I mean, come on, a radioactive spider? That could be unhealthy) Peter, good capitalist that he is, decides to make money off his special powers (an ability to stick to solid objects, super strength, increased leaping capability, and, the one power the science whiz came up with himself, a talent for shooting webs) by going into show biz.  When a burglar runs past him in a TV studio, Peter doesn't even bother to stop him. He's out for himself--let others be do-gooders. Unfortunately, that same burglar ends up killing his beloved uncle, and he learns with great power comes great responsibility. Thus, Peter's morality has its own origin. By the way, notice I keep calling him "Peter" instead of "Spider-Man"? Because this is no Superman pretending he's Clark Kent, but the other way around.

That last issue of Amazing Fantasy sold more copies than any other Marvel comic on the stand in 1962. Lee's experiment obviously judged a success, Spidey got his own comic book, above. This particular cover was drawn by Kirby (who reportedly had a difficult time drawing Spidey) but inside it was all Ditko (and Lee.)

 And the Spider-Man saga got even weirder. Instead of being hailed as a hero, Spidey is labeled a threat by some anal newspaper publisher, and eventually ends up on a wanted poster! A misfit superhero for misfit times created by a misfit writer and a misfit artist. However, misfits don't always agree with each other. More about that in a bit.

The following is thought by many to be Ditko's finest Spider-Man moment:

That's a weight off his shoulders, huh?

Though I like his work on the comic, and forever will be thankful that he created such a memorable character, I have to admit Steve Ditko is not my favorite Spider-Man artist. That would be John Romita, who succeeded him in 1966. But Ditko participation was absolutely essential for his next great character:

A phantasmagorical feast of dreamy, multidimensional delights, Ditko's Dr. Strange, along with Jack Kirby's serving of sumptuous surrealism in the Fantastic Four book, established Marvel as the hottest psychedelic spot in town--or at least on the comic book rack (and yet, as far as anyone knows, neither artist did drugs.)

Spider-Man and Dr. Strange made Ditko one of Marvel's most important artists, so it was a bit of surprise in 1966 when Ditko decided to leave the comic book company. Why? Let's ask the man himself:

  

"I know why I left Marvel but no one else in this universe knew or knows why. It may be of a mild interest to realize that Stan Lee chose not to know, hear why, I left."

Not all that informative, huh? Well, there's been all kind of speculation over the years, so let's look at that.

Earlier, I told you how, in order to save time, Stan Lee would first summarize the story to the artist, who in turn would storyboard what Lee told him, and that dialogue provided by Lee would be added later. The Marvel Method, it came to be called. Well, according to people who were there at the time, these summaries of Lee got briefer and briefer, until they were reduced to one or two sentences. Not much story to board. The artist was then forced to do much of the plotting himself, and do you know what that's called? WRITING. This caused much discord among the artists, especially Jack Kirby, who after he left Marvel spent the rest of his life bitching about not getting sufficient credit. But Ditko wasn't happy about it either...

...and he eventually demanded and got plotting credit, but that did not end the problems between the two.

Lee's relentless self-promotion also did not sit well with Ditko. The above is from the mid-1970s, long after Ditko left Marvel, but the boast (even if it was often tongue-in-cheek) came up again and again...

...and at least one of those times, Ditko felt he had to set the record straight.

By the way, remember earlier when I told you Lee originally went to Jack Kirby with the idea of Spider-Man? This led Kirby to forever claim that the superhero was originally his brainchild...

...and that didn't sit well with Ditko, either.

And finally, some say a woman came between Lee and Ditko:

Ayn Rand. The author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. No, Lee or Ditko never dated her, but the latter discovered Rand's works around 1965 or so, and became a strong adherent of her philosophy of Objectivism. I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of Objectivism  (or its to-the-right-of-Doctor Doom politics), but one of the philosophy's goals regarding art is the depiction of the Perfect Man (like Howard Roark in The Fountainhead, who does a perfectly thorough job of blowing up a building) But Peter Parker was nothing if not imperfect...

...what with his girl problems...

...and inability to make a buck.

This imperfection was part of Spider-Man's appeal, thanks in large part to Ditko, who at first seemed to enjoy portraying him so. But Ditko was now beginning to have second thoughts, and these were out-of-sync with Stan Lee's first and only thoughts about the character. Lee didn't want a hero, but an antihero, partially because he found such a person more interesting to write about, but it also made increasingly good business sense to do so. Counterculture-minded college kids were beginning to pick up Marvel comics, so why alienate them...

...as Ditko seemed intent on doing? Up to the mid-sixties, Ditko had portrayed the disadvantaged and dispossessed with a degree of sympathy. Now he had a villain named the Looter, a term which summed up Rand's feelings about those at bottom of the income scale.  Lee had reasons to fear that Spider-Man might turn into a right-wing scold, and this according to some who were present at the time led to shouting matches between the two, though this was denied by both of them (Where do I stand on all of this? As one who has no particular love for Rand, and has always had a soft spot for antiheroes, I much prefer Lee's vision, but nonetheless admire Ditko for sticking to his Objectivist guns.)

After he left Marvel, Ditko worked at both Charlton Comics and DC where he was expected to leave his personal philosophy out of it, but fellow comic book legend  and now independent publisher Wally Wood gave him a chance to vent:

Mr. A was meant to be Ditko's Objectivist soap box, but from the look of things, it seems to have been more Dirty Harry than Ayn Rand.

In the 1980s, 90's and into the 21st century, Ditko was mainly a freelancer, often for Marvel, where one of his more memorable creations was Squirrel Girl.

 Well, that's about all I have to say about Steve Ditko. Whether it was another planet, another dimension, or the Marvel version of Manhattan, he filled his panels with the most delightful disarray,  the most eyepopping pandemonium, the most exquisite chaos. Yet the disorder that so animated his art may have in fact brought him angst away from the drawing board. So perhaps that's why he embraced the more orderly visions of Ayn Rand. At least he didn't blow up any buildings in the process.