STAN LEE. ’Nuff Said
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‘Tis Roy Thomas’ Stan-Fan Verily, In all Comics the universe, Fanzine! there was only one such as Stan Lee! $9.95 In the USA No. 161 November 2019 A full-issue tribute to STAN LEE. ’Nuff Said. Galactus TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Thus, Shall I Ponder the 1 82658 00374 6 significance of such a unique being as he! 5 A 1975 Radio Interview With STAN LEE Conducted On-Air By Carole Hemingway, KABC-Talk Radio, October 1975 Transcribed by Steven Tice – with Additions by Rand Hoppe CAROLE HEMINGWAY: Hi, EDITOR’S INTRO: everybody. The time is 9:05 at A/E In October 1975, KABC-Talk Radio… this is ridiculous! Stan Lee, then Why did I invite you here? [chuckles; still living on the East Coast and Lee laughs] Who can talk about serving as Marvel Comics’ publisher, comicbooks? Nobody can talk about made one of his periodic trips to Los comicbooks for an entire hour. They’re Angeles—in this case, to help promote boring and violent… bloodshed! the new Simon & Schuster/Fireside hardcover Son of Origins of Marvel STAN LEE: Just ask me some Comics, the sequel to 1974’s Origins questions. Just introduce the of Marvel Comics. Both books were thing. There is violence, there is composed of stories he had scripted in bloodshed, but these are Marvel the 1960s for the early days of Marvel, Comics, which are a model of with Lee also providing new prose decorum. introductions to each tale. One of his most memorable appearances was HEMINGWAY: No, no, no… I’ve on talk-radio station KABC in L.A., been reading this… where the nighttime hostess was Carole LEE: You lucky devil… Hemingway. HEMINGWAY: No, no, no… you’re Hemingway had begun on the the devil. station a year earlier, and had quickly become a very popular presence on LEE: The introductions that I the nighttime air waves, remaining wrote, did you know… there until 1982, and later having another such radio gig (though in HEMINGWAY: No, they are pretty the afternoon) from 1986-93. She bad, actually. also later owned a media consulting LEE: Well, it’s been nice seeing firm operating out of Beverly Hills, you! I’m glad the settings are not California, and for some time wrote turned on or anything. [chuckles] a nationally syndicated newspaper column of social commentary. Carole Hemingway & Stan Lee HEMINGWAY: This is Stan Lee, bookend the cover of the brand new 1975 Simon & Schuster/Fireside by the way. He originated Marvel When I first read a transcription hardcover book that Lee had come west to ballyhoo: Son of Origins Comics and all those people with some of some of the latter part of this of Marvel Comics, with its dramatic painted cover by John Romita. sort of extra-fantastic power. We have hour-long interview with Stan Lee, [Cover art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Iceman, Iron I thought—as, apparently, did a few Man, Magneto, Wasp, Silver Surfer, other readers as opposed to listeners— Ant-Man… that Carole and Stan had gotten off on the wrong foot and were hostile to each other. However, after the entire talk was transcribed, it was apparent LEE: I love The Silver Surfer. that it was nothing but a good-natured verbal “love & insult fest,” perhaps HEMINGWAY: He’s mean and cruel. a welcome aperitif to all the radio shows on which Stan did little but plug product. He and Hemingway made a good match—and when I discovered LEE: No, he’s sweet and adorable—almost Christ-like in his aspect that none other than the legendary Jack Kirby had called in near the end and demeanor, and the college kids are really into The Silver Surfer. of the show to toss in his 2¢ worth (at a time when he had only recently returned to Marvel for what would become, alas, merely a three-year HEMINGWAY: They’re into The Silver Surfer… stay), I decided that it had to be spotlighted in this celebration of Stan LEE: the Man…. There’s a lot of philosophy… Your problem is… 6 Conducted On-Air By Carole Hemingway LEE: It is “Stan space Lee.” I hate everybody saying, “Stanley what?” I thought of changing of my name to “Stan Lee What,” so when people say, “Stanley what?” I can say, “You’re right. HEMINGWAY: We have Stan Lee What on the program. If you can possibly think of anything to talk about comicbooks, please call in. LEE: You’re too good-looking for radio. HEMINGWAY: Oh, really? LEE: I’d like you to have a TV show. HEMINGWAY: I like Stan Lee a little better. Go ahead… LEE: I’m mad about you. I’ve been interviewed by so many people and they’re just people. Then, I come in here, and here’s this doll who is speaking rotten to me over the microphone! [Hemingway chuckles] I’ve got fifty minutes left to make her a comic fan… to win her heart and her affections. And I have a cold in the nose to boot! [chuckles] There’s no way! HEMINGWAY: Let’s see. Can he, or can he not do it? LEE: This is the way we do our comic strips, see? Stay with us and see what happens. HEMINGWAY: Stay with us and I’ll give you some phone numbers: 870-7263 is our number in Los Angeles, in the Valley, 981-7900, in the South Bay area, 644-0790. LEE: You said that dramatically! HEMINGWAY: Wasn’t that beautiful? [Ad comes on about cutting taxes for 1975: Glendale Federal Savings] “Sentinel Of The Spaceways!” HEMINGWAY: KABC-Talk Radio time is now 9:10. Now there are The splash page of The Silver Surfer #1 (Aug. 1968). Script by Stan Lee… “Goodyear Tires”… “Goodyear makes the goin’ great!,” etc., etc. I have to pencils by John Buscema… inks by Joe Sinnott. He was called the “Sentinel ask you, Stan Lee: What kind of tires are on that fantastic limousine you of the Spaceways” on the cover—even though, ever since Fantastic Four drove up to the studio in? #50, he had been exiled to Earth by edict of his former master, Galactus. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] LEE: The only thing that would tear me away from you is if I had Hugh Hefner’s three-block long Mercedes limousine waiting HEMINGWAY: Oh, yes, tell me about my problem… outside. LEE: Obviously, you’re not a comicbook buff, but we have about fifty-five minutes left, so I will proselytize you, if you’ll forgive me. I think we should do something with you and turn you into a real human being. HEMINGWAY: [belly laughter] LEE: You’re a nice person… a lousy human being, but a nice person. HEMINGWAY: This is Stan Lee from Marvel Comics... LEE: You go out for coffee and I’ll handle the show… HEMINGWAY: Daredevil and Marvel Girl and all these people… LEE: The X-Men… HEMINGWAY: What’s the matter with your voice? LEE: I’ve got this terrible cold. See, when I live in New York where it’s foggy and gloomy and smoggy and dirty and dingy and terrible, I’m as healthy as hell. I come out here to beautiful Los Forget The Fantastic Four! This Is The Fantastic Flivver! Angeles and I get sick. I’m going to sue the city of Los Angeles. Stan Lee some years after this interview, with his 1987 Mercedes 420 SEL. Though he joked about his car that night being borrowed from Hugh HEMINGWAY: Please don’t. We have enough problems. [Lee chuckles] Hefner (whom, by coincidence, he would wind up virtually playing in a This is Stan Lee… 21st-century film cameo), Stan did have some posh cars over the years. 21 Tributes To A Titan A Few Of Those Who Worked For & With Him Remember STAN LEE Assembled by Roy Thomas EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Because another A/E issue of Alter Ego (#150, to be exact) was dedicated to Beyond “Bullpen Stan Lee in conjunction with his 95th birthday, just Bulletins” under two years ago, I felt freer than I otherwise might have in setting The cover of the New up the precise contents for this one, which will be on sale nearly one year York Daily News for after his passing on November 12, 2018. I invited a handful of key people Nov. 13, 2018, the who worked editorially for Marvel Comics in New York City when Stan day after Stan Lee’s was on the scene as editor and/or publisher to share their thoughts about passing. With thanks working with him. I realize I could have approached any number more, to Michael T. Gilbert. and perhaps I should have. Maybe some of those folks will share their [TM & © the respective thoughts with us for a future issue. trademark & copyright holders.] The first tribute-payers below are three of the surviving gents who served under publisher Stan as his editor-in-chief, presented in the order in which they served: myself, Marv Wolfman, and Jim Shooter. Two Until I met him, I’d had other comics writers and editors after others, Len Wein and Archie Goodwin, sadly, have left us—and Gerry whom I might have patterned myself; but standing on his right Conway, who served for a few weeks in early 1976, sent his apologies hand, morning after weekday morning for years, mostly swept but did not at present feel up to putting his thoughts on paper. Others those other influences away, much like those rivers that Hercules accepting our invitation were Tony Isabella, who came on staff in the channeled through the Augean stables.