1968 & 1969: Interview's with Stan Lee in Castle of Frankenstein and Cartoonist Profiles scanned by Alex Grand

Read Alex Grand’s Understanding Superhero Comic Books published by McFarland Books in 2023 with Foreword by Jim Steranko with editorial reviews by comic book professionals, Jim Shooter, Tom Palmer, Tom DeFalco, Danny Fingeroth, Alex Segura, Carl Potts, Guy Dorian Sr. and more.

In the meantime enjoy the show:

In 1968, the Marvel Age had come into its own through the mutual vision of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, as well as some of the other early artists. The Marvel cartoons were well-received, and Stan Lee was interviewed by Ted White in 1968’s Castle of Frankenstein. We can see from the images here that he was sporting his toupee by this point in the decade. This interview has some written interaction between Stan and Sol Brodsky where they are discussing a possible art correction of a recently turned in story from Jim Steranko who is possibly around the corner. Another interesting note is that Stan says that Jack Kirby is a great plotter and that Jack essentially makes up the plots and Stan basically just edits (He would never say this after Jack left in 1970).

This is a year later in 1969 when Stan Lee was interviewed by Cartoonist profiles and we see the same wig and beard motif. There is an interesting paragraph where he says that the artist is a co-plotter and part writer with the writer and that the main two things artists at Marvel need to know are page length and basic idea of plot. He also mentions Jim Steranko who lives in Pennsylvania and using the phone and mail system to generate and turn in his art at Marvel. Stan also mentions the same of Jack Kirby living on the West Coast. Here is a narrative that Stan would say in interviews from around this point in time where his Wife egged him on to write more serious elevated comics and stop trying to break into other media. Stan also discusses Martin Goodman giving Stan freedom to edit unless the sales slip and then Goodman will enter the picture. Stan discusses Martin as a magnificent analyst and editor.

In the same Cartoonist Profiles magazine, there is a 2 pager on Roy Thomas discussing his early foray into comics at age 4 and a half reading All-American and DC Comics, then avoiding EC Comics, enjoying Mad magazine, enjoying Julius Schwartz as a writer, meeting Jerry Bails as a fellow fanzine writer, working with Mort Weisinger for a week, then starting work for Stan,watching movies and writing comics.

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Use of images are not intended to infringe on copyright, but merely used for academic purpose.