A Japanese archer with targets. Ink on paper, 1878.

The bow and arrow are known to have been invented by the end of the Upper Paleolithic.

Projectile points (used on spears or atalatl darts) on are known from earlier prehistory, dating to the Middle Paleolithic. Bows eventually replaced spear-throwers as the predominant means for launching sharp projectiles on all continents except Australia.

Archery was an important military and hunting skill before the widespread and efficient use of firearms, throughout classical antiquity and the medieval period. Arrows were especially destructive against unarmoured masses and the use of archers often proved decisive. Mounted archers combined range with speed and mobility. Archery also figured prominently in the mythologies of many cultures.

Stone Age[link]

Scythians shooting with bows, Kertch (antique Panticapeum), 4th century BCE.

The bow seems to have been invented by the late Paleolithic or early Mesolithic. The oldest indication for archery in Europe comes from the Stellmoor in the Ahrensburg valley north of Hamburg, Germany and date from the late Paleolithic about 9000-8000 BC. The arrows were made of pine and consisted of a mainshaft and a 15-20 centimetre (6-8 inches) long foreshaft with a flint point.

The oldest bows known so far come from the Holmegård swamp in Denmark. In the 1940s, two bows were found there. The Holmegaard bows are made of elm and have flat arms and a D-shaped midsection. The center section is biconvex. The complete bow is 1.50 m (5 ft) long. Bows of Holmegaard-type were in use until the Bronze Age; the convexity of the midsection has decreased with time.

Mesolithic pointed shafts have been found in England, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. They were often rather long, up to 120 cm (4 ft) and made of European hazel (Corylus avellana), wayfaring tree (Viburnum lantana) and other small woody shoots. Some still have flint arrow-heads preserved; others have blunt wooden ends for hunting birds and small game. The ends show traces of fletching, which was fastened on with birch-tar.

Bows and arrows have been present in Egyptian culture since its predynastic origins. The "Nine Bows" symbolize the various peoples that had been ruled over by the pharaoh since Egypt was united.

In the Levant, artifacts which may be arrow-shaft straighteners are known from the Natufian culture, (ca. 12,800-10,300 BP) onwards. The Khiamian and PPN A shouldered Khiam-points may well be arrowheads.

Stone points which may have been arrowheads were made in Africa by about 64,000 years ago.^[1][2][3]

North America[link]

The hoop was often netted, like this.

Archery seems to have arrived in the Americas with the Arctic small tool tradition, about 2,500 BC, spreading south into the temperate zones as early as 2,000 BC, and was widely known among the indigenous peoples of North America from about 700 AD.^[4] An archery game was widely practiced among the tribes of the Southern US which involved shooting at a hoop rolled with a forked stick. Points were scored based on how the arrow landed. The competition was popularly related to notions of fertility.^[5] Tribesmen of the Great Plains became extremely adept at archery on horseback.

Bronze Age[link]

The ancient Egyptian people took to archery as early as 5000 years ago. Archery was widespread by the time of the earliest pharaohs and was practiced both for hunting and use in warfare.

Archers with recurve bows and short spears, detail from the archers' frieze in Darius' palace in Susa. Siliceous glazed bricks, c. 510 BC.

Legendary figures from the tombs of Thebes are depicted giving "lessons in archery";^[6] Some Egyptian deities are also connected to archery.^[7]

Iron Age[link]

The Assyrians and Babylonians extensively used the bow and arrow; the Old Testament has multiple references to archery as a skill identified with the ancient Hebrews. Xenophon describes long bows used to great effect in Corduene.

The Chariot warriors of the Kassites relied heavily on the bow. The Nuzi texts detail the bows and the number of arrows assigned to the chariot crew. Archery was essential to the role of the light horse drawn chariot as a vehicle of warfare.^[8]

The bow and arrow constituted the classical Indian weapon of warfare, from the Vedic period, until the advent of Islam.^[9][10] Some Rigvedic hymns lay emphasis on the use of the bow and arrow.^[11]

Ancient history[link]

Classical civilizations, notably the Persians, Parthians, Indians, Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese fielded large numbers of archers in their armies. Arrows were destructive against massed formations, and the use of archers often proved decisive. The Sanskrit term for archery, dhanurveda, came to refer to martial arts in general.

Mounted archers were the main military force of most of the equestrian nomads from the Cimmerians to the Mongols.

Greco-Roman antiquity[link]

Polychrome small-scale model of the archer XI of the west pediment of the Temple of Aphaia, ca. 505–500 BC.

The people of Crete practiced archery and Cretan mercenary archers were in great demand.^[12] Crete was known for its unbroken tradition of archery.^[13] The Greek god Apollo is the god of archery, also of plague and the sun, metaphorically perceived as shooting invisible arrows, Artemis the goddess of wild places and hunting. Odysseus and other mythological figures are often depicted with a bow.

Apollo and Artemis. Tondo of an Attic red-figure cup, ca. 470 BC.

During the invasion of India, Alexander the Great personally took command of the shield-bearing guards, foot-companions, archers, Agrianians and horse-javelin-men and led them against the Kamboja clans—the Aspasios of Kunar valleys, the Guraeans of the Guraeus (Panjkora) valley, and the Assakenois of the Swat and Buner valleys.^[14]

The early Romans had very few archers, if any. As their empire grew, they recruited auxiliary archers from other nations. Julius Caesar's armies in Gaul included Cretan archers, and Vercingetorix his enemy ordered "all the archers, of whom there was a very great number in Gaul, to be collected".^[15] By the 4th century, archers with powerful composite bows were a regular part of Roman armies throughout the empire. After the fall of the western empire, the Romans came under severe pressure from the highly skilled mounted archers belonging to the Hun invaders, and later Eastern Roman armies relied heavily on mounted archery.^[16]

East Asia[link]

For millennia, archery has played a pivotal role in Chinese history.^[17] In particular, archery featured prominently in ancient Chinese culture and philosophy: archery was one of the Six Noble Arts of the Zhou dynasty (1146–256 BCE); archery skill was a virtue for Chinese emperors; Confucius himself was an archery teacher; and Lie Zi (a Daoist philosopher) was an avid archer.^[18][19] Because the cultures associated with Chinese society spanned a wide geography and time range, the techniques and equipment associated with Chinese archery are diverse.^[20]

In East Asia the ancient Korean civilizations were well-known for their archery skills,^[21][22] and South Korea remains a particularly strong performer at Olympic archery competitions even to this day.^[21][23][24]

South Asia[link]

Detailed accounts of training methodologies in early India concern archery, considered to be an essential martial skill in early India.^[25] Legendary figures like Drona, are depicted as masters in the art of archery.^[26] Mythological figures such as Arjuna, Eklavya, Karna, Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughan are also associated with archery.

Middle Ages[link]

Europe[link]

Horse archer demonstration in Hungary

During the Middle Ages, archery in warfare was not as prevalent and dominant in Western Europe as popular myth sometimes dictates. Archers were quite often the lowest-paid soldiers in an army or were conscripted from the peasantry. This was due to the cheap nature of the bow and arrow, as compared to the expense needed to equip a professional man-at-arms with good armour and a sword. Professional archers required a lifetime of training and expensive bows to be effective, and were thus generally rare in Europe (see English longbow). The bow was seldom used to decide battles and often viewed as a "lower class weapon" or as a toy, by the nobility. However, among the Vikings, even royalty such as Magnus Barelegs used archery effectively,^[27] and the Muslims used archery, presumably also in their numerous raiding expeditions all over the Western European seaboard, in the 9th and 10th centuries.

By the time of the Hundred Years' War, the English had learned how to employ massed archery as an instrument of tactical dominance, with their English longbows. Tournaments were sponsored, with prizes for winners, among other ways of encouraging archery. There was therefore much motivation and incentive to become an expert with the longbow and the various English kings were able to recruit thousands of archers per year.

The crossbow became quite popular during the Middle Ages. Crossbows, while expensive and difficult to construct, have a relatively flat trajectory and are easier to learn to fire than the traditional bow. This made them ideal for tasks such as castle defense, where a high rate of fire was less important than armor penetration and simplicity of use.

Decline, last uses, and survival of archery[link]

Panels depicting Archery in England from Joseph Strutt's 1801 book, The sports and pastimes of the people of England from the earliest period. The date of the top image is unknown; the middle image is from 1496 and the bottom panel is circa fourteenth century.

The advent of firearms eventually rendered bows obsolete in warfare. Despite the high social status, ongoing utility, and widespread pleasure of archery in England, Korea, China, Japan, Turkey, Armenia, America, Egypt, and elsewhere, almost every culture that gained access to even early firearms used them widely, to the relative neglect of archery. Early firearms were vastly inferior in rate-of-fire, and were very susceptible to wet weather. However, they had longer effective range^[28] and were tactically superior in the common situation of soldiers shooting at each other from behind obstructions. They also required significantly less training to use properly, in particular penetrating steel armour without any need to develop special musculature. Armies equipped with guns could thus provide superior firepower by sheer weight of numbers, and highly-trained archers became obsolete on the battlefield.

"Have them bring as many guns as possible, for no other equipment is needed. Give strict orders that all men, even the samurai, carry guns."

—Asano Yukinaga, 1598^[29]

In Europe the last regular unit armed with bows was also a part of the oldest regular unit armed with gunpowder weapons, the Archers’ Company of the Honourable Artillery Company.

In Eastern Europe and the Asian Steppe however archery continued to play an important part in warfare, although now restricted to mounted archery. The Ottoman Empire still fielded auxiliary cavalry which was noted for its use of bows from horseback. This practice was continued by the Ottoman subject nations, despite the Empire itself being a proponent of early firearms. The practice declined after the Crimean Khanate was finally absorbed by Russia; however mounted archers remained in the Ottoman order of battle until the post 1826 reforms to the Ottoman Army.

The sole exceptions may be the Comanches of North America, whose mounted archery was more effective than muzzle-loading guns. (Other Plains Indians fought mostly on foot, and usually found guns to be superior weapons when they did so.) "After... about 1800, most Comanches began to discard muskets and pistols and to rely on their older weapons."^[30] Repeating firearms, however, were superior in turn, and the Comanches adopted them when they could. Bows remained effective hunting weapons for skilled horse archers, used to some extent by all Native Americans on the Great Plains to hunt buffalo as long as there were buffalo to hunt. The last Comanche hunt was in 1878, and it failed for lack of buffalo.^[31]

The last recorded use of bows, in an English battle, seems to have been a skirmish at Bridgnorth, in October 1642, during the English Civil War.^[32] The most recent death in war from British archery was probably in 1940, on the retreat to Dunkirk, when Jack Churchill who had brought his bows on active service "was delighted to see his arrow strike the centre German in the left of the chest and penetrate his body".^[33] In Ireland, Geoffrey Keating (c. 1569 - c. 1644) mentions archery as having been practiced "down to a recent period within our own memory"^[34] Archery continued in some areas that were subject to limitations on the ownership of arms, such as the Scottish Highlands during the repression that followed the decline of the Jacobite cause, and the Cherokees after the Trail of Tears. The Tokugawa shogunate severely limited the import and manufacture of guns, and encouraged traditional martial skills among the samurai; towards the end of the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877; some rebels fell back on the use of bows and arrows. Archery remained an important part of the military examinations until 1894 in Korea and 1904 in China. Ongoing use of bows and arrows in some African conflicts has been reported in the 21st century, and the Sentinelese still use bows as part of a lifestyle scarcely touched by outside contact. A remote group in Brazil, recently photographed from the air, aimed bows at the aeroplane.^[35] Bows and arrows saw considerable use in the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis.

Traditional archery remained in minority use for sport and for hunting in many areas long after its military disuse. In Turkey, its last revival for this purpose took place with the encouragement of Mahmud II in the 1820s, but the art, and that of constructing composite bows, fell out of use with the death of the last bowyer in the 1930s. The rest of the Middle East also lost the continuity of its archery tradition at this time. In Korea, the transformation from military training to healthy pastime was led by Emperor Gojong, and is the basis of a popular modern sport. Japanese continue to make and use their unique traditional equipment. Among the Cherokees, popular use of longbows never entirely died out. The British have maintained a continuous tradition of longbow use, with a major revival as an upper-class pursuit from about 1780-1840.^[36] In China, the improvement of firearms and other circumstances of 20th century China led to the demise of archery as a military and ritual practice, and for much of the 20th century only one traditional bow and arrow workshop remained.^[37] However, in the beginning of the 21st century, there has been revival in interest among craftsmen looking to construct bows and arrows, as well as in practicing technique in the traditional Chinese style.^[38][39] In modern times, mounted archery continues to be practiced in some Asian countries but is not used in international competition. Modern Hungarians have revived mounted archery as a competitive sport.^[40] Archery is the national sport of the Kingdom of Bhutan.^[41]

Modern archery in small-scale societies[link]

After the American Civil War, two Confederate veterans, Will and Maurice Thompson, revived archery in America. The two brothers and Thomas Williams (a former slave) lived in the wild in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. As ex-Confederate soldiers they were not allowed to own guns, so they needed other ways to hunt for food. Thomas Williams knew something about English-style Archery (using a longbow, though it is unclear where he gained this knowledge) and showed Maurice and Will. Later, Maurice wrote a book, The Witchery of Archery, which became a best seller and enthused people about the sport of archery. In 1879 the National Archery Association was formed. However, public interest in archery soon subsided.

That all changed when Ishi came out of hiding in California in 1911. Ishi was the last of the Yahi Indian tribe. He lived for his last five years at the University of California at Berkeley Anthropology Museum.^[42] His doctor, Saxton Pope, was an instructor of surgery at the medical school. Dr. Pope was very interested in Ishi and his culture, especially archery. Ishi willingly taught Dr. Pope about his culture, how to make tools the way the Yahi did, and how to hunt using a bow and arrow. Soon, Dr. Pope was joined by archery-enthusiast Arthur Young.

Ishi died in 1916 of tuberculosis. Dr. Pope and Mr. Young did not lose interest in archery, and set about proving that archery could be used to bag large game.^[43] They hunted in Alaska and Africa and took several large game animals.^[44]

Because Dr. Pope and Mr. Young demonstrated to Western society that archery was effective on not only small game, but large game as well, archery did not lose public interest so easily. Many methods that Ishi taught Dr. Pope are still used today by archers in small-scale societies. From the 1920s, professional engineers took an interest in archery, previously the exclusive field of traditional craft experts.^[45] They led the commercial development of new forms of bow including the modern recurve and compound bow. These modern forms are now dominant in modern Western archery; traditional bows are in a minority. In the 1980s, the skills of traditional archery were revived by American enthusiasts, and combined with the new scientific understanding. Much of this expertise is available in the "Traditional Bowyer's Bibles" (see Further Reading).

See also[link]

• Archery
• Kyūdō, Japanese archery
• Yabusame, Japanese horseback archery
• Gungdo, Korean archery
• Turkish archery
• Chinese archery

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 1. The Lyons Press, 1992. ISBN 1-58574-085-3
• The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 2. The Lyons Press, 1992. ISBN 1-58574-086-1
• The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 3. The Lyons Press, 1994. ISBN 1-58574-087-X
• The Traditional Bowyers Bible Volume 4. The Lyons Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9645741-6-8

External links[link]

• Society of Archer-Antiquaries
• Archery Library Online Archery Books with historical content
• Asian Traditional Archery Research Network

v t e Archery Archery topics Archer's paradox Archery Bow Bow draw Bow shape History of archery History of crossbows Modern competitive archery Mounted archery Bows Cable-backed bow Composite bow Compound bow Crossbow English longbow Flatbow Laminated bow Longbow Recurve bow Self bow Yumi Equipment Arrow Arrowhead Bow string Bracer Cresting machine Finger tab Fletching Flu-Flu Arrow Quarrel Quiver Thumb ring Archery activities Archery games Bowfishing Bowhunting Clout archery Field archery Popinjay Target archery Target World Championship Archery at the Summer Olympics Archery at the Summer Paralympics Glossary of archery terms

Stan Lee
Stan Lee in 2007
Born	(1922-12-28) December 28, 1922 (age 89) New York City, New York, US
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer, editor, publisher, producer, actor, reality show host
Notable works	Fantastic Four Hulk Spider-Man Thor Iron Man X-Men
Awards	Jack Kirby Hall of Fame
Spouse	Joan Lee (m. 1947–present)
Signature
150px

Stan Lee (born December 28, 1922) is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

In collaboration with several artists, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and many other fictional characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. In addition, he headed the first major successful challenge to the industry's censorship organization, the Comics Code Authority, and forced it to reform its policies. Lee subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

He was inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995.

Early life[link]

Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber in New York City on December 28, 1922, in the apartment of his Romanian-born Jewish immigrant parents, Celia (née Solomon) and Jack Lieber, at the corner of West 98th Street and West End Avenue in Manhattan.^[1][2][3] His father, trained as a dress cutter, worked only sporadically after the Great Depression,^[1] and the family moved further uptown to Fort Washington Avenue,^[4] in Washington Heights, Manhattan. When Lee was nearly 9, his only sibling, brother Larry Lieber, was born.^[5] He said in 2006 that as a child he was influenced by books and movies, particularly those with Errol Flynn playing heroic roles.^[6] By the time Lee was in his teens, the family was living in a one-bedroom apartment at 1720 University Avenue in The Bronx. Lee described it as "a third-floor apartment facing out back", with him and his brother sharing a bedroom and his parents using a foldout couch.^[5]

Lee attended DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx.^[7] In his youth, Lee enjoyed writing, and entertained dreams of one day writing The Great American Novel,^[8] He has said that in his youth he worked such part-time jobs as writing obituaries for a news service and press releases for the National Tuberculosis Center; delivering sandwiches for the Jack May pharmacy to offices in Rockefeller Center; working as an office boy for a trouser manufacturer; ushering at the Rivoli Theater on Broadway;^{[citation needed]} and selling subscriptions to the New York Herald Tribune newspaper. He graduated high school early, at age 16½ in 1939, and joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project.^[9]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

With the help of his uncle Robbie Solomon,^[10][11] Lee became an assistant in 1939 at the new Timely Comics division of pulp magazine and comic-book publisher Martin Goodman's company.^[11] Timely, by the 1960s, would evolve into Marvel Comics. Lee, whose cousin Jean^[12] was Goodman's wife, was formally hired by Timely editor Joe Simon.^[11]

His duties were prosaic at first. "In those days [the artists] dipped the pen in ink, [so] I had to make sure the inkwells were filled", Lee recalled in 2009. "I went down and got them their lunch, I did proofreading, I erased the pencils from the finished pages for them".^[13] Marshaling his childhood ambition to be a writer, young Stanley Lieber made his comic-book debut with the text filler "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge" in Captain America Comics #3 (May 1941), using the pseudonym "Stan Lee", which years later he would adopt as his legal name. Lee later explained in his autobiography and numerous other sources that he had intended to save his given name for more literary work. This initial story also introduced Captain America's trademark ricocheting shield-toss, which immediately became one of the character's signatures.^[14]

He graduated from writing filler to actual comics with a backup feature, "'Headline' Hunter, Foreign Correspondent", two issues later. Lee's first superhero co-creation was the Destroyer, in Mystic Comics #6 (Aug 1941). Other characters he created during this period fans and historians call the Golden Age of comics include Jack Frost, debuting in USA Comics #1 (Aug. 1941), and Father Time, debuting in Captain America Comics #6 (Aug. 1941).^[15]

When Simon and his creative partner Jack Kirby left late in 1941, following a dispute with Goodman, the 30-year-old publisher installed Lee, just under 19 years old, as interim editor.^[16] The youngster showed a knack for the business that led him to remain as the comic-book division's editor-in-chief, as well as art director for much of that time, until 1972, when he would succeed Goodman as publisher.^[17][18]

Lee entered the United States Army in early 1942 and served stateside in the Signal Corps, writing manuals, training films, and slogans, and occasionally cartooning. His military classification, he says, was "playwright"; he adds that only nine men in the U.S. Army were given that title.^[19] Vincent Fago, editor of Timely's "animation comics" section, which put out humor and funny animal comics, filled in until Lee returned from his World War II military service in 1945. Lee now lived in the rented top floor of a brownstone in the East 90s in Manhattan.^[20]

He married Joan Clayton Boocock on December 5, 1947,^[21] and in 1949, the couple bought a two-story, three-bedroom home at 1084 West Broadway in Woodmere, New York, on Long Island, living there through 1952.^[22] By this time, the couple had daughter Joan Celia "J.C." Lee, born in 1950; another child, Jan Lee, died three days after delivery in 1953.^[23] Lee by this time had bought a home at 226 Richards Lane in the Long Island town of Hewlett Harbor, New York, where he and his family lived from 1952 to 1980,^[24] including the 1960s period when Lee and his artist collaborators would revolutionize comic books.

In the mid-1950s, by which time the company was now generally known as Atlas Comics, Lee wrote stories in a variety of genres including romance, Westerns, humor, science fiction, medieval adventure, horror and suspense. By the end of the decade, Lee had become dissatisfied with his career and considered quitting the field.^[25][26]

Marvel revolution[link]

In the late 1950s, DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz revived the superhero archetype and experienced a significant success with its updated version of the Flash, and later with super-team the Justice League of America. In response, publisher Martin Goodman assigned Lee to create a new superhero team. Lee's wife urged him to experiment with stories he preferred, since he was planning on changing careers and had nothing to lose.^[25][26]

Lee acted on that advice, giving his superheroes a flawed humanity, a change from the ideal archetypes that were typically written for preteens. Before this, most superheroes were idealistically perfect people with no serious, lasting problems.^[27] Lee introduced complex, naturalistic characters^[28] who could have bad tempers, fits of melancholy, vanity; they bickered amongst themselves, worried about paying their bills and impressing girlfriends, got bored or even were sometimes physically ill.

The first superhero group Lee and artist Jack Kirby created was the Fantastic Four. The team's immediate popularity led Lee and Marvel's illustrators to produce a cavalcade of new titles. With Kirby primarily, Lee created the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and the X-Men; with Bill Everett, Daredevil; and with Steve Ditko, Doctor Strange and Marvel's most successful character, Spider-Man, all of whom lived in a thoroughly shared universe.^[29]

Comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that in the 1960s:

DC was the equivalent of the big Hollywood studios: After the brilliance of DC's reinvention of the superhero ... in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it had run into a creative drought by the decade's end. There was a new audience for comics now, and it wasn't just the little kids that traditionally had read the books. The Marvel of the 1960s was in its own way the counterpart of the French New Wave.... Marvel was pioneering new methods of comics storytelling and characterization, addressing more serious themes, and in the process keeping and attracting readers in their teens and beyond. Moreover, among this new generation of readers were people who wanted to write or draw comics themselves, within the new style that Marvel had pioneered, and push the creative envelope still further.^[30]

Stan Lee's Marvel revolution extended beyond the characters and storylines to the way in which comic books engaged the readership and built a sense of community between fans and creators.^[31] Lee introduced the practice of including a credit panel on the splash page of each story, naming not just the writer and penciller but also the inker and letterer. Regular news about Marvel staff members and upcoming storylines was presented on the Bullpen Bulletins page, which (like the letter columns that appeared in each title) was written in a friendly, chatty style.

Throughout the 1960s, Lee scripted, art-directed, and edited most of Marvel's series, moderated the letters pages, wrote a monthly column called "Stan's Soapbox," and wrote endless promotional copy, often signing off with his trademark phrase "Excelsior!" (which is also the New York state motto). To maintain his taxing workload, yet still meet deadlines, he used a system that was used previously by various comic-book studios, but due to Lee's success with it, became known as the "Marvel Method" or "Marvel style" of comic-book creation. Typically, Lee would brainstorm a story with the artist and then prepare a brief synopsis rather than a full script. Based on the synopsis, the artist would fill the allotted number of pages by determining and drawing the panel-to-panel storytelling. After the artist turned in penciled pages, Lee would write the word balloons and captions, and then oversee the lettering and coloring. In effect, the artists were co-plotters, whose collaborative first drafts Lee built upon.

Because of this system, the exact division of creative credits on Lee's comics has been disputed, especially in cases of comics drawn by Kirby and Ditko. Lee shares co-creator credit with Kirby and Ditko on, respectively, the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man feature film series.

In 1971, Lee indirectly helped reform the Comics Code.^[32] The US Department of Health, Education and Welfare had asked Lee to write a comic-book story about the dangers of drugs and Lee conceived a three-issue subplot in The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 (cover-dated May–July 1971), in which Peter Parker's best friend becomes addicted to pills. The Comics Code Authority refused to grant its seal because the stories depicted drug use; the anti-drug context was considered irrelevant. With Goodman's cooperation and confident that the original government request would give him credibility, Lee had the story published without the seal. The comics sold well and Marvel won praise for its socially conscious efforts. The CCA subsequently loosened the Code to permit negative depictions of drugs, among other new freedoms.^[33]

Lee also supported using comic books to provide some measure of social commentary about the real world, often dealing with racism and bigotry. "Stan's Soapbox", besides promoting an upcoming comic book project, also addressed issues of discrimination, intolerance, or prejudice.^[34][35]

Later career[link]

Signed photo of Lee at the 1975 San Diego Comic Con.

In later years, Lee became a figurehead and public face for Marvel Comics. He made appearances at comic book conventions around America, lecturing at colleges and participating in panel discussions. By this time he owned a vacation home on Cutler Lane in Remsenburg, New York^[36] and, from 1975 to 1980, a two-bedroom condominium on the 14th floor of 220 East 63rd Street in Manhattan.^[37] He moved to California in 1981 to develop Marvel's TV and movie properties. He has been an executive producer for, and has made cameo appearances in, Marvel film adaptations and other movies. He and his wife bought a home in West Hollywood, California previously owned by comedian Jack Benny's radio announcer, Don Wilson.^[38] Lee was briefly president of the entire company, but soon stepped down to become publisher instead, finding that being president was too much about numbers and finance and not enough about the creative process he enjoyed.^[39]

Peter Paul and Lee began to start a new Internet-based superhero creation, production and marketing studio, Stan Lee Media, in 1998. It grew to 165 people and went public, but near the end of 2000, investigators discovered illegal stock manipulation by Paul and corporate officer Stephan Gordon.^[40] Stan Lee Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2001.^[41] Paul was extradited to the U.S. from Brazil, and pleaded guilty to violating SEC Rule 10b-5 in connection with trading of his stock in Stan Lee Media.^[42][43] Lee was never implicated in the scheme.

In the 2000s, Lee did his first work for DC Comics, launching the Just Imagine... series, in which Lee reimagined the DC superheroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash.^[44]

In 2001, Lee, Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman formed POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment to develop film, television and video game properties. Lee created the risqué animated superhero series Stripperella for Spike TV. In 2004 he announced a superhero program that would feature Ringo Starr, the former Beatle, as the lead character.^[45] Additionally, in August of that year, Lee announced the launch of Stan Lee's Sunday Comics,^[46] hosted by Komikwerks.com, where monthly subscribers could read a new, updated comic and "Stan's Soapbox" every Sunday. The column has not been updated since February 15, 2005.

In 2006, Marvel commemorated Lee's 65 years with the company by publishing a series of one-shot comics starring Lee himself meeting and interacting with many of his co-creations, including Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, the Thing, Silver Surfer and Doctor Doom. These comics also featured short pieces by such comics creators as Joss Whedon and Fred Hembeck, as well as reprints of classic Lee-written adventures.^{[citation needed]}

On March 15, 2007, Stan Lee Media's new president, Jim Nesfield, filed a lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment for $5 billion, claiming that the company is co-owner of the characters that Lee created for Marvel.^[47] On June 9, 2007, Stan Lee Media sued Lee; his newer company, POW! Entertainment; POW! subsidiary QED Entertainment; and other former Stan Lee Media staff at POW!^[48]

In 2008, Lee wrote humorous captions for the political fumetti book Stan Lee Presents Election Daze: What Are They Really Saying?.^[49] In April of that year, at the New York Comic Con, Viz Media announced that Lee and Hiroyuki Takei were collaborating on the manga Karakuridôji Ultimo, from parent company Shueisha.^[50] That same month, Brighton Partners and Rainmaker Animation announced a partnership POW! to produce a CGI film series, Legion of 5.^[51] That same month, Virgin Comics announced Lee would create a line of superhero comics for that company.^[52] He is also working on a TV adaptation of the novel Hero.^[53] He wrote the foreword to the 2010 non-fiction e-book memoir Skyscraperman by skyscraper fire-safety advocate Dan Goodwin, who had climbed skyscrapers dressed as Spider-Man.^[54]

Lee promoting Stan Lee's Kids Universe at the 2011 New York Comic Con.

In 2009, he and the Japanese company Bones produced its first manga feature, Heroman, serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan; the feature was adapted to anime in April 2010.^[55][56]

In October 2010, Lee's SLG Entertainment partnered with Guardian Media Entertainment on The Guardian Project to create superhero mascots for the National Hockey League.^[57]

In August 2011, Lee announced his support for the Eagle Initiative, a program to find new talent in the comic book field.^[58]

In 2011, Lee was writing a live-action musical, The Yin and Yang Battle of Tao.^[59] In October, Lee announced he would partner with 1821 Comics on a multimedia imprint for children, Stan Lee’s Kids Universe, a move he said addressed the lack of comic books targeted for children; and that he was collaborating with the company on its futuristic graphic novel Romeo & Juliet: The War, by writer Max Work and artist Skan Srisuwan.^[60][61]

Action figure[link]

At the 2007 Comic-Con International, Marvel Legends introduced a Stan Lee action figure. The body beneath the figure's removable cloth wardrobe is a re-used mold of a previously released Spider-Man action figure, with only minor changes.^[62]

Charity work[link]

The Stan Lee Foundation was founded in 2010 to focus on literacy, education and the arts. Its stated goals include supporting programs and ideas that improve access to literacy resources, as well as promoting diversity, national literacy, culture and the arts.^[63]

Stan Lee has donated portions of his personal effects to the University of Wyoming at various times, between 1981 and 2001.^[64]

Awards and honors[link]

• Lee has received several awards for his work, including being inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995.
• On November 17, 2008, Stan Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts.^[34][65]
• The County of Los Angeles declared October 2, 2009 Stan Lee Day.^[66]
• The City of Long Beach declared October 2, 2009 Stan Lee Day.^[66]
• Lee won the Comic-Con Icon Award 2009 at Scream Awards.^[67]
• Lee received the 2,428th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 4, 2011.
• On January 21, 2012, Lee received the Vanguard Award from the Producers Guild of America.^[68]

Fictional portrayals[link]

Stan Lee and his collaborator Jack Kirby appear as themselves in The Fantastic Four No.10 (January 1963), the first of several appearances within the fictional Marvel Universe.^[69] The two are depicted as similar to their real-world counterparts, creating comic books based on the "real" adventures of the Fantastic Four.

Kirby later portrayed himself, Lee, production executive Sol Brodsky, and Lee's secretary Flo Steinberg as superheroes in What If #11, "What If the Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four?", in which Lee played the part of Mister Fantastic. Lee has also made numerous cameo appearances in many Marvel titles, appearing in audiences and crowds at many characters' ceremonies and parties, and hosting an old-soldiers reunion in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos No.100 (July 1972). Lee appeared, unnamed, as the priest at Luke Cage and Jessica Jones' wedding in New Avengers Annual #1. He pays his respects to Karen Page at her funeral in the Daredevil "Guardian Devil" story arc,^{[volume & issue needed]} and appears in The Amazing Spider-Man (June 1977).

In Marvel's July 1997 "Flashback" event, a top-hatted caricature of Lee as a ringmaster introduced stories which detailed events in Marvel characters' lives before they became superheroes, in special "-1" editions of many Marvel titles. The "ringmaster" depiction of Lee was originally from Generation X #17 (July 1996), where the character narrated a story set primarily in an abandoned circus. Though the story itself was written by Scott Lobdell, the narration by "Ringmaster Stan" was written by Lee, and the character was drawn in that issue by Chris Bachalo.

Under his given name of Stanley Lieber, Stan Lee appears briefly in Paul Malmont's 2006 novel The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril.^{[citation needed]}

Lee and other comics creators are mentioned on page 479 of Michael Chabon's 2000 novel about the comics industry The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Chabon also acknowledges a debt to Lee and other creators on the book's Author's Note page.

On one of the last pages of Truth: Red, White, and Black, Lee appears in a real photograph among other celebrities on a wall of the Bradley home.^{[citation needed]}

In Stan Lee Meets Superheroes, which Lee wrote, he comes in to contact with some of his favorite creations.

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby appear as professors in Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #19.

Film and television appearances[link]

Marvel television[link]

• One of Lee's earliest contributions to animation based on Marvel properties was narrating the 1980s Incredible Hulk animated series, always beginning his narration with a self-introduction and ending with "This is Stan Lee saying, Excelsior!" Lee had previously narrated the "Seven Little Superheroes" episode of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, which the Hulk series was paired with for broadcast.
• Lee did the narration for the original 1989 X-Men animated series pilot titled X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men.
• Lee was an executive producer of the 1990s animated TV series Spider-Man. He appeared as himself in animated form in the series finale episode titled "Farewell, Spider-Man". Spider-Man is transported by Madame Web into the "real" world where he is a fictional character. He meets Lee and the two swing around until Spider-Man drops him off on top of a building; Madame Web appears and brings Spider-Man back to his homeworld. Realizing he is stuck on a roof, Lee muses, hoping the Fantastic Four will show up and lend a hand.
• He also voices the character "Frank Elson" in an episode of Spider-Man: The New Animated Series series broadcast by MTV in 2003, and titled "Mind Games" (Parts 1 & 2, originally aired on August 15 & 22, 2003).
• He voiced a loading dock worker named Stan on The Spectacular Spider-Man in the episode "Blueprints".
• In the pilot episode of The Superhero Squad Show, Lee voices the mayor of the city, preparing to give away the city's key when disaster strikes.
• Lee has appeared in episodes of the Disney XD TV series Ultimate Spider-Man as a high school janitor named Stan, in which he makes references to Lee's real-life career. In the pilot, "Great Power", he mentions Irving Forbush, a character Lee co-created in 1955 as a literary device.^[70] He appears in Episode 6, "Why I Hate Gym".^[71]

Marvel films[link]

Lee has had cameo appearances in many films based on Marvel characters that he created or co-created:

• In the TV-movie The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989), Lee's first appearance in a Marvel movie or TV project is as a jury foreman in the trial of Dr. David Banner.
• In X-Men (2000), Lee appears as a hotdog stand vendor on the beach when Senator Kelly emerges naked onshore after escaping from Magneto.
• In Spider-Man (2002), he appeared during Spider-Man's first battle with the Green Goblin, pulling a little girl away from falling debris. In the DVD's deleted scenes, Lee has an expanded cameo in which he plays a street vendor who tries to sell Peter Parker a pair of sunglasses "just like the X-Men wear."
• In Daredevil (2003), as a child, Matt Murdock stops Lee from crossing the street and getting hit by a bus.
• In Hulk (2003), he appears walking alongside former TV-series Hulk Lou Ferrigno in an early scene, both as security guards at Bruce Banner's lab. It was his first speaking role in a film based on one of his characters.
• In Spider-Man 2 (2004), Lee pulls an innocent person away from danger during Spider-Man's first battle with Doctor Octopus. In a deleted scene that appears as an extra on the film's DVD release, Lee has another cameo, saying, "Look, Spider-Man stole that child's sneakers."
• In Fantastic Four (2005), Lee appears for the first time as a character from the comics, in a role credited as Willie Lumpkin, the mail carrier who greets the Fantastic Four as they enter the Baxter Building.
• In X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Lee and Chris Claremont appear as two of Jean Grey's neighbors in the opening scenes set 20 years ago. Lee, credited as "Waterhose man," is watering the lawn when Jean telekinetically redirects the water from the hose into the air.
• In Spider-Man 3 (2007), Lee appears in a credited role as "Man in Times Square". He stands next to Peter Parker, both of them reading a news bulletin about Spider-Man, and commenting to Peter that, "You know, I guess one person can make a difference". He then says his catch phrase, "'Nuff said."
• In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Lee appears as himself at Reed Richards' and Susan Storm's first wedding, being turned away by a security guard for not being on the guest list. In Fantastic Four Annual No.3 (1965), in which the couple married, Lee and Jack Kirby are similarly turned away.
• In Iron Man (2008), Lee (credited as "Himself") appears at a gala cavorting with three blonds, where Tony Stark mistakes him for Hugh Hefner.^[72] In the theatrical release of the film, Stark simply greets Lee as "Hef" and moves on without seeing Lee's face; another version of the scene was filmed where Stark realizes his mistake, but Lee graciously responds, "That's okay, I get this all the time."^[73]
• In The Incredible Hulk (2008), Lee appears as a hapless citizen who accidentally ingests a soft drink mixed with Bruce Banner's blood, leading to the discovery of Dr. Banner's location in a bottling plant in Brazil.
• In Iron Man 2 (2010), during the Stark Expo, Lee, wearing suspenders and a red shirt and black and purple tie, is greeted by Tony Stark as "Larry King".
• In Thor (2011), Lee appears among many people at the site where Thor's hammer Mjolnir lands on earth. He tears the back off his pickup truck in an attempt to pull Mjolnir out of the ground with a chain and causes everyone to laugh by asking, "Did it work?".
• In Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Lee is again used as comic relief, this time portraying a general in World War II. When Captain America/Steve Rogers is queued to a stage to receive an award, a man goes on stage to tell the presenter that Rogers will not be attending. The general mistakes the man for Rogers, commenting, "I thought he'd be taller." Lee said in April 2011, "Marvel Studios has upgraded my cameo for the Captain America movie! They’ve given me one more word of dialogue than originally planned!"^[74]
• In The Avengers (2012), Lee makes a cameo appearance as a man interviewed by the media about his opinion concerning the Avengers thwarting the Chitauri's attack on Manhattan Island. Lee's character responds with, "Superheroes in New York? Give me a break", and then returns to a game of chess with a fellow senior citizen. ^[75]
• In The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Lee is scheduled to have a cameo in an action scene where he plays a librarian oblivious to the fight between Spider-Man and the Lizard happening behind him.^[76]

Warner/DC properties[link]

In the original February 7, 1998, broadcast airing of the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Apokolips... Now! Part 2" on the Kids' WB programming block, an animated Stan Lee was visible mourning the death of Daniel "Terrible" Turpin, a character based on his longtime Marvel Comics collaborator Jack Kirby. This shot was later modified to remove the likeness of Lee and other of background Marvel characters when the episode was released on DVD.^[77]

Other film, TV, and video[link]

• In the 1990s, Lee hosted the documentary series The Comic Book Greats and interviewed notable comic book creators such as Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld and Whilce Portacio.
• Lee has an extensive cameo in the 1995 Kevin Smith film Mallrats. He plays himself, this time visiting the mall to sign books at a comic store. Later, he takes on the role of a sage-like character, giving Jason Lee's character, Brodie Bruce (a longtime fan of Stan's), advice on his love life. He also recorded interviews with Smith for the non-fiction video Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters, and Marvels (2002).
• Lee is the host of the 2010 History Channel documentary series Stan Lee's Superhumans.
• Lee makes a cameo appearance as the "Three Stooges Wedding Guest" in the 2004 Disney film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
• Lee hosted and judged contestants in the SyFy series Who Wants to Be a Superhero?
• Lee appears with director Kevin Smith and 2000s Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada in the DVD program Marvel Then & Now: An Evening with Stan Lee and Joe Quesada, hosted by Kevin Smith.
• Lee was interviewed on the History Channel show Superhuman by Daniel Browning Smith, who held several Guinness Records for extreme flexibility^[78] due to having Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a genetic condition affecting collagen formation. Smith had created his own comic book to display his own struggles as an outcast for his flexibility, and legitimately surprised Lee with a quick demonstration of his talent.
• In the animated series Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, Lee plays himself in a live-action scene of the "Comic Capers" episode.
• Lee appeared as himself in an extended self-parodying sketch on the episode "Tapping a Hero" of Robot Chicken.
• Lee appears as himself in writer-director Larry Cohen's The Ambulance (1990), in which Eric Roberts plays an aspiring comics artist.
• In "I Am Furious Yellow", the April 28, 2002, episode of The Simpsons, Lee voices the animated Stan Lee, who is a prolonged visitor to Comic Book Guy's store. He asks if Comic Book Guy is the stalker of Lynda Carter – the star of the 1970s show Wonder Woman – and shows signs of dementia, such as breaking a customer's toy Batmobile by trying to cram a Thing action figure into it (claiming that he "made it better"), hiding DC comics behind Marvel comics, and believing that he is the Hulk (and fails trying to become the Hulk, while Comic Book Guy comments he couldn't even change into Bill Bixby). Lee also appeared on the commentary track along with other Simpsons writers and directors on the episode for The Simpsons Season 13 box set released in 2010. In a later Simpsons episode, "Worst Episode Ever", Lee's picture is seen next to several others on the wall behind the register, under the heading "Banned for life".
• Lee appears as himself in the Mark Hamill-directed Comic Book: The Movie (2004), a direct-to-video mockumentary primarily filmed at the 2002 San Diego Comic-Con.
• Lee made an appearance on December 21, 2006, on the NBC game show Identity.
• Lee appeared as himself in "The Excelsior Acquisition", a third season episode of The Big Bang Theory, in March 2010.^[79] He appears at the front door of his house wearing Fantastic Four pajamas, ultimately calling into the rest of the house, "Joanie, call the police!" to get rid of Sheldon.
• Lee voices the Mayor of Superhero City in the Super Hero Squad Show.
• He plays a bus driver in the 16th episode of the first season of Heroes.^[80]
• Lee made a guest appearance as himself in "Bottom's Up", a season seven episode of the TV series Entourage. He guest-starred in "Glimpse", a season five episode of Eureka that aired in July 2011.^[81]
• Lee appears in "The Guardian", the October 7, 2010, episode of Nikita, as Hank Excelsior, a witness to a bank robbery who is interviewed by a TV reporter.
• Lee was interviewed in the 2011 documentary Superheroes.
• Lee is scheduled to appear on X Japan's music video "Born to be Free".^[82]
• Lee portrayed himself at a CIA holiday party in the fifth season of Chuck, in which it is revealed in that universe he secretly works for the government and has a romantic interest in General Beckman.
• Stan Lee appeared in the eleventh episode of season five of The Guild, in which he was captured at a convention by the character Zaboo's Master Chief cosplaying henchmen.^{[episode needed]}
• Stan Lee portrayed a future version of Tony Stark in "Episode 205 – The Future!" of the comedy web series Avengers Assemble!. In this episode, he delivered from the future a cryptic message to the rest of his fellow Avengers, but constantly frustrated his companions due to his ineptness with the technology of his future era.^[83]

Video games and applications[link]

• Lee narrates the 2000 video game Spider-Man,^[84] the 2001 sequel Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro^[85] and 2010's Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.^[86][87]
• Lee made his first-ever onscreen video game appearance as a senator named after himself in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.^[88]
• Lee narrates the The Avengers Origins: Hulk and Avengers Origins: Assemble! apps for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, which were released by Disney Publishing Worldwide in February 2012.^[89]
• Lee is a playable character in Activision's The Amazing Spider-Man video game, which is scheduled to be released in June 2012, as a tie-in to the film of the same name.^[90]

Personal life[link]

Lee's favorite authors include Stephen King, H. G. Wells, Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Harlan Ellison.^[91] He is also a fan of the films of Bruce Lee.^[92]

Bibliography[link]

Lee's comics work includes:^[93]

DC[link]

• DC Comics Presents: Superman #1 (2004)
• Just Imagine Stan Lee creating:
  • Aquaman (with Scott McDaniel) (2002)
  • Batman (with Joe Kubert) (2001)
  • Catwoman (with Chris Bachalo) (2002)
  • Crisis (with John Cassaday) (2002)
  • Flash (with Kevin Maguire) (2002)
  • Green Lantern (with Dave Gibbons) (2001)
  • JLA (with Jerry Ordway) (2002)
  • Robin (with John Byrne) (2001)
  • Sandman (with Walt Simonson) (2002)
  • Secret Files and Origins (2002)
  • Shazam! (with Gary Frank) (2001)
  • Superman (with John Buscema) (2001)
  • Wonder Woman (with Jim Lee) (2001)

Marvel[link]

• Amazing Spider-Man #1–100, 105–110, 116–118, 200 (1962–80); (backup stories): #634–655 (2010–11)^[94]
• Avengers #1–35 (1963–66)
• Captain America #100–141 (1968–71) (continues from Tales of Suspense #99)
• Daredevil, #1–9, 11–50, 53 (1964–69)
• Daredevil, vol. 2, #20 (backup story) (2001)
• Epic Illustrated #1 (Silver Surfer) (1980)
• Fantastic Four #1–114, 120–125 (1961–72); #296 (1986)
• The Incredible Hulk #1–6 (continues to Tales to Astonish #59)
• Journey into Mystery (Thor) plotter #83–96 (1962–63), writer #97–125 (1963–66) (continues to Thor #126)
• Ravage 2099 #1–7 (1992–93)
• Savage She-Hulk #1 (1980)
• Sgt. Fury #1–28 (1963–66)
• Silver Surfer #1–18 (1968–70)
• Silver Surfer vol. 2, #1 (1982)
• Silver Surfer: Parable #1–2 (1988)
• Solarman #1–2 (1989–90)
• Strange Tales (diverse stories): #9, 11, 74, 89, 90–100 (1951–62); (Human Torch): #101–109, 112–133; (Doctor Strange): #110–111, 115–142, 151–158 (1962–67); (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: #135–147, 150–152 (1965–67)
• Tales to Astonish (diverse stories): #1, 6, 12–13, 15–17, 24–33 (1956–62); Ant-Man/Giant Man: #35–69 (1962–65) (Incredible Hulk: #59–101 (1964–1968); Sub-Mariner: #70–101 (1965–68)
• Tales of Suspense (diverse stories): #7, 9, 16, 22, 27, 29–30 (1959–62); (Iron Man): plotter #39–46 (1963), writer #47–98 (1963–68) (Captain America): #58–99 (1964–86)
• Thor #126–192, 200 (1966–72), 385 (1987)
• What If (Fantastic Four) #200 (2011)
• The X-Men #1–19 (1963–66)

Other[link]

• Ultimo (Manga original concept)
• How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Comics portal
	Film portal
	Greater Los Angeles portal
	New York City portal
	Speculative fiction portal
	Superhero fiction portal
	United States portal

• Characters created by Stan Lee
• List of American comics creators
• List of American Jews
• List of Eisner Award winners
• List of Harvey Award winners
• List of Jewish American authors
• List of Marvel Comics people
• List of science fiction authors
• List of pseudonyms

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Lee, Stan, Origins of Marvel Comics (Simon and Schuster, 1974; Marvel Entertainment Group, 1997 reissue, ISBN 0-7851-0551-4)
• McLaughlin, Jeff, ed. Stan Lee: Conversations (University Press of Mississippi, 2007), ISBN 978-1-57806-985-9
• Ro, Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and the American Comic Book Revolution (Bloomsbury USA, 2005 reissue) ISBN 1-58234-566-X
• Raphael, Jordan, and Spurgeon, Tom. Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book (Chicago Review Press, 2003) ISBN 1-55652-506-0