Stan, the Man

So, you ask the question "who created spiderman comics?" Well, unless you've been living under a rock for the past several years, it's pretty common knowledge, even well outside the comic community, that that would be Stan "The Man" Lee along with artist Steve Ditko. These two created the iconic webslinger way back in 1962.

Born in New York City on December 28, 1922, Celia Lieber, a Romanian-born Jewish immigrant as was her husband Jack, gave birth to Stanley Martin Lieber, the childthat would later become the man, Stan Lee. Growing up in The Bronx with his little brother Larry, Stan began writing at an early age, contributing press releases, obituaries and the like for local news services while in high school. Stan then graduated early at 16 and a half and joined the Federal Theatre Project, which was a project to fund theatre and other artistic projects of the sort in the US during the Great Depression. Their main goal was to locate employment for out-of-work artists, writers and directors, and to entertain poorer families through their efforts.

Soon, Stan would begin working for Timely Comics (which became the now famous Marvel Comics) as an assistant. At the age of 18, Stan had his first published work, which was a text filler in Captain America Comics #3, in which he used the pseudonym, Stan Lee, which he would later legally change his name to. It was in this issue that Captain America's signature shield toss was introduced. As for the pseudonym, Lee had planned on using his real name for more literary work down the line, but we all know the history.

Lee would join the military, gaining a military classification of "playwright", which was only granted to nine other men apparently. Then he would return to work at what was now Atlas Comics and continue to write comics. Over the years, along with his famous artistic collaborators like Ditko and Jack "King" Kirby, Lee would create a number of staple characters in the Marvel Universe and go on to fulfill a lengthy and rewarding career for Marvel Comics until his departure in the late 90s. A few failed ventures later and Lee became popular for the hit Sci-Fi channel series "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?". He is also in all but one of the Marvel films featuring characters he had a hand in creating.

While Stan Lee is known for many things relating to comics, and is loved throughout the industry for his vision and creativity, he will probably always be best known for the guy who created spiderman comics.

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