The Lives of Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko

On November 12 2018 Stan Lee tragically passed away at the age of 95. Earlier this year fellow Marvel artist Steve Ditko tragically passed and last year would have been Jack Kirby's one-hundredth birthday if he had not passed in 1994. Lee, Kirby, and Ditko were some of the biggest driving forces in the comic book industry and Marvel as a whole - you could describe them as possibly being 'Marvel's Trifecta'. This is not to diminish the others who made Marvel what it is today - John Romita Sr. and Larry Lieber are just two of the many artists and writers who contributed to Marvel's rise. Today we'll honour the three and look at how they got into writing comics, and how they greatly shaped popular culture, not just comics.

Origins

Marvel existed before Lee, Kirby, and Ditko came along - in fact it existed before it was even called Marvel. A while ago we discussed Marvel's origins which you can read about here. Jack Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg, had been in the comic book industry since 1936 before he joined Marvel's predecessor Timely with artist Joe Simon. Kirby, as a side note, also worked as an assistant animator for Popeye cartoons. The duo immediately jumped into Timely writing several comics which would set up the later comics in the 1960s; Marvel Mystery Comics #13 written by the duo introduced the first character named Vision, however, this character later inspired Roy Thomas and John Buscema who made the Vision we all now. Most importantly, in March 1941 the two created the most important character in Marvel's history - Captain America. Captain America Comics #1 proudly displays Captain America suckerpunching Hitler in one of the most iconic comic book covers of all time. This was even before the US entered the war; both Simon and Kirby was Jewish (due to antisemitism Jack had to write under the name Kirby instead of Kurtzberg) so were naturally very scared of the Nazis. Simon and Kirby would leave Timely after ten issues of Captain America Comics as the publisher of Timely, Martin Goodman, would only pay them $75 a week instead of a combined $500 which they wanted. Before they left they did get a sidekick. An aspiring young writer born in 1922 who wanted to write the 'Great American Novel' happened to be the cousin of Goodman's wife Jean. In 1940 the eighteen year old Stanley Lieber was hired as an assistant. His roles were fairly basic saying in 2009 'In those days [the artists] dipped the pen in ink, [so] I had to make sure the inkwells were filled. I went down and got them their lunch, I did proofreading, I erased the pencils from the finished pages for them'. Lieber even managed to write his first comic under Simon's and Kirby's tutelage, Captain America Comics #3. As he wanted to become a novelist he feared that writing comics would damage his image with publishers, so he invented a pseudonym: Stan Lee.

Lee and Kirby in 1966

Simon and Kirby went to work for National Comics, the company which would soon become DC, and their work soon became well renowned. In 2010 a DC executive said 'Like Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster [the creators of Superman], the creative team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby was a mark of quality and a proven track record'. Back with Timely now that Goodman lost two of the greatest comic writers he was left without an editor so made the young Stanley a temporary editor. This turned out to be short lived. The bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the Second World War and in 1942 Stan Lee enlisted so Vince Fago became Timely's editor-in-chief. Kirby was also drafted in 1943 where the lieutenant placed him charge of reconnaissance and mapping enemy lines due to his career as an artist. As Kirby fought at Omaha Lee was drafted into the Signal Corps repairing communications equipment and telegraph poles. After the war Lee returned to Timely and before Kirby rejoined he would hire several key individuals who would later shape Marvel - such as Gene Colan and later Steve Ditko. Kirby, with Simon until the late-1950s, flit around working for different companies, even launching their own (Mainline Publications) in 1956. Kirby would continue to resent Timely (now called Atlas) as Goodman was still in charge. When Atlas created a new Captain America in 1954 to battle communism, bearing in mind this was during the height of the Red Scare and McCarthyism, the duo decided to get their own back. Simon said that 'We thought we'd show them how to do Captain America' in their new comic Fighting America. Only the first issue really took part in the Red-baiting of the 1950s - the duo soon felt uncomfortable so turned it into a comedy as well as a satire of Atlas' Captain America and McCarthyism. Kirby would even write for Archie Comics occasionally. 

Over at DC Julius Schwartz had revived the superhero genre. Throughout the post-war period comic companies focused primarily on Westerns and romances; briefly horror comics dominated the scene but were soon destroyed by the Comics Code of Authority which you can read about here. The only superhero comics to really survive this period were some of the massive DC ones including Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. As the Space Race began Schwartz revived superhero comics by bringing back old characters and giving them science-fiction origins; among those to be brought back included the Flash and Green Lantern. Soon enough, Marvel would come onto the scene.

Steve Ditko

So far we've only discussed two of the Trifecta - where was Steve Ditko during this time? It's surprising how Ditko often gets forgotten. He didn't have the large personalities of Lee and Kirby, had radically different politics to them (he was an ardent supporter of Objectivism), and he shied away from interviews saying that his writing was all that was needed. In 2007 the BBC produced a documentary hosted by Jonathan Ross called In Search of Steve Ditko where he refused to directly appear on it. As a result Ditko has unfortunately been swept under the rug. Ditko came from New York, like most of Marvel's staff, and became interested in comics by reading Batman and The Spirit in 1939. Enlisting in the army in 1945 he spent most of his career drawing comics for the army as he was stationed in Germany before being discharged. He soon fell on his feet - his idol and Batman artist Jerry Robinson was teaching at an Illustration school in New York so Ditko enlisted. As he wanted to impress his idol he worked hard and Robinson would later say that 'It was very intense.' Lee even visited the school and became impressed by Ditko's work. After graduating he managed to work under Simon and Kirby as well as several other companies, including Charlton Comics whom he would work for until the company collapsed in 1986. In 1954, during the horror craze, for Charlton he would draw his first comic cover with The Thing #12 depicting vampires attacking in a Gothic building. 

The Thing #12

In 1954 Ditko had to take a break from comics as he contracted tuberculosis but when he recovered he went to work for Atlas first creating Journey into Mystery #33 in 1956. Unlike the early 1960s he was a regular writer for Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense. These comics were well-renowned for featuring out of the ordinary stories and visuals which Ditko would later continue when he created Doctor Strange. He also first started working with Kirby and Lee regularly; Kirby would draw a monster, and he would write a story with Lee. 

The Marvel Revolution

By 1960 DC's revival of superheroes had caused a pop culture craze so Atlas, now called Marvel, with Lee as editor-in-chief decided to bring their own spin on the genre. Traditionally, superheroes were flawless, gallant, and ideal characters; this has actually become a joke in the DC Universe where characters refer to Superman as 'the big, blue boy scout'. Lee's wife, Joan Boocock, played an influential role in creating the character traits of Marvel's heroes. Unlike their DC counterparts the Marvel heroes would be flawed: they could be bad-tempered, argue with their friends and family, have self-doubt, get ill, and had to deal with everyday problems. Marvel was also willing to engage in politics a lot more readily. X-Men is famous for being an allegory for the African-American civil rights, and with the global Cold War Marvel characters would often become involved in global events. It has been suggested that the Lee-Kirby run was the comics equivalent of the British Beatlemania. Comic historian Peter Sanderson wrote:

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.

Marvel introduced a new way of creating characters. Normally, Lee would throw an idea at a writer, normally Kirby, who would then turn that character into a comic. As a result some writers, like Ditko with Spider-Man, actually contributed more to a comic at times than Lee did. Below is a quite funny example of how this worked. During the 1990s comic writers had a habit of creating violent and dark comics but still aiming them at a young audience. As a result, quite a lot of unrelateable and over-the-top characters came into being. A few were made by Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld, although both made even more good characters, whom Stan Lee decided to mess around with in this video:

Marvel also created a very personal community. Many comics featured letters to Lee and Kirby, and 'Stan's Soapbox' became famous for Stan Lee commenting on and answering questions. These could be about a variety of topics ranging from the price of comics to discussions on people's favourite characters. In 1968 one featured a condemnation of bigotry in society:

Lee and Kirby in particular attracted a lot of attention. Calling fans 'True Believers' and signing off comments with the phrase 'Excelsior!' soon become synonymous with Lee, and Kirby earned the affectionate nickname of 'The King'. Lee and Kirby even appeared in the comics themselves, including the duo being turned away at the wedding of the Fantastic Four. Thanks to Ditko's quieter personality he featured less in the letters compared to other writers but Spider-Man fans did write to him. Through interesting comics and a connection to the creators Marvel soon dominated.

Creations

It is an understatement to say that the trio contributed a lot to popular culture. If you name a Marvel character there is quite a high chance that they were created, or co-created, by Lee, Kirby or Ditko. We'll look at a few of these characters now.

Fantastic Four

We cannot speak about Marvel without mentioning the Fantastic Four. The Fantastic Four placed Marvel on the map and set the stage for the rest of the Marvel Universe. Seeing the popularity of DC's Justice League Martin Goodman wanted Marvel to have its own superhero team. Inspired by Joan Lee and Kirby created the Fantastic Four. These new heroes didn't talk like normal superheroes and bickered like a real family, the Human Torch was even a hotheaded teenager (literally!). The Thing was far from the typical hero - he looked like a villain and spoke in a broad New York accent. You can tell there is a lot of Kirby in the Thing; they came from a similar background and the Thing's old street gang is clearly based off of Kirby's old gang. Unlike other heroes the Fantastic Four wouldn't even have a secret identity! Together they produced Fantastic Four #1 in November 1961. It was soon a hit. Fantastic Four would be Marvel's biggest comic in the 1960s and when Marvel wanted to introduce or promote a character they would appear in Fantastic Four. The 'Galactus Trilogy' spanning Fantastic Four #48-50 introducing the Silver Surfer and Galactus has been seen as one of the greatest stories in comic book history.

The Hulk

The Incredible Hulk #1 would have been unthinkable ten years earlier. How could a hulking monster fuelled by rage be a hero? The duo wanted to combine Cold War paranoia with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where a mild-mannered scientist unleashes his dark side thanks to experimental bombs instead of a potion. Lee and Kirby actually clashed during the making of the first comic. Kirby wanted the Hulk to be green while Lee wanted him to be grey - Kirby argued it was easier to keep the same shade of green across panels which they couldn't do at the time with grey. As Lee was editor-in-chief he won out and in the first issue the Hulk was grey; except, Kirby was proven right and he kept changing colour throughout the comic even turning green at one point. From the second issue the Hulk went through a second mutation turning him green.

Spider-Man

When he was younger Lee had enjoyed a pulp magazine called The Spider, Master of Men and that influenced him to want a character with spider powers. Breaking the mould again this character wasn't meant to be a strong, muscular figure like Superman or Batman, instead he was supposed to be small and meek. Kirby originally designed Spider-Man to be a strong character, so Lee instead went with Ditko. Ditko made Peter Parker to be a typical teenager - not very athletic, trying to find his way in the world, and fairly nervous. It hit gold and from his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 Spider-Man soon became one of the world's most influential comic character and the closing lines of the comic is a valuable life lesson. With great power there must also come - great responsibility! Soon, Spider-Man replaced the Hulk as Marvel's new big hero getting his own comic within a year. As the years have gone on we have found out that Ditko did most of the work with Spider-Man, and even decided to insert a joke about Stan Lee in the comics. Lee could be quite demanding so Ditko modelled the infamous J.Jonah Jameson after Lee! Eventually, Ditko got recognition for writing Spider-Man by #25. Thanks to Ditko we have most of the major Spider-Man villains including Dr Octopus, Vulture, Scorpion, and Green Goblin. Spider-Man is easily Marvel's most popular character and we can attribute this to Ditko.

Thor

Kirby wasn't good for Spider-Man but he was good for a different character. Lee had always loved Norse mythology and threw an idea at Kirby so he could focus on other comics. Kirby was joined by Larry Lieber, Stan Lee's younger brother, who had already contributed greatly in creating Marvel characters. Kirby and Lieber had already worked together creating Iron Man, Ant Man, and the Wasp, so they could create fantastic stories together already. Lieber took a more hands-on approach compared to his brother writing full scripts for a comic which Kirby would draw around. They wanted a character stronger than Hulk and took notice of Lee's love for mythology: who was stronger than a mortal but a god? Thanks to Kirby's expert drawing and Lieber's writing we saw Thor appear in Tales Into Mystery #83. They changed the script again by making Thor a god banished to Earth who cannot remember his Norse origins until he lifted his hammer, Mjolnir.

X-Men

Within a couple years Marvel was selling so many comics that they could actually print more titles but Lee and Kirby hit an issue. It was difficult creating new origins: Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider, the Hulk was hit by a bomb, Iron Man had been injured and had to fix himself, and the Fantastic Four were hit with cosmic rays. Then they thought: what if people were born with powers? They knew that one day humanity would evolve so they thought that maybe humanity could evolve to have superpowers. The duo also knew it was difficult for teenagers as they were finding their place in the world and going through puberty many felt like freaks and outcasts. This was also the same time as the Civil Rights movement. It all came together: humanity would evolve into a new species who get superpowers at puberty and face discrimination in society. This teenage super-team was originally going to feature in a comic called The Mutants but Goodman vetoed this idea believing kids wouldn't know what a mutant was. Instead they opted to name the comic The X-Men. Issue one combined fears over the recent Cuba Missile Crisis, teenage issues, and racial discrimination. Professor X even states in the comic 'When I was young, normal people feared me, distrusted me, I realized the human race is not yet ready to accept those with extra powers! So I decided to build a haven...A school for the X-Men.' 

Dr Strange

Strange was, strangely, always acknowledged as Ditko's creation. Ditko in 2008 said 'On my own, I brought in to Lee a five-page, penciled story with a page/panel script of my idea of a new, different kind of character for variety in Marvel Comics. My character wound up being named Dr. Strange because he would appear in Strange Tales.' Reflecting the psychedelic imagery of the 1960s Dr Strange would embrace the absurd and surreal featuring mind-blowing images straight from the far-reaches of Ditko's imagination. Some of Marvel's strangest and greatest images comes from Ditko's run writing Doctor Strange stories. Strange was a magician, and former surgeon, so Ditko used this to create the surreal imagery that we saw in the Marvel adaptation.

She-Hulk

So far we have only scratched the surface of the characters created by the trio - we haven't mentioned yet the Avengers, Black Panther (the first black hero), Dr Doom, and the return of the original Captain America. Instead we'll just look at Stan Lee's last big character that he created: She-Hulk. With the success of a Hulk TV series and The Bionic Woman Marvel executives feared that the TV series would introduce a female Hulk, and they wanted to make sure that they could keep the rights to a female Hulk. By this time Lee had stepped back from writing, and Kirby and Ditko had moved from Marvel, but he decided to help Marvel create a new character. Teaming up with John Buscema Lee wrote the first issue of Savage She-Hulk and because of that She-Hulk went on to be a major Marvel character. People were disappointed that Spider-Woman had nothing to do with Spider-Man so Lee made Jennifer Walters the cousin of the Hulk. A blood transfusion between cousins grants her the powers of the Hulk, but she could keep her mental state combining the strength of the Hulk with her own intelligence.

After the Revolution

By 1971 both Ditko and Kirby had left Marvel. There is controversy behind this. Due to Stan Lee's self-promotion he got virtually all the credit for creating the comics and other contributors were often cast to the sides. Also, it was Marvel, not the creators, who owned the characters - this creator/publisher clash continues to this day in the comic book industry. As a result, Lee got most of the credit, and money, for the comics, and not other creators. This especially angered Kirby who did a lot of the creative process. Ditko quietly left Marvel in 1966 due to creative clashes with Lee. Also, Ditko wanted to push objectivism more in comics which Lee was against. John Romita, who replaced Ditko as Spider-Man's artist, later said 'they disagreed on almost everything, cultural, social, historically, everything, they disagreed on characters'. Ditko would write all the way up to his retirement in 1998 for various companies ranging from DC - where he created Shade, the Changing Man and the Creeper - to Charlton - where he made his objectivist hero Mr A. My personal favourite comic writer, Alan Moore, would parody Mr A in Watchmen with Rorschach - Ditko later joked that Rorschach was 'Mr A but insane'. Kirby left in 1971 over clashes with Goodman, not being credited, and not controlling the rights to the characters. He went over to DC where he would create the New Gods, including Darkseid who soon became a major Superman and Justice League villain. He would return to Marvel in 1975 but would leave again a few years later over the same clashes. After, although he would always write comics he would return to his roots by doing animation - he even teamed up with Stan Lee to create The New Fantastic Four cartoon. Finally, Lee in 1972 would write his last full-time comics for Marvel and take a step back from the creative process with a few exceptions - such as creating She-Hulk and writing a Silver Surfer comic series in 1978 with Kirby. Lee would remain a figurehead and adviser for Marvel throughout the 1970s and 1980s, even briefly acting as president. In the 2000s Lee would help make a manga and even worked for DC writing a series called Just Imagine... where he wrote stories featuring his takes on DC characters - one example is Wonder Woman being an activist called Maria Mendoza granted powers by an Incan God. Of course, we also have his famous cameos across the Marvel movies leading to the theory that he is Uatu the Watcher.

In 1994 Kirby tragically passed away at his home in California thanks to heart failure. Steve Ditko passed away passed away in June 2018. Tragically, he lived alone and was only close to his nephew, and Marvel fans everywhere mourned for the man who brought the world Spider-Man. Stan Lee's mental and physical health had declined rapidly since the passing of Joan the year prior, and making matters worse there were allegations of elder abuse and Lee exposing himself. Suffering from pneumonia for several months Lee unfortunately passed on November 12 2018.

Legacies

Marvel's trio helped shape modern popular culture. The stories created by Lee, Kirby, and Ditko touched the hearts of people across the world and influenced more stories. Alan Moore, John Romita Jr, and Alex Ross are just some in the comic book industry inspired by parts of the trio not even to mention those inspired outside of the industry. In 2010 I was diagnosed with depression and what got me through the self-harm and suicide attempts were comics, in particular Marvel comics. The comics created by Lee, Kirby, and Ditko offered the a way to escape and get me through it all; I may not be here without their stories. Marvel has touched the lives of so many people, and now three of the key figures involved in making those stories are gone. For Stan Lee and Jack Kirby may their memory be a blessing, and for Steve Ditko may he rest in peace.

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