Stan’s Soapbox: The Collection

Way back in 1967 Stan Lee, editor/writer for Marvel Comics and co-creator of several of its most popular super-heroes (Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, et al.) came up with the idea to include his own short column in the letters section. He called it “Stan’s Soapbox,” which became a regular feature of the books until late summer of 1980.

Now, Marvel has rounded up all 144 columns in STAN’S SOAPBOX: THE COLLECTION, a colorful publication reflecting a near-20-year period of immense growth and change in the comic book industry, and in the rest of the country as well.

Lee set the tone in his debut column of May 1967, where he joyfully declared that “The Marvel Philosophy” was, “plain and simple — to entertain you.” Ever the eternal pitchman, he used most of his columns to promote upcoming stories, new characters and special issues that, he always promised, were unlike anything the world had ever seen.

But Lee also took the opportunity to provide a behind-the-scenes look at how comic books were created — sometimes publishing photos of his follow writers, illustrators and editors in the Marvel Bullpen — and demonstrating how an idea would make its way from sample drawings to a scripted storyboard and finally to the fully illustrated final product. Over the years, Lee would justify the ever-increasing price per issue from 12 cents to 15 cents to the outrageous (gasp!) 35 cents per issue.
 
The columns were also the place where Lee formulated his public persona, now so well-known through countless TV and convention appearances, interviews, articles and movie cameos. He always kept his tone light and lively, slightly satiric, and often featured some positively mind-numbing phrases of alteration. His readers were not simply fans but “True Believers of the Marveldom Assembled.” And here is where he experimented with several sign-offs, such as “Onward!” and “Face forward!,” before settling on his trademark “Excelsior!”
 
But Lee could not completely escape the news headlines and cataclysmic events happening in the country outside the Bullpen at the times. So he acknowledged that readers would often demand to know his (and Marvel’s) stand on such issues as civil rights, the Vietnam War and other events and issues that defined the era. Knowing that his associates held a variety of personal opinions — much like the world itself, he insisted — he often avoided commenting on specific issues directly, but spoke out often against bigotry and closed-mindedness.

“We believe that Man has a divine destiny and an awesome responsibility,“ he wrote in September 1968, “the responsibility of treating all who share this wondrous world of ours with tolerance and respect — judging each fellow human on his own merit, regardless of race, creed or color.”

But the one issue he championed most frequently was that of the true value of comics. He often insisted in his columns that comic books be judged by the same criteria as theater and movies — that is, basically, by the content of the story and the creativity of the visuals. Not long after, he would take up the campaign of comics as a portal to literacy, and one of the most effective and successful means to encourage young people to fall in love with reading.
 
Reflecting on it all, what Lee accomplished most successfully in his columns was a sense of community among his far-flung readers. Long before Facebook, Twitter, blogs and the Internet itself, “Stan’s Soapbox” was where readers went not only for inside information, but to also feel that they were part of something much larger than themselves. As current Marvel editor Joe Quesada points out, in one of the several “True Believer” testimonial articles included in the collection, “Corporations today pay other corporations huge amounts of money in an attempt to achieve what Stan was able to do in a hundred words or less.”
 
In the book, each year’s worth of columns is set off by sidebar encapsulations of major events in the country, popular culture and at Marvel itself. The book is illustrated throughout with snippets of Marvel artwork, photos and several reproductions of the actual columns as they appeared on the page. The other “True Believer” articles feature the reminiscences of several now-prominent writers and editors.

But STAN’S SOAPBOX goes a bit overboard with the inclusion of “In Depth” articles detailing the more serious and divisive issues of the period. It’s not that they are incorrect nor badly written, but more that they seem out of place in this otherwise entertaining celebration. (And it’s where you’ll find Jack Kirby’s departure from Marvel carrying as much weight as the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, Richard Nixon and other topical issues.)

But if nostalgia or historical curiosity weren’t enough reason to get this book, there is also the fact that proceeds from its sale benefit The Hero Initiative, a nonprofit charity exclusively helping comic book creators in need (see www.HeroInitiative.org for more information). Nice one, Stan! —Alan Cranis

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