Every day brings a new story. And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books.
Today is the story of December 28th.
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It is the 362nd day of the year, leaving three days in 2021.
On this date in 1922, comic book maven, writer, artist, editor, and soon-to-be legend Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber in New York. From his days as a teen-ager, Lee wanted to work in the publishing industry, and his first job was as a go-fer, filling the artists's ink pots at his family's company, Timely Productions.
And while Lee didn't invent comics or superheroes, he did -- let's face it -- revolutionize the comic story telling industry by inventing flawed superheroes who lived in the real world with its real problems, as opposed to Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman's other-worldly near-perfect crime-fighters.
Into the 1950s, DC Comics and its superheroes dominated the comic books scene. But in 1961, while working at the then-lesser-known Marvel Comics, Lee was assigned -- along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko -- to create his own team of superheros. They started with the Fantastic Four, a group portrayed as a bickering family with petty grievences, which included a grumpy rock-man.
They continued with Spiderman, a young man who questioned whether he deserved his powers and fretted about his life; the Hulk, who often was unable to control the rage that turned him into the Hulk; Iron Man, the X-Men, and Thor. And while artist Kirby is often credited as the man whose artistic talents gave the comic book characters their life and image, Lee was often seen as the man behind the superheroes.
The new superheroes's popularity soon pushed Marvel Comics past DC Comics. Spiderman becane an iconic figure. Television shows and cartoons featured members of the Marvel world, to varying degrees of success.
Then in 2002, a Spiderman movie came out, setting off a comic book-movie industry that continues to this day. And while Lee was long-retired by then, he remained the face of Marvel and its characters, and often appeared in cameo roles in the movies.
Lee has been inducted into several comic book halls of fame. In 2008, he received the NEA's National Medal of Arts.
He died Nov. 12, 2018, in Los Angeles.
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