Stan Lee, Bob Batchelor
Stan Lee, Bob Batchelor
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Stan Lee
The Man behind Marvel

Author: Bob Batchelor

Narrator: Kevin T. Collins

Unabridged: 11 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/06/2018


Synopsis

From the mean streets of Depression-era New York City to recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Lee's life has been almost as remarkable as the thrilling adventures he spun for decades. From millions of comic books fans of the 1960s through billions of moviegoers around the globe, Stan Lee has touched more people than almost any person in the history of popular culture.

In Stan Lee: The Man behind Marvel, Bob Batchelor offers an eye-opening look at this iconic visionary, a man who created (with talented artists) many of history's most legendary characters. In this energetic and entertaining biography, Batchelor explores how Lee capitalized on natural talent and hard work to become the editor of Marvel Comics as a teenager. After toiling in the industry for decades, Lee threw caution to the wind and went for broke, co-creating the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, and others in a creative flurry that revolutionized comic books for generations of readers. Marvel superheroes became a central part of pop culture, from collecting comics to innovative merchandising, from superhero action figures to the ever-present Spider-Man lunchbox.

Batchelor examines many of Lee's most beloved works, including the 1960s comics that transformed Marvel from a second-rate company to a legendary publisher. This book reveals the risks Lee took to bring the characters to life and Lee's tireless efforts to make comic books and superheroes part of mainstream culture for more than fifty years.

Stan Lee: The Man behind Marvel not only reveals why Lee developed into such a central figure in American entertainment history, but brings to life the cultural significance of comic books and how the superhero genre reflects ideas central to the American experience. Candid, authoritative, and utterly absorbing, this is a biography of a man who dreamed of one day writing the Great American Novel, but ended up doing so much more—changing American culture by creating new worlds and heroes that have entertained generations of readers.

About Bob Batchelor

Bob Batchelor is a cultural historian who has written or edited more than two dozen books on popular culture and American literature, including books about John Updike, The Great Gatsby, and Mad Men. Batchelor lives in Oxford, Ohio, and teaches at Miami University.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nathaniel on July 08, 2017

Though full of interesting information about Lee's life and role in Marvel, the writing style of this biography fell very flat for me. I felt like I was slogging through the timeline of Lee's life, with occasional anecdotes being reduced to a couple relatively uninteresting lines. With a person as v......more

Goodreads review by Quintin on September 07, 2017

Who doesn't love a story about a person coming from humble beginnings, persevering and making an indelible mark in contemporary history. Stan Lee, born Stanley Lieber, the manic mouthpiece, the mad maestro of Marvel (some good old alliteration) has lived an interesting life from when comicbooks were......more

Goodreads review by John Plowright on June 18, 2017

It used to be said that behind every great man there’s a great woman. Stan Lee’s wife, Joanie, certainly played a decisive role in making him, if not a household name, certainly one of the most important purveyors of modern popular culture, not only revolutionizing the comic book industry but ultima......more

Goodreads review by Wesley on July 02, 2017

Few figures in popular culture have been under more critical and biographical microscopes than revolutionary comics writer, editor, and publisher Stan Lee. Of course, since the ‘60s, Lee has been a constant self-promoter providing countless interviews, appearing at numerous conventions, and, along w......more

Goodreads review by Kuba on June 03, 2023

Ciekawa historia o ciekawym człowieku. Sporo anegdot, faktów, zakulisowych opowieści. Warte przeczytania nie tylko przez fanów Marvela......more