Excelsior! The Marvelous Stan Lee.

Stanely Martin Lieber

AKA Stan Lee

"You know, my motto is 'Excelsior.' 

That's an old word that means 'upward and onward to greater glory.' 

It's on the seal of the state of New York. 

Keep moving forward, and if it's time to go, it's time. 

Nothing lasts forever."

He was born on December 28, 1922 in Manhattan, New York City to Ceila and Jack Lieber at heir apartment at the corner of West 98th Street and West End Avenue.

His parents were Romanian-born Jewish immigrants.

His father trained as a dress cutter.
Stan had a younger brother named Larry.

As a child Stan was influenced by books and movies particularly with Errol Flynn playing heroic roles.

By the time he was a teenager, Stan and his family moved to the Bronx at 1720 University Avenue.
Stan and his brother shared the bedroom while their parents slept on a fold out couch.

Stan attended DeWitt Clinton High School.
He enjoyed writing and dreamed of one day writing the great American novel.
He worked part-time writing obituaries and press releases.

Stan worked for the Jack May pharmacy delivering sandwiches to offices in the Rockefeller Center.

He also worked as an office boy for a trouser manufacturer, ushered at the Rivoli Theater on Broadway and sold subscriptions to the New York Herald Tribune.

He graduated from high school at age 16 in 1939.

Stan then joined the WPA Federal Theater Project and with the help of his uncle Robbie Solomon, became the assistant at the new Timely Comics division of Pulp Magazine and comic book publisher Martin Goodman's company.
Timely Comics later evolved into Marvel Comics.

Stan made his comic debut using his pseudonym Stan Lee, with the text filler "Captain America foils the Traitor's Revenge" in Captain America Comics #3, which was covered dated May 1941.
Two years later he adopted Stan Lee as his legal name.

His first superhero co-creation was the Destroyer, in Mystic Comics #6, in August 1941 issue.

In late 1941, Stan was 19 years old and made editor-in-chief as well as art director until 1972 when he succeeded Goodman as publisher.

Stan entered the United States Army in 1942 and served within the U.S. as a member if the Signal Corps.
He repaired telegraph poles and other communications equipment
Later he was transferred to the Training Film Division.
While there he wrote manuals, training films, slogans and the occasional cartoons.
Stan returned from his military service in 1945 and rented the top floor of a brownstone in the east 90's in Manhattan.

On December 5th, 1947 he married Joan Clayton Boocock.
In 1949, they bought a house in Woodmere, New York, on Long Island.

Their first child, Joan Celia Lee was born in 1950.
Also in the 1950's, Lee wrote stories for Atlas comics.

He also teamed up with Dan Decarlo to produce the syndicated newspaper strip, My Friend Irma.
By the end of the 1950's, Stan became dissatisfied and considered quitting comics all together.
Martin Goodman assigned Stan to come up with a new superhero team.
Stan's wife suggested that he experiment with stories he liked before changing careers.
Acting on his wife's advice, Stan gave his superheros flaws.
Before this, superheros were virtually perfect.

The first superhero group Stan and Jack Kirby created together were the Fantastic Four.
This was based on Kirby's superhero team called the Challengers of the Unknown, published by D.C. Comics.

They then created the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and the X-men. 
With the help of others they also created Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Spiderman and the Avengers.
They revived characters such as the Sub-Mariner and Captain America.
From 1952 to 1980, Stan and his family lived in the Long Island town of Hewlett Harbor, New York.
They also owned a condo on East 63rd Street in Manhattan from 1975 to 1980 and a vacation home in Remsenburg.
Stan's second child, Jan Lee, was born in 1953, she died three days after delivery.
Through out the 1960's, Stan scripted, art-directed and edited most of the Marvel series.

He also moderated the letters pages and wrote a monthly column called "Stan's Soapbox", often signing off with his moto "Excelsior!"
To meet his deadlines, Stan used a system that became known as the "Marvel Method".
Stan's goal was for fans to think of comic book creators as friends.

Stan made his first appearance as himself in the January, 1963, #10 issue of The Fantastic Four.

The Merry Marvel Marching Society fan club formed in 1965.
Stan would record messages for them.
In 1966, John Romita Sr. and collaborated with Stan on The Amazing Spiderman.
In the stories they addressed issues such as the Vietnam War.

In August 1967, in The Amazing Spiderman #51, Robbie Robertson was introduced. 
He was one of the first African-American characters in comics to play a serious supporting role.

In the Fantastic Four series, many acclaimed story lines and characters have become central to Marvel, such as the Inhumans and the Black Panther.

The Black Panther is an African king who is mainstream comic's first black superhero.

In August 1968, Stan and artist John Buscema launched The Silver Surfer series.

In 1974, Stan won the Inkpot Award.

Stan later made an appearance as a superhero Mister Fantastic in the October, 1978, #11 issue What If, What if the Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four.
Stan became a figurehead and public face for Marvel Comics.

In 1981, Stan moved to  West Hollywood, California to develop Marvel's Tv and movie properties.
He was an executive producer for and made cameos in Marvel film adaptations and other movies.
Occasionally he returned to comic book writing.
Stan was briefly the president of the entire company.
Soon he stepped down to be a publisher, because he loved the creative process.
Between 1981 and 2001, Stan also donated some of his personal items to the University of Wyoming.

In 1994 Stan was inducted into the Will Elsner Award Hall of Fame.

In 1995, he was inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame.
In the 1990's, he stepped away from his duties at Marvel.
In 1998, Stan and Peter Paul began a intern-based superhero creation, production, and marketing studio called Stan Lee Media.
Near the end of 2000, investigators discovered illegal stock manipulation by Paul and the corporate officer, Stan Lee Media had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2001.
Stan was never implicated in the scheme.

Stan is mentioned in Michael Chabon's 2000 novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
In 2001, Stan, Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman formed Purveyors of Wonder Entertainment to develop film, television and video game properties.

This is when Stan created Stripperella for Spike TV.
In 2002, Stan won the Saturn Award and was nominated for The Life Career Award.
Stan sued Marvel in 2002, claiming that the company was failing to pay his share of profits from movies featuring characters he had co-created.
After  decades of making little money licensing them for television and film, Marvel promised him 10% of any future profits.
In 2002, when Stan was asked if he believed in god, he answered,
"Well, let me put it this way... 
No, i'm not going to try and be clever. 
i really don't know. 
i just don't know."
In 2004, POW Entertainment went public and Stan announced a superhero program that would feature Ringo Starr as the lead character.
In 2005, Stan and Marvel settled for an undisclosed seven-figure amount.
In August of that year, Stan launched Stan Lee's Sunday Comics.
Honoring Stan's 65 years with Marvel, the company published a series of one-shot comics starring him in 2006.

He appears in Paul Malmont's 2006 novel The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril as Stanley Lieber.

From July 2006 until September 2007 Stan hosted, co-created, executive-produced and judged the Sci-Fi Channel's realitly television game show competition Who Wants to Be a Superhero?

In 2007, at the Comic-Con International, Marvel Legends introduced a Stan Lee action figure.
In 2007's  Stan Lee Meets Superheroes, written by Stan, he comes into contact with some of his favorite characters.
In 2008, Stan received the Nation Medal of Arts.
In 2009, he was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
He was also nominated for and won the Comic-Con Icon Award at the Scream Awards.
On October 2nd, 2009, the County of Los Angeles and the City of Long Beach declared it "Stan Lee Day."
Founded in 2010, the Stan Lee Foundation focuses on literacy, education and the arts.
It's goals include supporting programs and ideas that improve access to literacy resources, as well as promoting diversity, national literacy, culture and arts.

In 2011, Stan gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In October 2011, Stan announced he would partner with 1821 Comics on a multimedia imprint for children, Stan Lee's Kids Universe.
He also said that he was collaborating with the company on Romeo & Juliet: The Ear.
It is a futuristic graphic novel written by Max Work and illistrated by Skan Srisuwan.
In 2011, Stan started writing a live-action musical called The Yin and Yand Battle of Tao.
In 2012, he wins the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Visual Effects Society Awards and the Vanguard Award from the Producers Guild of America.
Stan announced his YouTube channel, Stan Lee's World of Heros, at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International.
In September 2012, Stan underwent an operation to insert a pacemaker.
He is Stanely Martin Lieber, a historian of superhumans, in Lavie Tidhar's 2013 The Violent Century.
In January 2015, Stan wrote the book Zodiac.
Stan's film, Annihilator, which had been in production since 2013, was released in 2015.
It is based on the Chinese prisoner-turned-superhero named Ming.
In the 2000's, Stan launched the Just Imagine series.
He re-imagined the DC superheros.
He also did Manga projects.
In 2016, at the Comic-Con International, Stan introduced Stan Lee's God Woke.
This was a digital graphic novel with text originally written as a poem he had presented to Carnegie Hall in 1972.
The printed version of the novel won the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Award's Outstanding Books of the Year Independent Voice Award.
He was inducted into the Signal Corps Regimental Association and was given honorary membership of the 2nd Battalion of 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord at the 2017 Emerald City Comic Con.
Stan and his wife had been married for 67 years, when, on July 6, 2017,  95 year old Joan, died of complications from a stroke.
On July 14th, 2017, Stan was named as a Disney Legend for his creation of numerous characters that later comprised Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe.
On July 18th, as a part of D23 Disney Legends event, a ceremony was held at the TCL Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard where Stan imprinted his hands, feet and signature in cement.
In February, 2018, Stan had been battling pneumonia and was rushed to the hospital for worsening conditions.
In April 2018, it was reported that Stan was a victim of elderly abuse and that his business manager, Keya Morgan and a memorabilia collector, had been isolating him from his trusted friends and associates after Joan's death, to gain access to Stan's estimated $50 million dollar wealth.
In August 2018, Keya Morgan was issued a restraining order to stay away from Stan, his family and associated for three years.
On November 12, 2018, Stan was rushed to Cedarso-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California for a medical emergency, where later in the day he passed away at the age of 95.
Roy Thomas was the man that succeeded Stan as editor-in-cheif at Marvel and he had visited Stan two days prior to his death to discuss the upcoming book The Stan Lee Story.
He said that he thinks Stan was ready to go, even though he talked about doing more cameos.
He said that Stan
 "Got a kick out of those more any anything else."
Stan was shown in numerous cameo appearances.
Stan had completed the filmed footage for his latest cameo in the fourth Avengers film before his death.
Did you know that in comics published by Dc Comics he was parodied as Funky Flashman?