Stan Lee and Jack Kirby WBAI radio, New York
March 3, 1967
Interviewed by Mike O'Dell Transcribed by Steven Tice
UNEDITED
MIKE O'DELL Who goes around saving maidens, preventing banks from being robbed,
and committing deeds of that type, under an alter ego for the name, 'Peter
Parker?" How about "Tony Stark?" Would you believe "Reed Richards?" "Stan Lee?"
'Jack Kirby?' Well, except for the last two, they're all superheroes and they
belong in Marvel comics, and they are written and drawn by Stan Lee and Jack
Kirby. And Mr. Lee and Mr. Kirby are going to be answering questions about their
superheroes. And I guess the first one would be addressed to Stan Lee, and it's
the title of this program. Stan, will success spoil Spider-Man.
STAN LEE: [chuckles] Well, I don't think anything could spoil old Spidey, as we
lovingly call him. Just have to correct one thing you said, though. You said
that, except for Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the others are superheroes. We like to
think of ourselves as superheroes, too. Might add also that there are other
artists and other writers who do some of the other books, too. Jack and I don't
do them all, although we do the Fantastic Four and Thor. Spider-Man has been a
success since he started, and, luckily, I don't think he's been spoiled yet, so
we just have our fingers crossed.
MIKE O'DELL I ran across Marvel comic books about six or eight months ago, and
one oof the things that drew me to Marvel comic books, and Spider-Man in
particular, is a panel that showed Spider-Man swooping down on some bank
robbers, and they said , "Whoops, here comes Spider-Man!" And he replies, "Who
were you expecting? Vice president Humphrey?" Now, this is not a line you expect
to find in a comic book, and it sort of symbolizes your whole approach to the
field, which is offbeat and interesting. Was it your idea, Stan? Where did it
come from?
STAN LEE: Well, I guess, in that sense, in was my idea, since I write the
dialogue. In a nutshell, our theory is—Although maybe I shouldn't give the
theory in a nutshell, because then I don't know what we'll talk about for the
rest of the half hour. But, at any rate, in a nutshell, our theory is that
there's no reason why a comic magazine couldn't be as realistic and as
well-written and drawn as any other type of literature. We try to write these
thing so that the characters speak the way a character would speak in a
well-written movie, well-produced television show, and I think that's what makes
our book seem unique to a person who first picks them up. Nobody expects, as you
say, that sort of thing in a comic book. But that's a shame, because why
shouldn't someone expect reasonable and realistic dialogue in a comic book? Why
do people feel that comic books have to be badly written? And we're trying to
engage in a one-company crusade to see to it that they're not badly written.
MIKE O'DELL: Jack, you drew and invented, if I'm not mistaken, Captain America,
one of the earliest superheroes, who's now plying his trade in Marvel comics.
How did Captain America come to be, and does he have any particular relationship
to your other superheroes?
JACK KIRBY: I guess Captain America, like all of the characters come to be,
because of the fact that there is a need for them, Somebody needed Captain
America, just as the public needed Superman. When Superman came on the scene,
the public was ready for him, and they took him. And so, from Superman, who
didn't exactly satiate the public's need for the superhero, so spawned the rest
of them. The rest of them all came from Superman, and they all had various
names, and various backgrounds, and they embraced various creeds. And Captain
America came from the need for a patriotic character because the times at that
time were in a patriotic stir. The war was coming on, and the corny cliche, the
war humor, quite a bit of humor, to them, there is an underlying sincerity. We
take them seriously, and I think the readers are aware of this.
MIKE O'DELL Did you also innovate the letters page? It adds to your stories, and
frequently I sometimes find in the blurbs you run that you advance the stories
by means of these letter pages.
STAN LEE: The letters pages are one of our most successful devices. It also
established a rapport between ourselves and the readers, and I'm happy to say
most of our readers feel that were all friends. When they write a letter, they
don't say, "Dear Editor." They say, "Dear Stan and Jack," "Dear So-and-so." They
call us by name. And we give ourselves nicknames. We started this as a gag, and
they've caught on. The fellow here on my right isn't just Jack Kirby. He's Jolly
Jack,
MIKE O'DELL I'll get you for it. [laughs]
STAN LEE: Or Jack "King" Kirby. And I'm "Smilin' Stan." This is kind of cute,
too, because, as I mentioned to you earlier, I think before we were on the air,
we sort of think of the whole thing as one big advertising campaign, with
slogans, and mottos, and catch phrases, and things that the reader can identify
with. And besides just presenting stories, we try to make the reader think he's
part of an "in" group. In fact, we've discussed before, we're always a little
worried about being too successful, where the readers will feel, "Oh, gosh, now
everybody's caught on to it. We have to find something new."
MIKE O'DELL Is there a real Irving Forbush?
STAN LEE: Oh, I don't think that it would be right for me to answer that. [Jack
laughs] When we're off the air, I might hint at it. He's real in our
imagination, I'll put it that may.
MIKE O'DELL I think you also pioneered the use of mythological superheroes. I'm
talking about Thor, which you two come up with every month.
STAN LEE: Well, you've got the right guy here, because I always say that Jack is
the greatest mythological creator in the world. When we kicked Thor around, and
we came out with him, and I thought he would just be another book. And I think
that Jack has turned him into one of the greatest fictional characters there
are. In fact, I should let Jack say this, but just on the chance that he won't,
somebody was asking him how he gets his authenticity in the costumes and
everything, and I think a priceless answer, Jack said that they're not
authentic. If they were authentic, they wouldn't be authentic enough. But he
draws them the way they should be, not the way they were.
MIKE O'DELL Did you do a lot of homework on that, a lot of Norse myths, and so
forth?
JACK KIRBY: Weil, not homework in the sense that I went home one night and I
really concentrated on it. All through the years, certainly, I've had a kind of
affection for any mythological type of character, and my conception of what they
should look like. And here Stan gave me the opportunity to draw one, and wasn't
going to draw back from really letting myself go, So I did, and, like, the world
became a stage for me there, and I had a costume department that really went to
work. I gave the Norse characters twists that they never had in anybody's
imagination. And somehow it turned out to be a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed
doing it.
MIKE O'DELL Isn't it rather tough to come up with villains that are a suitable
match for a Norse god? JACK KIRBY: Well, not if they're Norse villains.
MIKE O'DELL Well, you've also dragged in some Greeks. I remember one epic battle
with Hercules.
JACK KIRBY: Well. Hercules had Olympian powers, which certainly are considered
on an equal basis with the old powers of the Norse gods, and therefore we felt
that they were an equal match for each other. and by rights they should contend
with each other.
