November
30
Marvel's Days of Future Past
Marvel Comics’ past and present will come together this Saturday, as Stan Lee and Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada appear at UCLA with Kevin Smith in a benefit event for The Hero Initiative called Marvel Then & Now.
“With a guy like Kevin Smith acting as the interlocutor, I don’t think there will be any problem having a real fun evening,” says Lee, who as most people know co-created most of Marvel’s classic superhero characters. “I’ve done things with him before. Of course, he’s a lot smarter and cleverer, more articulate and more innovative than I am, but at some point he always has to stop for breath.”
The Hero Initiative is an org that provides financial assistance to comicbook creators, many of whom created or worked on classic characters at a time when there were no royalties or retirement benefits. Lee says that there was little time to think about such things in those days.
“Years ago, nobody was making enough money that they could say, ‘Gee, maybe we ought to help out the other guy.’ Everybody was just hoping they could pay his own rent,” he says. “But now comics are paying better, there are royalty arrangements and a lot of really top writers and artists in the business – and even those who aren’t quite at the top but are working steady – they’re making fairly good money. And when we think about the people who were in it years ago, who were really the ones who helped start the business, and who for some reason or other aren’t finding employment and are down on their luck, it seems that it’s kind of a nice thing to do to get a fund and help them out when we can.”
The death earlier this week of Dave Cockrum, who co-created such seminal characters as Storm, Nightcrawler and Colossus during his stint as X-Men artist in the 1970s, is one such example. Cockrum benefited from a pension arranged by Marvel a few years ago, when his health was in decline and medical bills were piling up. But that arrangement is not the norm for artists in his situation.
Lee says he hopes the efforts of The Hero Initiative will encourage comics publishers to make such arrangements common. “I would think they’re all decent human beings and I would think that there’s a good chance that this will make them all feel we should set something up. It’s just a case of we should take care of our own.”
The Hero Initiative, while modeled on a similar program for retired baseball stars, also has analogs in Hollywood, such as the Motion Picture & Television Fund.
“Most of the people in the entertainment business have things like this
where they help their own. And I think it’s just a sign that the comic
business is growing up,” he says.
Of the event itself, Lee says he will go in and see what the crowd is interested in hearing him talk about.
When it comes to Quesada and today’s Marvel Comics, Lee says he’s impressed with them, especially the current Civil War storyline in which Spider-Man revealed his secret identity to the world.
“If I had thought of it, I would have tried to have done it. I think it’s that great an idea. I would have fought for it,” Lee says. “In those days, just having Spider-Man get married or having an issue were he decides to give up to stop being Spider-Man for a months or two, those things were considered revolutionary. But we’ve gone beyond that now.”
The event is set for 7 p.m. at UCLA’s Ackerman Grand Ballroom, and will be preceded by a VIP reception at 5:30. Tickets to the event cost $20; admission to the VIP reception is $100 and tickets are available by calling (310) 825-2101.
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AAAAHHHHHH!!!!
I want, no need to be there. but alas i live in tx and cant afford to go. Even at 50 years old I cant go where I want to. Thanks to MONEY!!! Oh well all you enjoy, i will wait for the DVD.
Peace to all.
Posted by: daniel cennamo | December 02, 2006 at 05:21 AM