SATURDAY COMICS (A HAT SQUAD O'BSERVATION)

It feels like a while since I looked at TV shows turned into comic books. But it’s a shame that I had to bring it back this time….

From the Los Angeles Times:
When he got his start in the 1940s, Stan Lee was embarrassed by his profession.

“I would meet someone at a party, and they would ask what I did and I would say, ‘I’m a writer,’ then start to walk away,” the man who helped create Spider-Man and other famed superheroes recalled years later.

Pressed for more details, he would say he wrote for magazines. And if the questions kept coming?

“Finally I would say, ‘comic books,’” Lee said. “And they would walk away from me.”

A half-century later, the writer who in the 1960s spearheaded Marvel Comics’ transformation into a powerhouse brand was considered a superhero in his own right. He was mobbed by fans at conventions and became the toast of Hollywood, with blockbuster films based on his characters racking up billions at the box office.

Lee died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to an attorney for Lee’s daughter, J.C. Lee. He was 95. His cause of death was not immediately known.

Marvel Comics and the Walt Disney Company honored Lee in a statement posted online Monday.

“Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created,” said Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company. “A super hero in his own right to Marvel fans around the world, Stan had the power to inspire, to entertain, and to connect. The scale of his imagination was only exceeded by the size of his heart.”

- By DENNIS MCLELLAN AND DAVID COLKER

Nobody has control over how History remembers them.  And that holds true for Stan Lee.  The characters he came up with for Marvel Comics, who now live on in the Cineverse and the many dimensions of the Toobworld Dynamic, are often pictured standing by his side – either embodied by actors or in illustrations.  Thor, Hulk, Spiderman, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four – they may have been drawn from other sources or at least inspired by the imaginations of others, but it was the mind of Stan Lee (with help from the artistry of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko among others) who made them immortal.

But it wasn’t just superheroes who were provided their dialogue by Stan the Man….

From Wikipedia:
The "My Friend Irma" comic strip, illustrated by Jack Seidel, began September 11, 1950, receiving a promotional boost in the November 7, 1950 issue of Look. In 1951, Dan DeCarlo took over the strip with Stan Lee scripting.

Atlas Comics (Marvel) published the "My Friend Irma" comic book which ran from #3 to #48 (1950 to 1955), and was most often written by Stan Lee with art by Dan DeCarlo. After Atlas stopped publishing "My Friend Irma", DeCarlo and Lee created a similar feature for Atlas titled "My Girl Pearl".

The comic book overlapped the radio series and the TV series which ran on CBS.  ‘My Friend Irma’ branched off into other fictional universes like the Cineverse with two movies as well as in comic strips.  (Unfortunately, I still don’t have good names for the comic strip and comic book universes; not even sure if I should be combining them or not.)

So as a salute to the Mighty Marvel Master Maven, here are a selection of covers for “My Friend Irma” with an example of the interior art.

Thanks go out to one of my FB friends, the muppetational Andrew Leal for bringing this comic book to my attention…..

So long, True Believer... and Excelsior!