QUICK REACTION TO MORE LEE-KIRBY CONTROVERSY

Mark me down as another one who doesn’t get what the reporter involved here thought he was accomplishing by trying to get Stan to attack the AVENGERS movie.

I think it’s legitimate, if not particularly productive, to ask Stan questions about the credit Jack Kirby was given when they worked together at Marvel. But why would Stan even have an opinion as to the supposed injustice of Kirby not being credited in the AVENGERS movie?

Though Stan may not have argued his case very well, it’s abundantly clear that he believes that the person with authority over the way a given serial work develops is the “creator” of the work. No matter how many arguments are made as to the contributions of an artist like Kirby– and I’ve seen many good arguments– Stan’s not going to change his mind about this in terms of the work he and Kirby did together. To him it would be like (using a made-up example here) Frank Frazetta arguing that if he created Moonbeam McSwine under the aegis of Al Capp’s LIL ABNER, then Frazetta should own a piece of Moonbeam McSwine, even though Frazetta agreed to work under Capp’s aegis, knowing that Capp would own everything.


So, by all means, continue to ask Stan all the questions you want about why Kirby doesn’t own a piece of Marvel. You’ll get the same answer every time, but you’re within your rights to ask.

But asking him about the crediting in a movie that he doesn’t control is a fool's endeavor.