from the behind-every-great-man-is-a-great-woman dept.
The Hollywood Reporter has the sad news that Joan Lee, the wife of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, died Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 95.
In an earlier story (), Stan described meeting Joan: "When I was young, there was one girl I drew; one body and face and hair. It was my idea of what a girl should be. The perfect woman. And when I got out of the Army, somebody, a cousin of mine, knew a model, a hat model at a place called Laden Hats. He said, 'Stan, there's this really pretty girl named Betty. I think you'd like her. She might like you. Why don't you go over and ask her to lunch.' Blah, blah, blah.
"So I went up to this place. Betty didn't answer the door. But Joan answered, and she was the head model. I took one look at her — and she was the girl I had been drawing all my life. And then I heard the English accent. And I'm a nut for English accents! She said, 'May I help you?' And I took a look at her, and I think I said something crazy like, 'I love you.' I don't remember exactly. But anyway, I took her to lunch. I never met Betty, the other girl. I think I proposed to [Joan] at lunch."
[...] After marrying, the couple returned to New York, where Lee worked at Marvel Comics forerunner Timely/Atlas Comics, a job he initially landed because his cousin Martin Goodman owned the company. Comics were a middling enterprise until Lee and Jack Kirby co-created the Fantastic Four in 1961 (followed by the Hulk, Avengers, Iron Man, X-Men and other characters) and turned the company, renamed Marvel Comics, into a pop culture powerhouse.
In some versions of the origin of the Fantastic Four, Lee credits Joan with inspiring him. He was depressed about his career (Lee had dreams of becoming a serious novelist) and the state of comics (the industry in the 1950s was dominated by stories of war, science fiction and romance, genres he didn't like) and contemplated leaving the business.
"Before you quit," Joan told him, "why don't you write one comic you are proud of?" And thus was born the Fantastic Four.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @07:44PM (5 children)
Inspiring story. Like when I met the girl of my dreams, but she was my wife's best friend in college. FML
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @07:47PM (4 children)
Glad I'm not the only one in that position except... It was High school and 40 years later they're both still BFFs. Can you say awkward?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @09:30PM
Who is modding these offtopic? Did you read the TFS? Did you read the article?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @09:31PM (1 child)
I fell for a woman who's husband had the same name as me and worked for the same company :(
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @06:14PM
Or did you get fired when he caught you sleeping with his wife? :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 11 2017, @12:45AM
Forgot to mention... Yes we made out.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fadrian on Monday July 10 2017, @08:07PM (4 children)
This sort of story should have been pushed through days ago. Obits rapidly lose their salience.
That is all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @08:33PM
They were waiting to make sure it wasn't a double obit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday July 10 2017, @08:54PM (1 child)
I called Peter Jackson. As long as we get the body to New Zealand, he'll turn that obit into a three times three hours movie.
He wasn't sure about letting Stan Lee have a cameo, though.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday July 11 2017, @07:19PM
That may take a lot of Excelsior! [wikipedia.org] in preparation for shipping.
Sorry, too soon?
Seriously, though, that's a pretty awesome span for a marriage. And who knew Marvel wouldn't have happened without her?
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday July 11 2017, @05:22AM
It still seems salient to me — she hasn't stopped being dead, has she?
(I vaguely remember noticing the headline while browsing BBC News, but didn't bother reading the article, figuring I'd get more from the comments when it showed up over here, Ars or El Reg.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @08:38PM
I've got an English accent, I'm inspired to wait here in my mum's basement for someone to knock on the door and propose to me over lunch. With this accent, I'll be beating them off with a shitty stick. Oh... you... dirty.. yank.. motherfuckers. Not that sort of beating off. I'm still going to wait despite your mocking.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @09:12PM (2 children)
But no bra size stats. What crazy world do we live in???? PC police out of control.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @09:30PM
Do you want the stats from 2017, 1967, or 1942?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 10 2017, @09:33PM
Everybody knows that models are 34B. Always. (Unless you use that metric shit, in which case, fuck off.)