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Did Stan Lee write ANY scripts in the 1960s?
Patrick Ford 12 June 2016 http://irenevartanoff.com/?p=514 Dave Rawlins: "For Sam Rosen." Which brings to mind the question do any Lee dialogue scripts survive or did Simek and Rosen toss all of them in the trash? Patrick Ford: I've never seen a Lee dialogue script from the '60s. Dave Rawlins: Me neither. Michael Hill: Maybe we should offer a reward. Patrick Ford: Just to be clear. I have no doubt Lee typed up dialogue scripts. Or at least someone in the office did. Maybe Flo Steinberg. I'm half kidding. David Lawrence: Jack Kirby said something about Lee using a dictophone or some such thing toward the end of his own days at Marvel. So it's quite possible that there came a point where Lee actually did stop doing his own typing. I just wonder whether he simply turned it over to Flo for typing...or whether it was "rough" dialogue that he turned over to uncredited ghosts to finish. Patrick Ford: David, Why should anyone believe anything else? Given Lee's track record I honestly don't see why anyone would question Kirby's claim that Lee had people in the office writing the dialogue for him. That said I personally don't doubt that Lee wrote the dialogue, but if I were Kirby based on personal experience, I would find it very easy to believe that Lee was not even writing the dialogue. In fact given what Kirby knew, Kirby would have been a fool not to believe that Lee was not writing the published dialogue. If any person had Kirby's experience with Lee then it would be easy for that person to assume Lee did nothing. David Lawrence: I don't doubt that Lee wrote a lot of dialogue. But I also don't have a hard time imagining that by 1970 or so he would have simply done his schtick into a recording device and turned that over to others to finish on at least some of his assignments. Writing like Lee is VERY easy. A child could do a creditable imitation. In fact, one of my best friends wrote the 2010 Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics in its entirety. He was promised co-writer credit, but was then relegated to a special thanks. EDIT: Oops, I have to correct myself. He was listed on the interior as contributing writer. Still a far cry from cover credit. Patrick Ford: I agree. It's always been my impression that Lee prided himself on not making an effort. He mentioned that dialoguing a book was like doing a crossword puzzle. It's my impression he began at 1. across and just zipped through as fast as he could not giving a damn if anything made sense or not. David Lawrence: Let's see...hyperbole over here...a sexist comment over there...a little alliteration...all done pilgrim! Patrick Ford: I've said this dozens of times and I sincerely mean it; Lee was the worst writer I have ever been exposed to in my life. At least half the people who say they like his stuff say it's because he so obviously does not give a crap. That is seen as some sort of heightened awareness. The idea that a writer projecting the idea that he knows he sucks and that somehow makes the writing smart, does not work for me. Patrick Ford: By contrast it has become fashionable to criticize Kirby because his work so evidently displays that Kirby does care. That's the kind of country we live in. A place where giving a crap is seen as embarrassing. Patrick Ford: David Lawrence, Here's something Tom Sutton said about Lee. SUTTON: Yeah. And he had a tape recorder too, and he was doing dialogue for Spider-Man or something. And he didn’t seem to think that that was very strange. This would have been in late 1966 or 1967. I've also seen a comment by Tom Palmer who said on the one story conference he had with Lee (Palmer was quickly moved to inking assignments) Lee went through his dramatics (rolling on the floor etc.) and then a synopses was typed up by Flo Steinberg. Which sounds to me as if Steinberg plotted the story. David Lawrence: I have a hard time imaging finished dialogue being produced that way. And I certainly can't imagine the letterer working from a recording. So someone had to be typing it up. And that someone had to be at least doing editing of that text. It's stunning how little work Lee actually was doing by the end of the 60s.

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