Even if you were such a Lee-hater that you refused to acknowledge that he'd written so much as a word of script, you'd have to tip your hat to him for hiring Kirby and Ditko, giving them the means to produce and publish the greatest superhero comics of the Silver Age, and keeping out of their way enough to let them make great comics.

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Remember, Timely was going out of business and Stan was selling the furniture when Jack saw Stan on the sidewalk crying and told him to get up, he'll turn Timely around.

The folks that are against Stan take every tale that was ever told like that very literally and will not believe any word to the contrary.

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You don't know how this industry worked -- and works. The motto, ever and always, is "What have you done for me lately?"

Before the Fantastic Four happened, Kirby was a has-been, relegated to doing monster comics at a fourth rate company. Many of the Kirby boosters like to say he had gone to Marvel specifically to "save" it, but the evidence is not to be found.

And remember, even after the FF took off, Stan and Jack didn't hit a string of homers out of the park. Hulk tanked, X-Men stumbled along -- and Spider-Man was Ditko's baby.

And Kirby was not done yet being consigned to the trashbag of history. When I joined the industry, the Pros still loved him, but the fans were turning away -- and in a most hostile fashion. "Jack the Hack."

About the only good thing Image did was to adopt him as their mascot. "Look! We're getting screwed over JUST LIKE KIRBY!! (While making more for single issues than he made in a year or six, bit don't mention that!)" Unfortunately, that led to the inevitable pendulum swing, and the deification of Kirby.

It used to seem like it would be hard to give Kirby MORE than his due, but his hardcore boosters found a way!!

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Really? REALLY?? Must this always be trotted out? Kirby the house style? When also at the company were the very artists you named. Did they all draw like Kirby? Were they asked to?

Please, let's kill this myth. I've been fighting it for more than forty years!!