I’m working with Stan Lee on a biographical project and I think what it needs is a Q&A.
So here’s what I’m looking for: What question would you like to ask Stan Lee about his life? I’m not looking for anything with inherent negatives (no “Did you hate so-and-so?” style questions.) If your question is interesting enough, I’ll ask Stan, and include it in the book with his answer and attribute it to you.
So what do you want to know?
PAD
So forty years ago today, “Young Frankenstein” opened. And I find myself wondering how the Internet would react to it if it opened today.
And I came to the realization that the film would be crucified.
Why?
Because in the age of Bill Cosby rape allegations, and heated debates about “The Newsroom,” there would simply be no allowance for rape being treated as a joke.
Which “Young Frankenstein” does.
Madeline Kahn’s “Elizabeth” is carried off into the woods where the Monster is about to rape her. There is no question she doesn’t want to have sex, but the Monster doesn’t care. And she protests and protests…and then sees the size of his member. Suddenly it’s okay. Because even though she continues to protest as he penetrates, she doesn’t really mean it. Because when a woman is saying no, what she is really saying is that it’s fine if the guy is big enough.
What the hëll kind of message is that? The Internet would erupt with relentless fury, Brooks would be stunned by the reaction, and they’d probably have to edit it out for the home release.
Instead it’s a comedy classic.
Hah hah.
PAD
Originally published February 8, 2002, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1473
Herewith the final installment of our time-traveling view of the 1992 poll about what the comic industry would be like in the year 2002.
Originally published February 1, 2002, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1472
As we continue our little time-traveling venture by looking at the results of the “What will the Year 2002 be like?” survey from ten years ago, I have to say I’m gratified by the response I’ve been getting thus far. Folks seem genuinely intrigued by both the hits and the misses of the respondents.
Thus far, for those who might just be coming aboard, back in the year 1992 (which seems as far off to me now as 2002 did then) readers of CBG predicted that: Marvel would be the top company (instead it’s neck and neck with DC); Image would most likely be gone (it isn’t, outlasting Valiant, Innovation, Now, Comico, Eclipse, Malibu, Disney and Personality); the top-selling comic would be one that wasn’t being published at the time (which DK2 wasn’t); that Iron Man was the most likely hero to be killed off and replaced (Jim Rhodes, Iron Man at the time, didn’t die, but was replaced by Tony Stark); Mark Gruenwald would be editor in chief at Marvel (obviously wrong, sadly); Mike Carlin would be editor in chief at DC (one for two); that Rob Liefeld would be the anti-Christ (no comment); that Youngblood #4 would just be hitting the stands (it came out in 1993); that the standard Marvel Comic would be 32 pages and cost $2.50 (one for two, although the true quality Marvel books, such as—I dunno—Captain Marvel really are $2.50).
Originally published January 25, 2002, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1471
We’re continuing with the poll of ten years ago which ran in BID and endeavored to get a feel for what the readership saw as the state of the industry ten years hence… that is to say, now. The year 2002, which at the time seemed so far in the future as to be ludicrous. Well, no one’s laughing all that much.
Moving on:
Caroline was born 12 years ago today.
As is the case with the births of all my daughters, I will always remember the circumstances of that day. Part of what I recall is the change in accommodations for fathers. When my other girls were born, I got to sit in a comfortable white plastic chair for hours on end. This time there was not only a couch for me, but when I tried to lie down on it, the nurse informed me it folded out into a bed. So THAT was great.
Kathleen was amazing. She started labor on the train home from work and didn’t even realize that it had started, assuming that it was Braxton-Hicks. We went to the hospital a little after midnight and she gave birth around 2:30 the following afternoon. For some reason, she became fixated on an article in the newspaper about the history of the latest tree that was put up in Rockefeller Center. She kept asking me to read her the article and I did so about twenty times.
I still remembering the nurse saying “Oh my God” shortly after Caroline was born, which alarmed Kathleen, until the nurse clarified that she was reacting to the size of Caroline’s feet, which were so large that they extended outside of the squares on the piece of paper for footprints. Caroline, as some of you longtime readers know, was named after Carol Kalish, the Marvel Direct Sales Manager who hired me as her assistant and launched my comics career.
She’s now 12 years old and has received her first report card from Middle School. She got all A’s. I couldn’t be prouder of both her and her mommy.
PAD
Originally published January 18, 2002, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1470
Picking up from last week, we’re doing a bit of time traveling backward and forward simultaneously, by reviewing the poll taken in this very column back in 1992 speculating as to the state of our little industry ten years hence… which is to say, 2002, i.e., now.
Yes, cast yourself back to the early 1990s, back when we were bombing the crap out of the Middle East and a guy named Bush was president. Back in that far-flung era bearing no resemblance to our own, fans believed that after the turn of the century: Marvel would be the top company; Image and Valiant were the two likeliest companies to be out of business; and the comic topping the sales charts didn’t yet exist. Now let’s see what else they, and we, had to say.
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