BillyBatson4360 wrote:
kirbyfanatic wrote:
True, Stan Lee promoted Jack and the other artists, by putting their names in the credits.  So, he gets some deserved praise for that.  But I'm not under any illusions that that was part of the job at Marvel, to sell books. 

     Allen Smith


Stan did more than simply give the artists, inkers and even letterers credit. He also promoted them in his responses on the letters page and in the later Bullpen Bulliten pages. Stan was always tremendously effusive in his praise for Kirby's work. When you understand that most of the folks over at DC initially thought Jack wasn't very good (they were mystified that Kirby's books at Marvel were producing a higher sell-through rate [% of copies printed against actual copies sold] than the DC stuff).

I also have heard and read many, many interviews where Stan went out of his way to praise Jack Kirby in particular for Marvel's success. It is a matter of record that he gave incoming artists copies of Jack's books and told them that was what he (Stan) considered the proper way to tell a story at Marvel. I have read relatively recent interviews where he still refers to Kirby as the greatest in the field of super-hero comics.

[deleted.]

As has been said many time before Jack & Steve were very shy and not willing to do publicity for Marvel back in the day. Stan is an admitted ham. And he probably did more to promote the comic book field in general than any other single individual. That he took some credit for himself is understandable.

But the notion of promoting the artists as personalities and that such promotion would help sales was Stan's idea.

  
All true.  Stan did a lot for Kirby.  Which does not mean that he's a Saint and Kirby a Sinner, or vice versa.  But none of this has any relevance to the merits of this case.  I think people are too focused on the "cult of personality" in discussing this issue.