valid point, however I would suggest, firstly, that strong editorial vision was another similarity between EC and Silver Age Marvel -- in the 1950s, Lee was just going through the motions, a young and uneducated man feeling lucky to have a position of responsibility with his uncle's company, but constantly concerned that he doesn't really know what he's doing.
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Wha.. huh? Say WHAT???

What universe do you live in??

I don't know what the extent of Lee's formal education was, but I doubt that it was out of the norm for his time. Prior to WWII, many middle-class kids never finished high school. College was something only for the upper-class.

It wasn't until after WWII that the GI Bill put college in the grasp of every day men and women. And it wasn't until the WWII generation had college age children in the 60's and 70's that college became expected of someone in the middle-class.

At any rate, Stan Lee is clearly a highly intelligent, well read and well spoken individual. By the early 50's he was a man in his early 30's, not the 17 year old kid that his uncle had put in charge 15 years earlier. He knew the business inside and out & backwards and forwards. He had served a stint in the army in a position of great responsibility. And let's face it, Stan Lee has never had problems with his ego. He neither felt "lucky to have a job" or was "constantly concerned that he doesn't really know what he's doing." That's absurd. Atlas (Marvel) comics couldn't have run without him and he knew it.

He may have been going through the motions, but it wasn't out of feelings of insecurity. If anything, it was because he had higher aspirations. In fact, by the time FF #1 rolled around, he was seriously considering leaving his uncle's business to get a "real" job and had always wanted to write the "great American Novel."

He was simply grinding out whatever his boss (and uncle) told him too.



And he was grinding out a LOT MORE of it than they were at EC. I'm sure Stan had assistant editors during the heyday of the early fifties when Timely/Atlas/Marvel/Whatever often published the most titles of comics in a single year or came darn close. But the line was so vast that its hard to understand how he even kept track of them all, let alone had time to sit down and organize the new lineup of superhero comics into something special.

Frankly, the stars would have to line up JUST right for the Marvel Age to be born:
First, and foremost, the comics line had to be restricted. The collapse of the distribution for Atlas did that. The deal they got with DC allowed them six or eight books a month (I forget). That's it.

So most of the artists who'd worked in the Atlas heyday were let go and only the best/most reliable retained.

Joe Maneely, Stan's friend and right hand man -- a superb and fast comic artist -- died. This opened a spot for a fast artist who could handle all genres.

Jack Kirby tried to welch on a deal with DC editor Jack Schiff, got fired from DC, his own company was failing, he'd separated from his partner of more than a decade, and he NEEDED to find a company to work with.

These and a few other odds and ends set the stage for the comics scene in 1961.

And Stan Lee was there, with the time, imagination, and experience to take advantage of it.

A. Leedom, President of the Red Raven Revival Society and former model for Jack Kirby because of his unique ability to pose in extreme positions that invaribly had his feet eight feet apart.