Stan Lee Floored By Original FF#12 Art

By | Friday, November 05, 2010 3 comments
In the footage below, Joe Maddalena of the Profiles in History auction house sits down with Stan Lee to show him the original artwork from Fantastic Four #12. It's one of the few Marvel stories from that time where the original art is complete and in one place.

I find the video interesting for a couple of reasons. First, Lee makes a comment about his drawing quick layout sketches on the backs of Jack Kirby's art boards. I knew that and had made mention of it last month but this is the first time I've heard it right from Lee's own mouth. Second, I've seen (reprints of) some Marvel art pages from that time period and find the interplay between Lee and Kirby fascinating. Although he may not have seen them, as he states, many of Lee's notes have survived on art boards. However, Kirby's notes tend to take over more and more as their partnership progressed. It's interesting to see here how prevalent Lee's notes are at this time. Third, and most significant to me, is that we see Lee here largely drop his typical "always on" persona that we're all familiar with. He seems so stunned by the find that he essentially falls out of character, and provides an amazingly genuine reaction.

I don't have cable to watch SyFy, but I might have to see if I can track down this episode of Hollywood Treasure when it airs.
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3 comments:

Thanks for putting this up...quite fantastic!

KentL said...

That was fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

Matt K said...

Wow, I just watched the whole thing and you're absolutely right. This was riveting.

I think it was riveting for Stan. I can only imagine how I would feel if, say, 40 years from now someone came to me with a collection of notes and process sketches from a project I designed in 2004 or something.

Wow.