Link roundup

1. Wild stories about the penny-pinching ways of the original Tamp Bay Devils Rays owner.

2. Bleeding Cool posted some really fascinating excerpts from various depositions related to the Kirby Family Vs Marvel Lawsuit. For example, from Stan Lee's deposition:

With Spider-Man, that was kind of an interesting thing. I thought Spider-Man would be a good strip, so I wanted Jack to do it. And I gave it to him. And I said, Jack, now you always draw these characters so heroically, but I don’t want this guy to be too heroic-looking. He’s kind of a nebbishy guy.

Q. Would we call him a nerd today?

STAN LEE: I would say so. Yeah.
Anyway, Jack, who glamorizes everything, even though he tried to nerd him up, the guy looked still a little bit too heroic for me. So I said: All right, forget it, Jack. I will give it to somebody else.
Jack didn’t care. He had so much to do.

Q. Who did you give it to?

STAN LEE: I gave it to Steve Ditko. His style was really more really what Spider-Man should have been. So Steve did the Spider-Man thing. Although, again, I think I had Jack sketch out a cover for it because I always had a lot of confidence in Jack’s covers.

And from the deposition of Larry Lieber (Stan Lee's brother):

Q: Did you come up with any of the names in Thor?

LARRY LIEBER: Yes.

Q: What did you come up with?

LARRY LIEBER: The civilian name of Don Blake I made up. And I also came up with his hammer. I made that, which people know about. My Uru hammer, I created that.

Q: And where did you get the name Uru hammer?
LARRY LIEBER: I just made it up, as far as I know. I might have read it. I used to — Stan liked the way I made up names, civilian names, and I used to, from my years of doing these, what do you call it, these fantasy books, monster books, and I used to look at the back of dictionary, Miriam Webster had biographical names and geographical, so I would look in towns and if I liked the town, I might put it. And it was kind of fun and he liked what I did.

Now, I don’t know if I found “Uru” someplace or I just made it up or whatever. I know I made it short because I felt that Thor might be around a while and I was always worrying about the letterer or somebody. I was worrying about somebody else’s feeling, and I figured, well, if I make it U-R-U, there’s not that much to letter. And since nobody knows the name of it, I’ll make it a short name. So that’s why I did that.

And Don Blake I just thought sounded like a doctor and, you know, to fit the personality. I tried to get names that fit the — the person.

Q: Who came up with the name Thor, the hero name?

LARRY LIEBER: Not me. I don’t know. Stan, I guess. But I don’t — yeah, yeah, Stan.

Q: And just to follow up on something you said, you mentioned a letterer, what was the job of the letterer?

LARRY LIEBER: Well, when the — when the — I give a
(break in testimony)

LARRY LIEBER: …and I made it up.” He looked a little surprised and walked away, and then I stopped writing it and he would — I don’t know if he was writing it or somebody else, but they gave it another name, which I believe was the authentic name from Bulfinch’s Mythology. So …

Q: Was it the usual practice that you would write a book for a few issues and then you would move on to something else?

LARRY LIEBER: It seems that way. You know, I don’t remember. I — I’ve been looking at the books and it seems with a few of them I did. I – I wrote a few books, the first issue or the first couple issues, yes. I don’t, yeah, I don’t know how it came about that way and why I moved on. I don’t recall.

Q: Who would make the decision about who was going to write the scripts for a book?

LARRY LIEBER: It would be Stan, I’m sure, as the editor.

Q: Are you familiar with a comic called Iron Man?

LARRY LIEBER: Yes.

Q: And what was your involvement with Iron Man?

LARRY LIEBER: I wrote the first script for Iron Man also.

Q: And who asked you to write the first script for Iron Man?

LARRY LIEBER: Stan. Stan Lee.

Q: Stan Lee. And what — what did he provide you with or what did he ask you to do?

MR. TOBEROFF: Assumes facts.

LARRY LIEBER: I’m sorry, I –

Q: If you understand the question, you can –

MR. TOBEROFF: That’s okay. I’m just objecting for the record.
LARRY LIEBER: Oh, okay.

MS. SINGER: Lawyer stuff.

LARRY LIEBER: What was the question, if I may?

Q: Fair enough. How, how did you come to write the first script for Iron Man?

LARRY LIEBER: He made up a character and he wanted — and he asked me to write it. And he told me the plot, you know, somehow I got synopsis, and I — and I wrote it. And again, I made up the civilian name.

Q: And the “he” there is Stan Lee?

LARRY LIEBER: Thank me for Anthony Stark. I’m sorry, what?

Q: I’m sorry, the “he” in that was Stan Lee?

LARRY LIEBER: Yes, Stan Lee.

Q: So you came up with the name Anthony Stark?

LARRY LIEBER: Yes.

Q: And where did you come up with that name?

LARRY LIEBER: I don’t know, but I guess I — I had been writing so many. Again, either I just made it up or I felt it was a name that would fit a guy who was very, very rich and a lady – you know, I wanted — I thought it sounded distinguished and wealthy or something. Anthony Stark.

3. Serious Eats liked new food at Arby's: Arby's Angus Three Cheese and Bacon, Steakhouse Onion Rings and Inside-Out Cinnamon Bites.

*Buy Kirby: King of Comics at Amazon.