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.And from the deposition of Larry Lieber (Stan Lee's brother):
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.
Q: Did you come up with any of the names in Thor?3. Serious Eats liked new food at Arby's: Arby's Angus Three Cheese and Bacon, Steakhouse Onion Rings and Inside-Out Cinnamon Bites.
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.
*Buy Kirby: King of Comics at Amazon.
