In his new book, Manhood For Amateurs, Michael Chabon describes the early days at Marvel Comics:"In the early sixties, when "Stan's Soapbox"--pages in Marvel Comics through which Stan Lee created and sustained the idea of Marvel Comics fandom in the sixties and early seventies--began to apostrophize Marvel fandom, there was no such thing as Marvel fandom. Marvel was a failing company, crushed, strangled, and bullied in the marketplace by its giant rival, DC. Creating "The Fantastic Four"--the first "new" Marvel title--with Jack Kirby was a last-ditch effort by Lee, a mad flapping of the arms before the barrel sailed over the falls."
"But in the pages of the Marvel comic books, Lee behaved from the start as if a vast, passionate readership awaited each issue that he and his key collaborators, Kirby and Steve Ditko, churned out. And in a fairly short period of time, this chutzpah--as in all those accounts of magical chutzpah so beloved by solitary boys like me--was rewarded. By pretending to have a vast network of fans, former fan Stanley Leiber (Stan Lee) found himself in possession of a vast network of fans."
What does this mean? What can we learn from Stan Lee?
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