Sometimes it takes artists a while to figure out what type of artists they are. Henry James would periodically attempt to be a playwright, but he had to settle for being a great novelist. George Bernard Shaw wanted to be a novelist, but he had to settle for being a great playwright.

Young Stanley Lieber planned to write the Great American Novel some day, so in the interim he used the pen name “Stan Lee” for his work in the comic book world. Eventually, he realized that the Great American Novel he’d imagined was never going to be written — but, as a pretty good consolation prize, he got to be Stan Lee for the rest of his life.

By the way, there was a nice tribute to Stan this month. Marvel comics all had a black banner across the top of the covers, with “Stan Lee * 1922-2018,” and then the first three interior pages were black. The fourth page had a drawing of Stan, on a black background, with his name and dates below.

In addition to that, in a really nice gesture, D.C. Comics (Marvel’s long-time competitor) paid tribute as well. Their books all had a black final page this month, with this text:

With Utmost Respect
from the Distinguished Competition…
“Excelsior!”
In Memoriam
Stan Lee
1922-2018
DC

You can see it here.