Liel Leibovitz

I don't know much about Cohen, his discography, music history or Judaism, so it is difficult to evaluate this book which analyzes them all in light of each other. Interesting, yes. I should have read the book more slowly, with something like YouTube beside me and taken time to listen to the songs discussed instead of just reading straight through (though sometimes I listened to a song). Did Cohen really live so intensely and in artistic isolation as the story depicts? Was he always a genius or can we say that with the rose-coloured glasses of hindsight? I cannot answer. The book does make me wonder what it would be like to live intensely, creatively, and with such deep spiritual awareness. The author continually compares Cohen to a prophet. If his biography is reasonably accurate, then this does seem to be who Cohen was. And unlike many artists, he had the benefit of living his life long enough to reap the rewards of maturity in his craft.… (mais)

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Stan Lee: A Life in Comics by Liel Leibovitz is a short biography of one of the icons of American mythology. This book is part of the award winning Jewish Lives series.

This is a short biography on one of the most influential men in American pop-culture, and a true American success story. The book tries to tie Stan Lee’s stories and ideas to Jewish culture and Jewish religious book, some of the passages are a stretch, but all of them are interesting and show an understanding of the author of the characters he created.

Stan Lee: A Life in Comics by Liel Leibovitz tells of how a poor Jewish kid from The Bronx transformed himself to be the face of geek culture. As his fame grew, Stan Lee found himself being distanced further and further from the creative work which he found so fulfilling, ending up being a Marvel spokesman with very little control over the creative efforts.

Stan Lee loved being a spokesman, he loved interacting with his audience and went on a college tour. He hung out with his fans and tried to implement their ideas, and wishes, when he got back to Marvel’s creative team.

The book follows Stan Lee throughout his career, focusing on some of the biggest characters he created and how his and Jack Kirby’s poor background, and Jewish heritage might have influenced their inception. It’s important to note that this is all conjuncture by the author, Stan Lee have always been purposely ambiguous about these issues, mainly because he wanted fans to have their own ideas. I remember seeing him retelling the origin of Spiderman, ending it with “I told this story so often, one day it might actually be true”; telling the frustrated host “you want the truth or a good story?”
We all want a good story.

Some of the chapters tell of Stan Lee’s contribution to the character Captain American (a Jack Kirby creation) and his own creations of the Fantastic Four – Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), the Invisible Woman (Susan “Sue” Storm), the Human Torch (Johnny Storm),and the Thing (Ben Grimm) – the original X-Men with the civil rights counterparts (Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X), and Spiderman which, at the time, was the antithesis to everything which screamed “comic book hero”.

Marvel has been in decline (as a former share owner, I can still see my shares disappear), but when Disney bought the company it has a revival with Iron-Man (a second rate character in the comics), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe became one of the biggest grossing, if not the biggest, franchise in movie history. Stan Lee, of course, has become the cameo king of the movie world.… (mais)