True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee - Abraham Riesman

Category: Art, Autobiography & Biographies
Language: English
Keywords: Art Biography Comics Graphic Novel Marvel

Written by Abraham Riesman
Read by Vikas Adam
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps

The definitive, revelatory biography of Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee, a writer and entrepreneur who reshaped global pop culture - at a steep personal cost.

“A biography that reads like a thriller or a whodunit…scrupulously honest, deeply damning, and sometimes even heartbreaking.” (Neil Gaiman)

Stan Lee - born Stanley Martin Lieber in 1922 - was one of the most beloved and influential entertainers to emerge from the 20th century. He served as head editor in chief of Marvel Comics for three decades and, in that time, launched more pieces of internationally recognizable intellectual property than anyone other than Walt Disney: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, Black Panther, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor…the list seems to never end. On top of that, his carnival-barker marketing prowess more or less single-handedly saved the comic-book industry and superhero fiction. Without him, the global entertainment industry would be wildly different - and a great deal poorer.

But Lee’s unprecedented career was also filled with spectacular failures, controversy, and bitter disputes. Lee was dogged by accusations from key collaborators such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko over who really created Marvel’s signature characters - iconic figures for whom Lee had always been suspected of taking more than his proper share of credit. A major business venture, Stan Lee Media, resulted in stock manipulation, bankruptcy, and criminal charges. A second one, POW! Entertainment, has been repeatedly accused of malfeasance and deceit. And in his final years, after the death of his beloved wife, Joan, rumors swirled that Lee was a virtual prisoner in his own home, beset by abusive grifters and issuing cryptic video recordings as a battle to control his fortune and legacy ensued.

Abraham Riesman is a veteran culture reporter who has conducted more than 150 interviews and investigated thousands of pages of private documents, turning up never-before-published revelations about Lee’s life and work. Lee’s most famous motto was “With great power comes great responsibility”. Stretching from the Romanian shtetls of Lee’s ancestors to his own final moments in Los Angeles, True Believer chronicles the world-changing triumphs and tragic missteps of an extraordinary life and leaves it to lsiteners to decide whether Lee lived up to the responsibilities of his own talent.

“True Believer is a biography that reads like a thriller or a whodunit. It’s an exploration of an often farcical tragedy: the life, afterlife, and death of a salesman and an editor who dreamed of being something more. It unwraps Stanley Lieber the man and Stan Lee the invention and the brand name, and manages to be scrupulously honest, deeply damning, and sometimes even heartbreaking.” (Neil Gaiman)

“For those who know Stan Lee from his sunny, funny cameos in Marvel films, get ready for an unputdownable deep dive. The man lived a life - warts and all - and Riesman captures the shadow and sunshine in equal measure.” (Patton Oswalt)

“Stan Lee was a mythmaker, both creatively and autobiographically. To reach the truth of his troubled and troubling life story, Riesman has had to peel away layers of quarrel, exaggeration, credit-grabbing, dispute, and faulty memory. The result is an enthralling, vibrantly written portrait of one of American popular culture’s great innovators.” (Mark Harris, author of Pictures at a Revolution and Five Came Back)