There was a documentary/fan worship programme on BBC 4 the other night; Jonathon Ross in search of Steve Ditko the co-creator of Spider-man.
I have not watched the whole show, as I taped it but I did see contributions from Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore, so I expect the comments to be meaningful.
But what I want to consider is how much of an impact on writers of a certain age did Marvel have on us to nurture a need to tell stories and expand our imagiantion. Say you what you will about Stan Lee, he has been an important influence in many of our lives. I'm not going to deny the credit that is due to both Steve Ditko and (more importantly) Jack Kirby in shaping the comics world, but Stan Lee is the constant. In all fairness, Stan probably got more decisions right over plot and narrative than we suspect. I also think he was able to rein in some of Jack kirby's goofier ideas that may have been too much of leap forward in the 1960s.
The impact of US comics is profound and I think our first true inkling of story structure and plot come from the silver age (1960s) and bronze age (1970s) comics. Possibly the biggest influence on many writers of Sf, Fantasy or even adventure fiction comes from the decision by Marvel to launch a weekly title in the UK, circa 1972.
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2 comments:
that is so true; my path to literature began with enid blyton, i added all the us comics and ended up at neville shute - 'On The Beach' was my first adult novel. but i lived for saturdays; that was the new comic and swap day - i think it cost a penny to swap your old comics. i devoured these at a fantastic rate, and they're still in my memory, all those superboy/girl tales especially.
Irene,
I guess there is an on-going debate about the influences of our childhood books. But here my suggestion is that in respect to Marvel, the stories were our first introduction to genuine world building and complex plots in terms of structure.
BTW, I like your choice of first adult novel. Mine was "Jaws".
David
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