Posted on 03/12/2008 7:46:43 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Stan Lee hosted a fundraising event back in 2000, the "The Hollywood Gala Salute To William Jefferson Clinton And Hillary Rodham Clinton" arranged by Peter Paul, the man behind Stan Lee Media, the internet venture that eventually collapsed into bankruptcy and Paul was jailed after pleading guilty to stock manipulation.
Hillary Clinton's campaign team recently resubmitted their report to the FEC, stating that Stan Lee contributed $225,000 in 2000 to her Senate campaign.
However in a deposition back in 2005, (handily just uploaded to YouTube here and here), Lee states that he did not make such a financial contribution to her campaign. He does, under oath, describe himself as the co-creator of Spider-Man and Hulk.
Lee states that he wrote a $100,000 cheque after being given a $100,000 cheque made payable to himself by Peter Paul, but states he never had $100,000 to donate to anybody.
It looks like this was a proxy donation to Clinton's Senate campaign, by Peter Paul for unknown reasons. Paul not only served time for insider trading regarding Stan Lee Media, after being extradited from Brazil, but has a history of drug dealing and international fraud convictions from the 1970s. After his past was revealed, Clinton distanced herself from Paul.
This matter is being revived just as Clinton's campaign for Presidential candidacy has received a boost... but my favourite clip is from a forthcoming rightwing attack video, with Hillary talking to Peter Paul about the fundraising event, with Stan Lee jumping in.
STAN: I thought myself it was because we're offering everyone a free comic book but I guess I was wrong.HILLARY: Oh I think that's a big draw myself, it's the reason I'm coming
then:
HILLARY: Stan, what we haven't told you, is that you're going to be the next Secretary of Defence.STAN: Well, I expected that.
HILLARY: Because superheroes will be a lot cheaper than the missile defence system.
STAN: Hillary, you're wonderful.
and finally:
STAN: You've got the mutant vote right around the world.HILLARY: Some people think I'm the mutant candidate, so I should have.
I can hear the CafePress engines whirring right now.
Why not? He and his buddies at Marvel just about took down the entire comic book industry in the 1990s with a monopoly on publishing and distribution and contracts that required buying large quantities of unsellable “variant” editions.
And didn’t the owner give Monica a $100,000 job when she left the White House during the impeachment hearings?
Additionally Jack Kirby and other ARTISTS who created the characters were the ones who renegotiated for ownership of their characters when the opportunity came up (I think 50+ years even work for hire can be renegotiated through changes in the copyright law).
Stan was a writer and editor but it doesn’t mean he came up with the characters.
I wish we could scrap them all and start over!
Ahhh....the “creative accounting”....I understand that...
Poor guy.
I'm pretty sure that Stan was out of the comic book business at that point and was doing the PR out in Hollywood as "Publisher Emeritus" or some such thing.
Additionally Jack Kirby and other ARTISTS who created the characters were the ones who renegotiated for ownership of their characters when the opportunity came up (I think 50+ years even work for hire can be renegotiated through changes in the copyright law).
Actually, it was Joe Simon, not Jack Kirby, who tried to renegotiate Capt. America. Furthermore, to date, none of the other big Marvel characters have hit the fifty year mark, since they were all created in the 1960s. Kirby, as I recall, sued for his original artwork back.
As for who created what, that's always been a bit of contention between Lee and Kirby (as well as Spiderman's Steve Ditko) but it seems fairly likely that the characters were a collaboration and that a group of elderly men with so-so memories all remembered who contributed what differently, but are all creators.
OMG Spiderman daddy going take down Hillary CLASSIC LOL!
I was a card-carrying member of The Merry Marvel Marching Society, and later in its other fan club incarnation, FOOM (Friends Of Ol’ Marvel). That’s what Lee was REALLY resposible for. He (and later everyone at Marvel, though DC tried to copy it)really made you feel that you were a member of a cool group of friends, not just a comic reader. You were part of a ‘happening’. That rapport had never been equaled in the comic book world before, and will, sadly, never be seen again. They made it FUN. Comics are too damned dark for me these days, due to people like Frank Miller coming into the field. I collected from the 60s through the 70s, and then got out of it. The stories just weren’t the same any more.
Stan has a very big problem that resulted from the SLM bankruptcy.
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