The Marvel. Method Stan Lee and the transformation of the production process of the comics

Abstract

When the comic book industry get started in the early 1930s, comics were produced as in assemble line, with writers working apart of artists, and editors imposing repetitive commercial formulas. However, in the 1960s Marvel Comics and its editor Stan Lee started to gain popularity with a new production system – the Marvel Method, which gave great creative freedom to artists. But was it a fair work system? Where ‘creative freedom’ a ruse to overload artists with new responsibilities without gave them theirs rightful recognition and salary? This article analyzes declarations of different Marvel artists and writers to know the exact way Marvel Method worked and how the Marvel employees felt about it.