American swag
- Just get the kid out of my sight! –
Stanley got his first job at Timely magazine no less than – through a connection. Namely, at that time, Martin Goodman, Lee's cousin, started the Marvel line of comics. At first, authors from other newsrooms wrote for them, but Goodman soon wanted to have his own writers, so he hired two young and talented authors – Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
Goodman had a full editorial staff of his relatives. From janitors to writers and cleaners, everyone was somehow related to Martin. It was therefore natural that Martin Goodman was not thrilled about Stan working in his office. He enlisted one of his assistants to take him to Joe Simon's office. They told Simon: - Martin is only telling you to keep him away from him. Give him something to do. - Unfortunately, on the first day Stanley came to work, he saw Martin in the corridor of the building.
The latter asked him in surprise: "Little one, what are you doing here?" - It seemed as if he didn't even remember hiring him. Lee never found out if Martin was joking or serious at that moment. Anyway, his job was to erase the pencil from the works that have already been crossed out with ink and, of course, to bring coffee. When he didn't have work, he would follow Simon and Kirby to lunch and try to make friends with them. Simon used to recall how, when he was extremely bored, Stanley would sit in the corner and play the flute. – That especially got on Kirby's nerves. - he emphasized. It was a small miracle how he got to the position of writer at all...