Eighty years ago today, the Lieber family increased by one. The newcomer was destined to bisect his surname to become Stan Lee, one of the most important figures in the world of comic books. Charming and clever, Stan developed the power of super-endurance, hanging in through the lean times until, along with my friend Kirby, he kickstarted a failing field. You know, when Stan Lee ran the business, we cheered for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the industry had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either.