Stan and Jack

In the National Post, Jeet Heer offers an overview of the careers of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

There are a couple of things in it that seem to me like errors. Stan Lee's real name is Stanley Lieber, not Leiber. (The article also misspells the name of Jordan Raphael, whose book is being reviewed in the process.) I'd take issue with the claim that Kirby changed his name because he was "slightly ashamed of his immigrant roots" or that he was ever reticent to talk about his war experiences. Most of Jack's friends would say that he never concealed his heritage and that you couldn't shut him up with the World War II stories. Joe Simon was not his "childhood chum." They met less than two years before doing Captain America, who was created before Stan Lee began working at Timely Comics, not after as is implied.

But otherwise, the article makes some good points and gives a good assessment of the importance of the two men. I think the analogy of Lee and Kirby as the "Lennon and McCartney of comics" only goes so far but fortunately, Heer doesn't take it too far. Take a look.