Of all the names you might associate with the now-ubiquitous hero Iron Man — Robert Downey Jr., Stan Lee — Larry Lieber is probably not on the list.
But Lieber is the man who penned the tale of the superhero’s first appearance back in 1963’s “Tales of Suspense” No. 39. Oh, and he also happens to be Marvel Comics godfather Stan Lee’s brother.
Lieber, now 81, is a lifelong New Yorker who began writing for his brother’s magazine company back in 1958.
“I was studying to be an artist, but I drew too slowly, and my brother needed a writer,” says Lieber.
“I said, ‘I’m not a writer.’ He said, ‘Oh, I can teach you.’ I’d write, ‘He ran away.’ He’d change it to, ‘He fled,’ which is of course a more dramatic way to say it.”
In 1962, Lee handed his brother a rough outline for a story involving a millionaire weapons developer who builds himself a suit of armor. Legend has it that Lee wanted to challenge himself by creating a hero that would become popular despite the anti-war sentiments of Marvel’s young readership.
One contribution Lieber made was creating the name of the hero’s civilian identity, Anthony Stark. He settled on “Tony Stark” because it was short and kinder to the comic-book letterer, who penned the words by hand on the page.
Lieber was paid a flat fee for the story and retains no rights to the character. He was, however, given an honorarium by Marvel Studios when “Iron Man” was released.
Shortly after “Tales of Suspense” hit newsstands, Lieber moved on to writing and drawing Western comics — a genre he liked much better than superhero stories, but one that was less popular.
As Marvel boomed through the 1960s with “Fantastic Four,” “Hulk” and others, Lieber worked on lesser-selling titles before leaving the company altogether. He once applied to work at rival DC Comics, but management there suspected he was a spy for Marvel and refused to hire him.
Lieber says his brother bent over backwards so no one would cry nepotism.
“The other people did better than me
financially,” he says. “I didn’t do very well.”
These days, he draws the “Spider-Man” newspaper strip, which he’s done for 26 years, and is working on a novel, typing on his computer beneath a picture of Leo
Tolstoy. He enjoys the “Iron Man” movies, but says he doesn’t think much about his place in the character’s history.
When pressed, he says, “I helped create something, and I’m glad I did.”