A peek at the Stan Lee Archives

Marvel Comics scribe Stan Lee several years ago donated his papers to the American Heritage Center at, of all places, the University of Wyoming.

There's nearly 100 boxes of stuff, including script pages, art proofs and memorabilia. It could prove fertile ground for knowledgeable comics historians seeking out new details regarding Marvel's early days and Lee's contributions to the characters he co-created with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others. I'd like to poke around that stuff, myself, actually.

In the meantime, here's a teaser of what's in all those boxes from the Casper Star-Tribune.
Those who look inside Lee's boxes will find manuscripts and notes on Lee's Soapbox column, character outlines for the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer proof sheets.
Photocopies of proofs for the Spider-Man comic strip show notes written in the margins.
"Not too dramatic a pointing gesture," is written to the artist in one panel.
"Make more imaginative," appears on a Silver Surfer pencil sketch.
Lee kept boxes of fan mail: drawings of the X-Men done in red marker by young boys, letters written on lined school paper.
There are some written by the famous, like one sent to Lee and his wife by Linda McCartney: "Just a note to say that our 4 year old son James thinks he's Spider-Man at the moment, and loves Hulk and a few of the others as well -- so ‘keep rocking'!"

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