Larry Lieber facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Larry Lieber
Lieber in January 2012
Born	Lawrence D. Lieber (1931-10-26) October 26, 1931 (age 93) New York City, U.S.
Area(s)	Writer, Penciller, Editor
Notable works	Rawhide Kid Iron Man Thor Ant-Man
Awards	Bill Finger Award

Lawrence D. Lieber, born on October 26, 1931, is an American comic book writer and artist. He is famous for helping create some of Marvel Comics' most popular superheroes, like Iron Man, Thor, and Ant-Man.

Lieber also spent many years writing and drawing the Marvel Western series Rawhide Kid. From 1986 to 2018, he illustrated the newspaper comic strip The Amazing Spider-Man. For a short time, from 1974 to 1975, he was an editor at Atlas/Seaboard Comics. Larry Lieber is the younger brother of Stan Lee, who was a very well-known writer, editor, and publisher at Marvel Comics.

Early Life and Art Interests

Larry Lieber was born in Manhattan, New York City. He was the second child of Celia and Jack Lieber, who were immigrants from Romania. His older brother was Stanley Martin Lieber, who later became famous as Marvel Comics' Stan Lee.

When Larry was six months old, his family moved to The Bronx. They lived in a small apartment where he shared a bedroom with his brother. When Larry was about ten, his brother joined the U.S. Army. Larry and his parents then moved back to Manhattan, to the Washington Heights area. Larry was already interested in art and drawing at this age. He attended George Washington High School there.

When Larry was a teenager, his mother passed away. He lived with his brother Stan and his sister-in-law, Joan, for a while. They moved to Woodmere, New York, on Long Island. Larry later recalled that he was very young and had a few jobs during this time.

At 17, Lieber worked as a messenger for The New York Times. He also found work at the Times Square studio of Sam Furber, who was a letterer for movie posters. For about a year and a half, Larry lived in a hotel in Manhattan.

Starting a Career in Comics

First Steps in Comics

In 1941, Larry's brother, Stan Lee, became the editor of Timely Comics. This company later became Marvel Comics. Larry started working for the company's owner, Martin Goodman, as an art assistant for magazines. He would do "paste-ups" during the day and attend art school at the Pratt Institute in the evenings.

Lieber soon began illustrating comic books. His first known work was drawing and inking a four-page crime story called "Cop on the Beat" in All True Crime #44 in May 1951.

In 1951, he joined the U.S. Air Force and served for four years. He was stationed in Okinawa for two years during the Korean War.

Working with Atlas Comics

After his military service, Lieber attended the Art Students League in Manhattan. He still wanted to be an artist and work in comics. He drew for his brother, Stan Lee, at the 1950s version of Marvel Comics, known as Atlas Comics.

His next confirmed work was drawing and inking a story called "A World to Conquer" in Journey into Unknown Worlds #52 in December 1956. He also drew stories for Atlas romance comics like Love Romances and Love Tales in 1957 and 1958. During this time, comic books often did not list who wrote or drew the stories. Lieber remembered writing some of these stories himself.

In 1958, after a tough time for the company, Stan Lee needed help writing. Larry, who was living in Manhattan, started working as a freelance writer for the company that would become Marvel Comics. He wrote stories for Jack Kirby, who was a famous artist. Kirby had recently returned to the company and would help create many of Marvel's most famous characters.

In the late 1950s, Kirby was drawing science fiction and giant-monster stories for comics like Journey into Mystery and Strange Tales. Larry Lieber would write the scripts for these stories. Stan Lee would create the main idea for the plot, and then Larry would write the dialogue and describe each picture.

Creating Marvel Superheroes

Larry Lieber helped write the first stories and early adventures of several famous superheroes. These included Thor (created with artist Jack Kirby), Iron Man (created with Kirby and Don Heck), and Ant-Man (created with Kirby). He also came up with the secret identities for these heroes: Donald Blake for Thor, Tony Stark for Iron Man, and Hank Pym for Ant-Man.

His first superhero work was the very first appearance of Marvel's Thor in Journey into Mystery #83 in August 1962. In this story, he introduced "uru," the magical metal Thor's hammer Mjolnir is made from. Lieber said he liked the name "uru" because it was short and easy for the letterers to use.

Stan Lee explained that he needed help writing new superhero stories because he was already busy with The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, and Spider-Man. He asked Larry to write the new Thor feature. Larry remembered that Stan gave him the plot, and he wrote the story.

Lieber's eight Thor stories also introduced other important Marvel characters from Norse myths, such as Loki, Odin, and Balder. He also introduced their home, Asgard, and Bifrost the Rainbow Bridge. For another series, starring the Human Torch, Lieber helped create the villain Wizard in Strange Tales #102 in November 1962.

After the first Iron Man story in Tales of Suspense #39 in March 1963, other writers took over. Lieber also wrote the first nine Ant-Man stories in Tales to Astonish #35-43 (September 1962 - May 1963). Larry explained that Stan Lee sometimes found his dialogue challenging, but he still gave him work. Stan eventually hired other writers, but then told Larry, "Larry, you know something, you're no good, but you're better than these other guys."

Lieber said that Stan Lee was a good editor and teacher. Stan made very few changes to Larry's scripts, usually just small corrections.

The Rawhide Kid and Other Work

Larry Lieber mostly stopped working on superheroes to write and draw his own series, the Marvel Western Rawhide Kid. He started with issue #41 in August 1964 and continued until 1973. Lieber wanted more freedom with this series and wanted it to feel serious, like a movie. He also wanted to draw again.

Lieber also drew The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4-5 (1967-1968). The 1968 annual showed the backstory of Peter Parker's parents. He also helped write and draw the first solo Doctor Doom story in Marvel Super-Heroes #20 in May 1969.

After his work on Rawhide Kid ended, Lieber found less work at Marvel. He wrote and sometimes drew Western or Sgt. Fury war-comics stories. He also did some standalone tales for Marvel's black-and-white magazines. He considered working for Marvel's rival, DC Comics, but felt he couldn't because his brother Stan Lee was at Marvel. He thought they might see him as a spy.

Atlas/Seaboard and Return to Marvel

In 1974, Lieber left Marvel to become an editor at Atlas/Seaboard Comics. This was a new company started by Martin Goodman, who had founded Marvel Comics. Goodman wanted to compete with Marvel and DC Comics. He hired Lieber to edit the black-and-white comic magazines and later the color comic books.

Lieber described his time as an editor as challenging. The company had to pay high rates to attract creators, and business was difficult. When Atlas/Seaboard closed in late 1975, Lieber received severance pay. He then tried to create a newspaper comic strip.

Stan Lee then offered him an editing job at Marvel UK. This was a New York City-based company that produced black-and-white reprint comics for the UK market. It also created new stories for the superhero Captain Britain. Lieber wrote Captain Britain's stories in the weekly Captain Britain #24-37 (March 23 - June 22, 1977). He also wrote Captain Britain adventures in Marvel UK's Super Spider-Man #233-246 (July 27-Oct. 26, 1977). Lieber also wrote and drew two Spider-Man stories in Web of Spider-Man #21 and 25 (December 1986, April 1987).

The Hulk and Spider-Man Comic Strips

In 1978, Lieber began drawing and sometimes inking The Incredible Hulk daily and Sunday comic strip. Stan Lee wrote this strip. Lieber also started writing it in early 1979. He stopped being the regular artist in spring 1979 and the regular writer in mid-1982. However, he still wrote and drew some parts until the strip ended in September 1982. Lieber said Stan Lee complimented his Hulk strip, saying it was "even more dramatic than [the] Spider-Man [comic strip]".

In 1980 and 1981, while working on the Hulk strip, Lieber also drew parts of The Amazing Spider-Man daily and Sunday comic strip. He took over as the regular artist for the daily strip in 1986. He also drew the Sunday page again from 1990 until at least 1995.

Lieber recalled that The Hulk was popular on television, so he drew the comic strip. When Stan Lee decided to stop writing it, he offered Larry the chance to write and draw The Hulk. Larry enjoyed this even more than Rawhide Kid. After the Hulk strip ended, Larry didn't have steady work until he was offered the artist role for the Spider-Man comic strip. He worked on it for 20 years.

In 2010, Lieber explained how he worked with Stan Lee on The Amazing Spider-Man strip. He received a full script but could make changes. He would call Stan every week and send rough drawings for Stan to review. Stan would often make changes to the writing and sometimes the artwork, and Larry usually agreed with them. Larry retired from drawing the strip in July 2018. His last strip was published on September 8, 2018.

Awards and Recognition

Larry Lieber has received several awards for his work in comics.

• In 2003, he received an Inkpot Award from the San Diego Comic-Con.
• In 2008, he was one of two people to receive the Bill Finger Award. This award honors comic creators. He received it on July 25, 2008, during the 2008 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards ceremony at San Diego Comic-Con.

See also

In Spanish: Larry Lieber para niños