Monday, November 5, 2018

Pulp Era Writing Advice from Stan Lee

In 1947's Writer's Digest, Stan Lee, then editor of Timely Comics, writes in his "There's Money in Comics":

One point which I can't stress too strongly is: DON'T WRITE DOWN TO YOUR READERS! It is common knowledge that a large portion of comic magazine readers are adults, and the rest of the readers who may be kids are generally pretty sharp characters. They are used to seeing movies and listening to radio shows and have a pretty good idea of the stories they want to read. If you figure that "anything goes" in a comic magazine, a study of any recent copy of Daredevil Comics or Bat Man will show you that a great deal of thought goes into every story; and there are plenty of gimmicks, sub-plot, human interest angles, and the other elements that go into the making of any type of good story, whether it be a comic strip or a novel.

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