STAN “THE MAN” LEE WILL FOREVER BE

synonymous with superheroes. Either directly or indirectly, Stan inspired countless writers and creators to explore their craft. His passing on November 12, 2018 at the age of 95 left a perpetual void in the comic book industry that will never be filled. His indelible impact upon the industry extends far beyond capes and cowls. Stan Lee also made an impact on the horror comic scene as early as 1954. Stan brought the world of the undead to comic books in a short story that predates the Comics Code Authority’s ban on zombies in one of Atlas Comics’ (the precursor to Marvel) anthology series. In 1954, Stan Lee introduced us to the world of the Walking Dead.

By 1954, the landscape of the comic book industry was remarkably different from its 1940s counterpart. The Golden Age of Comics, brought to life by the world’s first superhero - Superman, was all but dead. A warweary world turned its eyes away from heroes clad in red, white and blue tights, and fully embraced genres such as romance, westerns and horror. Despite his Super Soldier Serum, even Captain America wasn’t immune to the post-war industry shift. By 1950, the Star Spangled Man with a Plan’s books fully embraced the horror genre, renamed into Captain America’s Weird Tales

Issue 75 in 1950 marked Cap’s last Golden Age book and he wasn’t even in it, replaced by horrid creatures of the night. Horror was all the rage. Despite (or in spite of) the objections of mothers across the nation, and the damning claims made in Fredric Wertham’s

Seduction of the Innocent, horror meant big business for publishers, and readers couldn’t get enough. It is into this world that a 32-year old Stan Lee introduced comic book readers to the “Walking Dead” in the pages of 1954’s Menace #9.

A pioneer in many ways, Stan was not the first to mention zombies or the walking dead. The word zombie originates in West Africa and, according to the collected essays in “Race, Oppression and the Zombie,” zombies are created by voudou sorcerers called bokors. Haitians believed that zombies were reanimated corpses brought back to be used as a labor force. The concept of a flesh-feasting. cranium craving zombie was yet to be established in popular culture. In 954 Richard Mattheson published “I Am Legend.” The story has become synonymous with zombie culture, often credited as being the first fictional piece to depict a zombie apocalypse despite the primary antagonist referred to as “vampires” throughout the story. Mattheson’s vampires shared more in common with modern zombies than they did with folklore vampires. We were a few years away from 1968’s George A. Romero’s seminal film Night of the Living Dead, which despite not actually using the word zombie, defined the genre as we know it today. In the realm of comics, 1963’s Black Smurf (Purple Smurfs in the US) comic book was the first to depict a zompocalypse style outbreak.

In 1954, the Comic Book Authority and its code, a strict list of rules put in place to make comic books more appealing to parents and retailers, went into effect. Zombies were no longer allowed in comic books. According to the Comics Code “Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, or torture, shall not be used.” Of course, Stan is no slouch and would find ways to stick it to the Authority. By the 1970s Marvel would circumvent these rules by willfully misspelling the word “zombie” into “zuvembie,” publishing magazines, which were immune to the Comics Code rules, featuring zombies and famously copyrighting the word zombie for over twenty years. By the early 1970s, with a loosening of the restrictions enacted by the Comics Code, Stan even reintroduced the world to Simon Garth in 1973’s Tales of the Zombie. Garth had debuted in the pages of 1953’s Menace #5.

Pre-Code and Pre-Marvel (Marvel was printed under the name Atlas at the time) Menace #9 gives its readers several truly disturbing tales, featuring vampires and werewolves. The final story in this anthology book is “The Walking Dead.” A zombie emerges from its grave for unknown reasons and immediately begins to consume all living things in its path, from owls to snakes, to satiate its insatiable hunger. Our zombie antagonist, unlike the modern zombie, is fully capable of articulate speech. Our zombie comes across the home of an elderly man, whose dog promptly attacks and is just as quickly dispatched with a snap of the neck. After taking several shotgun blasts to the neck and remaining unyielding in its approach, our zombie accosts the man in his house. The zombie questions him as to whether or not he’s alone in his home. The man says that his wife is just through that door. Our zombie, ever mindful of his manners, proclaims, “Ladies first,” as he sets upon his quest to consume her. Once through the door, the man slams it behind the zombie, informing him that she is indeed in the room but had recently passed. The room is a crematorium. Talk about bad luck for our zombie friend. He just happened to pick the one house on the block that also has a crematorium. Maybe every house had a crematorium back then, the 50s were weird. The man sets about igniting the flames and as our zombie begs for his life, and presumably the man’s deceased spouse, is consumed by the flames in a two-for-one cremation special. The man is safe. The zombie is dead... or is he? No, he’s definitely dead. Several decades later, Stan must’ve had a complete change of heart when it came to zombies. In 2015, Stan Lee was interviewed by a Seattle based magazine in which he stated that, “I have a funny feeling about Zombies. I figure that whole concept is wrong. Because I think If anyone was dead and came back to life, he’d be so happy he’s living again he wouldn’t want to kill anyone—he’d want to party!”

Zombie stories, like Stan Lee’s The Walking Dead, have their place within pop culture often serving as an outlet to express the fears and anxieties of its writer and readership. The page prior to the beginning of The Walking Dead has a quarter page inhouse advertisement giving its readers tips for warding off polio. Some of the tips include: Don’t mix with new groups. Don’t get chilled (stay warm). Don’t get overtired. Do keep clean. Although the origin of the zombie is never discussed within this short story nor are the capabilities of spreading the zombie virus, (with fears of contracting polio a very concern) make stories like this even more relevant.

Pre-Code horror was a thing of beauty but unfortunately nothing beautiful lasts. The Comics Code Authority instituted rules that either banned or prohibited: scenes of excessive violence, brutal torture and unnecessary knife and gunplay, physical agony, the gory and gruesome crime shall be eliminated. No comic magazine shall use the words “horror” or “terror” in its title.”

The weight of the Comics Code Authority forced several publishers to shutter their doors permanently while other publishers, writers and artists were forced to find more clever and more devious ways to integrate horror into their books. The Code loosened in the 1970s and by the 1980s and 90s the Comics Code was all but a thing of the past. Few books still carried the stamp of approval and those that didn’t sold equally as well, if not better.

Stan Lee continued to influence creators, both in and out of the comic industry, for decades. Robert Kirkman, creator of Invincible and the Walking Dead, is among those inspired by Lee.

Kirkman was approached by Marvel about bringing the Walking Dead to the House of ideas, but with the ability to own, manage and profit from his own creation, compounded by a negative experience, while working at Marvel kept Kirkman away. Throughout his life, like a zombie reaching up from the grave, Stan continued to push past what was considered acceptable by society’s standards. It was that desire to push boundaries that will forever endear Stan in our hearts. Stan Lee even expressed interest in appearing as a zombie on Kirkman’s television adaptation of The Walking Dead but unfortunately never appeared on the show. Stan’s impact and memory, like the zombie genre, live on.

BY ROB LOCKETT