Stanley Martin Lieber was born on December 12, 1922 in New York City. Growing up, his Romanian immigrant parents encouraged young Stan to read and imagine, while instilling in him the value of hard work. Growing up, Stan escaped the harsh realities of the Great Depression by retreating into his imaginary worlds.

When he discovered the magic of motion pictures at age nine, he had no idea that he would go on to create some of the most popular characters and stories to ever appear on that big screen. We are talking of course, about Stan Lee, the writer/editor/publisher/producer responsible for the creation of some of America’s favorite superheroes, including the Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and of course, Spider-Man.

At 15, Lee entered a contest called “The Biggest News of the Week” at a prominent New York City paper. An editor wrote him back, encouraging the youngster to pursue a career as a professional writer. With that boost in confidence, Lee took on jobs during high school such as writing obituaries for a news service and writing ad copy for a hospital. Shortly after graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, he landed a position at Timely publishing company, a lucky break considering Timely would evolve into to Marvel, what is today an international multimedia corporation.

Gradually gaining more responsibility, Lee was granted the opportunity to write a two-page story called “The Traitor’s Revenge,” which appeared in Captain America #3 in May 1941. Just a few months later, he wrote his first full-fledged comic book script, “Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent,” in Captain America #5, August 1941. During the early part of his career, Stan tried out several different pen names, including “S.T. Anley,” “Stan Martin,” and “Neel Nats,” but “Stan Lee” proved to be so successful that he eventually made it his legal name.

Climbing the ranks of the comic industry, Lee introduced the world to the Fantastic Four in November 1961, and then went on to tell the story of the Hulk. In August of 1962, Marvel decided to give Lee’s latest character a trial run in the last issue of Amazing Fantasy. After taking a look at the numbers, they decided to officially publish The Amazing Spider-Man as a regular feature, beginning in March 1963, and, as they say, the rest is history. Spider-Man became Marvel’s flagship character, spawning an extremely popular comic strip, television programs, and two successful superhero movie franchises, and of course, decades of comic books.