Current Events > Open letter to Bill Maher from Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment

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http://therealstanlee.com/open-letter-to-bill-maher.html

Mr. Maher: Comic books, like all literature, are storytelling devices. When written well by great creators such as Stan Lee, they make us feel, make us think and teach us lessons that hopefully make us better human beings. One lesson Stan taught so many of us was tolerance and respect, and thanks to that message, we are grateful that we can say you have a right to your opinion that comics are childish and unsophisticated. Many said the same about Dickens, Steinbeck, Melville and even Shakespeare.

But to say that Stan merely inspired people to watch a movie is in our opinion frankly disgusting. Countless people can attest to how Stan inspired them to read, taught them that the world is not made up of absolutes, that heroes can have flaws and even villains can show humanity within their souls. He gave us the X-Men, Black Panther, Spider-Man and many other heroes and stories that offered hope to those who felt different and bullied while inspiring countless to be creative and dream of great things to come.

These are but a few of the things we the fans of Stan Lee also consider adulting, because life both as a child and grown-up can indeed be a struggle. Stan is the author of millions of happy childhood memories and the provider of so many of the positive tools of adulthood.

Our shock at your comments makes us want to say Nuff said, Bill, but instead we will rely on another of Stans lessons to remind you that you have a powerful platform, so please remember: With great power there must also come -- great responsibility!

-Team Stan
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I bet he never responds to this

Friendly reminder that Maher thought it was a good idea to call himself a "house n*****" while knowingly on camera in front of a live audience.

He's honestly not very smart.
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Of course they have to make it into some valiant defense of a heroic lifestyle. I still agree with Bill.

Like, their genre is massively successful and mainstream, and they feel victimized because one comedian doesn't conform to the same opinion? Terrible fucking people to the core.
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does anyone honestly give a shit what bill maher thinks
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mario2000 posted...

does anyone honestly give a shit what bill maher thinks

Rikasa does apparently

Pretty good response. Stan Lee really is an American treasure.
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They're definitely right in that Bill has a right to express his opinion, but I'm glad people are exercising their right to put him on blast for sharing one that's so poorly thought out and tasteless
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rikasa posted...

Like, their genre is massively successful and mainstream, and they feel victimized because one comedian doesn't conform to the same opinion? Terrible fucking people to the core.

the movies are. not the comics. barely anyone reads comics anymore

The guy who created Spider-Man and the Hulk has died, and America is in mourning, he wrote. Deep, deep mourning for a man who inspired millions to, I dont know, watch a movie, I guess.

They pretended comic books were actually sophisticated literature,

I dont think its a huge stretch to suggest that Donald Trump could only get elected in a country that thinks comic books are important.

Its more of a diss of Stan Lees fans & fans of comic books.

Whenever somebody famous dies theres always people making idiotic comments.
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as someone that usually agrees with maher on most things i think this was in poor taste and a trashy comment.
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Anno understands the Japanese national attraction to characters like Rei as the product of a stunted imaginative landscape born of Japans defeat in the Second World War. Japan lost the war to the Americans, he explains, seeming interested in his own words for the first time during our interview. Since that time, the education we received is not one that creates adults. Even for us, people in their 40s, and for the generation older than me, in their 50s and 60s, theres no reasonable model of what an adult should be like. The theory that Japans defeat stripped the country of its independence and led to the creation of a nation of permanent children, weaklings forced to live under the protection of the American Big Daddy, is widely shared by artists and intellectuals in Japan. It is also a staple of popular cartoons, many of which feature a well-meaning government that turns out to be a facade concealing sinister and more powerful forces.

Anno pauses for a moment, and gives a dark-browed stare out the window. I dont see any adults here in Japan, he says, with a shrug. The fact that you see salarymen reading manga and pornography on the trains and being unafraid, unashamed or anything, is something you wouldnt have seen 30 years ago, with people who grew up under a different system of government. They would have been far too embarrassed to open a book of cartoons or dirty pictures on a train. But thats what we have now in Japan. We are a country of children.

the creator of Evangelion said this, very similar to Bill's sentiment, and got a lot of shit for it too

they're both fucking right
you can still enjoy your vidya and animu while acknowledging they have good points
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in order to be a proper adult you must live a life of dullness and drudgery devoid of anything that brings you joy
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Maher says dumb shit all the time, it's best not to validate him with overly serious responses
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a lot of people think being individually happy at all times isn't very important.
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if other people choose not to be happy that's fine for them but they need to shut the fuck up and stop shaming others who do choose to be happy
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Really just sounds like old men not understanding the progression of entertainment and the impact that things like comic books and manga could have on people. "Your entertainment isnt important but mine is!". Reeks of the same ignorance of the "hip hop isnt real music!" people.

Frank Sinatra thought rock music was vapid and garbage. Then rock music ruled the world for 40+ years.
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rikasa posted...

Anno understands the Japanese national attraction to characters like Rei as the product of a stunted imaginative landscape born of Japans defeat in the Second World War. Japan lost the war to the Americans, he explains, seeming interested in his own words for the first time during our interview. Since that time, the education we received is not one that creates adults. Even for us, people in their 40s, and for the generation older than me, in their 50s and 60s, theres no reasonable model of what an adult should be like. The theory that Japans defeat stripped the country of its independence and led to the creation of a nation of permanent children, weaklings forced to live under the protection of the American Big Daddy, is widely shared by artists and intellectuals in Japan. It is also a staple of popular cartoons, many of which feature a well-meaning government that turns out to be a facade concealing sinister and more powerful forces.

Anno pauses for a moment, and gives a dark-browed stare out the window. I dont see any adults here in Japan, he says, with a shrug. The fact that you see salarymen reading manga and pornography on the trains and being unafraid, unashamed or anything, is something you wouldnt have seen 30 years ago, with people who grew up under a different system of government. They would have been far too embarrassed to open a book of cartoons or dirty pictures on a train. But thats what we have now in Japan. We are a country of children.

the creator of Evangelion said this, very similar to Bill's sentiment, and got a lot of shit for it too

they're both fucking right
you can still enjoy your vidya and animu while acknowledging they have good points

Their entire arguments hinge on the ambiguous definition of what it means to be an adult, which has constantly been shifted by societal impressions throughout history

Some might say reading manga on the bus makes you a child, others would say not having an established career, wife, and 2 kids by 20 makes you a child. They're all just opinion pieces
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yes, it is their opinions, very good opinion you have about it being their opinion. t hat's also my opinion on the opinion opinion.
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Seriously though bad form from bill maher.
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I was with them up until their defense of "adulting". I don't see comics as being different than any other story telling medium, but the adulting meme needs to die.
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rikasa posted...

they're both fucking right
you can still enjoy your vidya and animu while acknowledging they have good points

"You can enjoy these things and still admit that doing so makes people developmentally stunted manchildren."

Sure, bud. "Adults shouldn't openly admit to playing games, reading comics, and watching movies" is not a fact. It's a weird judgment call based on nothing but the feelings of ironically immature adults.
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Funny thing is quite a few people who complain about video games and comic geeks are not very mature or too deep into their interests themselves can be huge football fans, never miss a game, scream at the tv during the games, get into fights about their teams and remember all goals made by their teams the last 20 years .
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hockeybub89 posted...

rikasa posted...

they're both fucking right
you can still enjoy your vidya and animu while acknowledging they have good points

"You can enjoy these things and still admit that doing so makes people developmentally stunted manchildren."

Sure, bud. "Adults shouldn't openly admit to playing games, reading comics, and watching movies" is not a fact. It's a weird judgment call based on nothing but the feelings of ironically immature adults.

What makes the shit spewing out of his mouth more hilarious is that he's saying all of this on a video game forum. El oh El.
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ThePrinceFish posted...

I was with them up until their defense of "adulting". I don't see comics as being different than any other story telling medium, but the adulting meme needs to die.

are you saying you wanna kill all adults
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Or I just acknowledge that the things I do and the best things to do are not by default the same exact thing. I play a ton of video games. Is that good? Is it good that our society is just rapidly consuming more and more entertainment that mimicks what made us feel good as children? No. I don't think so. I'm sorry if it hurts your feelings but you could have just kept watching your movies if you didn't want to be exposed to it.
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Honestly I wish they would have just ignored him.

The blog was later destroyed.
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All they needed to say is the following: One is only mature when one no longer cares about being mature.
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rikasa posted...

Or I just acknowledge that the things I do and the best things to do are not by default the same exact thing. I play a ton of video games. Is that good? Is it good that our society is just rapidly consuming more and more entertainment that mimicks what made us feel good as children? No. I don't think so. I'm sorry if it hurts your feelings but you could have just kept watching your movies if you didn't want to be exposed to it.

You sound like such an edgy teen.
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rikasa posted...

Or I just acknowledge that the things I do and the best things to do are not by default the same exact thing. I play a ton of video games. Is that good? Is it good that our society is just rapidly consuming more and more entertainment that mimicks what made us feel good as children? No. I don't think so. I'm sorry if it hurts your feelings but you could have just kept watching your movies if you didn't want to be exposed to it.

I acknowledge that and think scapegoating entertainment is stupid. Just like the Japan comment, it's easy to gin up some kind of bogeyman that explains why society isn't good, but maybe the consumption of entertainment is actually a signal that the current socioeconomic system we have is deeply flawed rather than itself being a root cause of the social ills we're facing -- or maybe they aren't, and it's just a thing people do to pass the time the way they used to whittle in the winters when they couldn't farm.

So I guess to me even wasting time talking about whether playing vidya or watching movies is 'the thing to do' is just kind of meaningless, it doesn't matter any more or less than anything else you might do.
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Of course it's not the root cause. Neither myself, Bill Maher, or Hideaki Anno ever said or insinuated it was. The whole point in discussing it is to expose the ills of society and the advanced ways in which those w/ power are extracting value out of us. But it's obviously a very sensitive subject for everyone. I don't think those people should click on the topic that's clearly about Bill Maher's opinion on comics but if they want to ruin their day it's fine with me.
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rikasa posted...

Of course it's not the root cause. Neither myself, Bill Maher, or Hideaki Anno ever said or insinuated it was. The whole point in discussing it is to expose the ills of society and the advanced ways in which those w/ power are extracting value out of us. But it's obviously a very sensitive subject for everyone. I don't think those people should click on the topic that's clearly about Bill Maher's opinion on comics but if they want to ruin their day it's fine with me.

yeah Im saying that even that interpretation gives way too much weight to the phenomenon as I indicated by comparing it to whittling
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also Anno didn't say that but Bill Maher definitely did
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P4wn4g3 posted...

Seriously though bad form from bill maher.

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Whittling doesn't specifically emulate our childhood though. I think that part's important. Humans seem to be particularly vulnerable to that form of advertising basically, probably made sense and rarely came into play over thousands of years of evolution but now it's clearly being exploited.
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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/bill-maher-outrage-stan-lee-comments-proves-my-point-1163378

Bill Maher responded to the outrage. I usually agree with Maher but he's being a fucking idiot. Also, pretending like he was unaware of the outrage is so stupid. You say one stupid thing as a celebrity and you'll hear about it 10 seconds later.
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Maybe Bill is just upset that Stan's 5 second movie appearances are more memorable than Bill's entire career.
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K181 posted...

Friendly reminder that Maher thought it was a good idea to call himself a "house n*****" while knowingly on camera in front of a live audience.

He's honestly not very smart.

Lack of context aside, I don't think he was wrong at all for this instance.
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maher is stupid as shit for this, from all angles. shock value or not, just stupid.
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rikasa posted...

Of course they have to make it into some valiant defense of a heroic lifestyle. I still agree with Bill.

Like, their genre is massively successful and mainstream, and they feel victimized because one comedian doesn't conform to the same opinion? Terrible fucking people to the core.

Well; Bill is mentally deficient, and you agree with him...hmm. And saying that the folks behind the letter are terrible people is just ignorant on so many levels. While vehemently opposing some of the inspiration and entertainment that Mr. Lee provided for generations, you're lurking on a website that is dedicated to the very things that you so obnoxiously abhor...Hypocrisy at it's finest. Bravo, bravo, you provide passionate inspiration to tens of proud Americans. o-O
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he's killing his career over this. what a dumbass.

I mean, some people may think Bill Maher's weed smoking is really immature as well. People are allowed their views. He expressed his and got a bunch of hate for it. That's life. I'm fine with that, but when people don't understand that he was not attacking Stan Lee, their opinion on it means nothing. I still love Bill Maher, though. I'm quite capable of disagreeing with people I like without irrationally raging over such a little thing. That seems like something social media has removed from this world recently.
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Zikten posted...

he's killing his career over this. what a dumbass.

He's really not. Lol.
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btw Stan wasn't just a comic book maker. he was also a WW2 vet. war broke out early in his comic career, and he immediately enlisted to fight for his country. and then returned back to work when the war ended.

Zikten posted...

he's killing his career over this. what a dumbass.

His audience consists of old people who agree with him. If anything he's benefiting from this attention.
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Zikten posted...

btw Stan wasn't just a comic book maker. he was also a WW2 vet. war broke out early in his comic career, and he immediately enlisted to fight for his country. and then returned back to work when the war ended.

He was a great man, but what does this have to do with what Bill Maher said at all? For the record I totally disagree with his opinion, but it wasn't about Stan Lee.
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Zikten posted...

he's killing his career over this. what a dumbass.

Being a "I'm the smartest person in the room" jackass is the foundation of his career.

I'm saying he did more for the world than Bill has