I have a mixed opinion about this book. I liked the drawings, which were easy to understand and the faces of the characters which were quite expressive. I had a hard time with the text though. I found that there was too much of it in some passages and I had a hard time retaining the important information.

3.5 stars!

I learned a lot about Stan from this book! The artwork was great, it had the old-school Marvel vibes that suited the topic.

2 stars - It was ok

As someone who is a fan of Marvel Comics but does not know a lot about Stan Lee’s personal life or career, I was hoping to enjoy this graphic and learn a lot about this famous man. While there is a lot of information about Lee’s life, the way it was presented wasn’t very enjoyable. This presented a lot of information and dialogue from Stan’s life all in text bubbles with minimal art surrounding it. There was so much dialogue at times that it was muddled and makes me question why a graphic novel format was chosen for this biography. Another complaint about the artwork was that a lot of the characters looked very similar making it very hard to differentiate who they were supposed to be.

This is a long look at Lee’s life and there was no distinction between sections or time skips. It was constant time jumps with no indication of how old he was during the text/graphics. You are basically just guessing Stan’s age by context clues and things like his appearance in certain movies.

While this does give you a general outline of his life, it’s not a very fun or enjoyable read. Scioli’s artwork is just ok and made it hard to figure out who is in the panels, the dialogue was dense and boring at times, the timeline hard to follow, and Stan’s main comic writing days got old quickly.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Tom Scioli, and Ten Speed Press for a chance to review this book. I was given this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion. I have not felt compelled, in any way, by the author, the publisher, or NetGalley to alter my sincerest thoughts on this book. Every word of this review is solely and completely mine.

I Am Stan is a graphic novel biography of Stan Lee, the famous and well-known comic book co-creator of such iconic characters as Spider-man, the Fantastic Four, the Uncanny X-Men, and Doctor Doom. This graphic novel relates much of what is already known about the man, the stories that have been shared about him already, and some of the controversies that have also been attached to his fame. Clearly, Stan was deservedly egotistical about the business he helped to construct with Marvel Comics, and he usually attempted to share credit with the talent that worked with him, but in his later years, he felt slighted by those co-creators that did not receive the credit, or the acclaim that their work deserved. So, there was a little bitterness that is slung from distinct participants.

IMHO, Tom Scioli fairly conveys the positives and the negatives to the very public animosity that transpired during the early years of his attempt to balance portraying a company man, while simultaneously attempting to adopt policies beneficial to the talent. Clearly, Scioli researched the anecdotes that Lee would often share during public appearances and would give divergent or corroborative information, often shading the stories and amplifying them with nuance. This is a really great read that I think conveys a fair representation of the man.

This biography of Stan Lee is not an incredibly deep dive into the man's life and career, but presents his story fairly and does not make him into a superhero like the ones he created.

Legendary Stan Lee's life is covered in this graphic biography- drawn in the style of old Marvel comics. I found much of it interesting but was not overly impressed with the work as a whole.

This is a wonderfully written and illustrated graphic novel. I enjoyed the images as they complimented the story. The author did Stan Lee justice as a man and artist.
Just a treat to read.. than k you for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

This unofficial biographical comic follows the long life of Marvel Comic creator, Stan Lee.

The reader is taken on a journey from the start of Stan's life all the way to his death in this 208-page graphic novel.

I did not enjoy this story for multiple reasons but thought it ultimately provided quite a lot of information to a reader unfamiliar with the specifics of Stan Lee's life.

I personally didn't enjoy the art style of Tom Scioli. A lot of his character designs were extremely similar with minimal distinctive attributes for the reader to follow along with who is who. Additionally, there are a few "close-ups" of some characters that just appear creepy, with large bulging eyes and portraying a fearful expression during what is normal conversation.

Another piece that I don't think translated well into this graphical biography format, is the way the information was presented. This is a long life to cover and inform the reader about. The way Scioli chose to do this was by having almost an entire page filled with text bubbles. Each panel ended up being majority text and minimal art which makes me wonder why a graphic novel was chosen as the format and not just an informative novel with lots of pictures and graphics.

Stan Lee lived a long time and accomplished a lot in his life. But there is poor cohesion to the story as a whole, as well as a poor distinction between "sections" of Stan Lee's life. There are no chapters or page breaks to get the reader an idea of where we approximately are in his life. Nothing to separate childhood from young adulthood to middle age to his final years. The reader has to gauge his general age basically just off appearance which is hard to do with this particular art style. The story mentions what feels like every single character Stan Lee had a hand in creating and name-dropping what was likely every single co-worker he had during his main comic writing days. Telling me repetitive back-and-forth between Stan Lee and a co-creator of "What if we name the character this? The company wants a character with this background" and then repeating that conversation several times throughout the next 10 or so pages was frustrating and led me to put the book down several times.

I got an advanced copy from the publishers through Netgalley.

I read this in one sitting. It felt like a string of anecdotes, without much continuity, and didn't give me a sense of who Stan was. I learned a few things about his earlier years.

One major drawback was that it wasn't visual enough to justify it being a graphic novel, a prose biography illustrated with the classic Marvel comics may be more interesting. of anecdotes, without much continuity, and didn't give me a sense of who Stan was. Learned a few things about his earlier years. It wasn't visual enough to justify it being a graphic novel, a prose biography may be more interesting.

I Am Stan presents Stan Lee’s personal and professional lives in appropriate graphic novel form. I liked learning all about the hyper-influencer, but wished for more about the Marvel characters he helped create (early sketches, etc.). Since this is an unlicensed biography, it is likely that the author did not have permission to use the characters in the book, but it suffers because of it.

Thank you, Tom Scioli and NetGalley for an advanced for copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As the title reveals, this graphic novel is all about Stan Lee's life and how he had grown up as a person and also as a publisher. I like the fact the art is basically made in his style and had humour and wit in it, which he was really keen on. However, the story did not flow in an exact way. Sometimes it was hard to pick up what was going on and the narration was most of the time out of place. The characters were kind of flat, unlike Stan Lee himself. What really threw me off was the beginning, where the author states that it is not written based on the reality and also not approved by Stan Lee nor anyone related to him. This book did not really do it for me, but other people could have a different view on it. Despite this I will keep staning Stan Lee.

Quick paced, though sometimes too quickly paced, comic overviewing Stan Lee's life. It's hard to get a handle on a lot that the author is trying to get across, however, the idea that Stan Lee rewrote his own life story as he went along seems to be a central theme. Not an overly flattering portrayal of the man, but also not a super critical one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy to review!

This was a quick and and easy read and the art style fit perfect for the legendary Stan Lee personality. Simple but conveyed the gravitas of a man that just wanted to be noticed.

As a life-long comic fan, it was informative of the history of Marvel Comics and Stan Lee's life. Tom Scioli showed his love of the industry by picking the right hallmarks of Lee's career.

This book is a must for all comic fans and anyone who enjoyed Hip Hop Family tree by Ed Piskor. It's refreshing to see where the comic industry came from to where it lives no.

My final review for I am Stan: Excelsior!

Stan Lee is one of the comic gods. His history is so rooted in Marvel it is hard to separate the two of them. I have read his autobiography comic and unfortunately I can't help but compare the two. This biography has not been approved by the family. It does cover a lot of the same events, but the view was different. For example Stan Lee's father was portrayed differently in the two stories. Doesn't mean it is wrong just because it is different. Sometimes we get blinders to our own life. The art style is very old school. It has the muted colors except bright yellow and red. It fits the time period well, I am just not a huge fan of that style of art. It does get kind of wordy in some pages, but it is difficult to include a full biography in comic form without having a few wordy pages.

3 stars.

While i do appreciate the story the art wasn’t very appealing to the eye and the pages felt to chaotic with so many small panels.

A graphic biography of Stan Lee is attempting to do a lot. Unfortunately, I feel like this biography is going to work only for those who are at least somewhat familiar with Stan Lee's life already. The book was vague in moments I found myself looking up sections of his life to verify I was interpreting things correctly. Other times, I found myself wondering why they included so much detail in other aspects of his life. Overall, I feel like I was not the audience for this, and someone who is a fan of Stan Lee or the comics he created will most likely enjoy this. Thank you to NetGalley and Ten Speed Press for the ARC.

I was excited to pick up this graphic novel about Stan Lee. I find it is a great way to learn about someone’s life. I enjoyed the art style which was reminiscent of early comics. However I had to DNF about 20% because I was so confused. The sorry was told jumping from place to place with no clear through lines.

What better format to tell Stan Lee's life and career than a graphic novel? I was excited about this biography but it didn’t work for me.

This was certainly an interesting bio of Stan Lee. I think that it felt jumpy at points and there wasn't enough info on what time period each scene was happening. I was not a huge fan of the illustrations.

A great biography for Stan Lee, but I wish his family had been involved. It would have meant so much more.