Paul Cornell has decided that contemporary comics readers (and indeed creators) are being deprived of something their predecessors took for granted: the nick-name, as exemplified by Stan ‘the Man’ Lee: “He decreed that the professionals who worked for him would be known as Merry Gerry Conway, Gentleman Gene Colan (or Gene ‘the Dean’ Colan), Sturdy Steve Ditko, Rascally Roy Thomas and so on. He was the first to call Jack ‘King’ Kirby. And this whole business is yet another reason why Stan was such a founding genius of all we love. Now, I was saying the other day that it’s one of the disappointments of my life to have arrived at Marvel too late to get such a nickname. But then it struck me, True Believers: others don’t have to suffer thus! So what we’re going to do is this: plonk your ideas for Stan Lee nicknames for modern comics professionals (or for writers outside the field, even) in the Comments to this blog. Or send me them by Twitter. A nickname should hopefully not only match Stan’s ear for assonance and zing, it should say something true about the individual assigned it.”
Hmmm – for Paul himself perhaps ‘Paul “Cameos for Peerages” Cornell’? We’re all waiting to see just how soon the Prime Minister slips him a knighthood for that appearance in Captain Britain. Or we could just cut out the middleman and dub him ‘Sir Paul’ from now on. And maybe we could make editor, writer and blogger John Freeman ‘Fluff’ Freeman in honour of the famous DJ. I eagerly await seeing what suggestions come forth for Warren Ellis…
Leave a Reply