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caffeinatedTopic: Comic Book History
TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3707 - This past Saturday, in Blog #3606, I shared with you a special photo album that I featured on my Facebook Fan Page, titled... "Magazine Management Company's History". On Sunday, I heard from Mr. Allen Bellman, a 'Golden Age' comic book creator that has been mentioned in this blog before. Here's the email from Allen Bellman:
After reading the above... I remembered seeing the name Robert Solomon before. As a matter of fact, it was a paragraph from Larry Lieber in an article. Larry, for those of you that don't know... Is the younger brother of Stan Lee, (aka Stanley Martin Lieber, before he changed his name).
So that would make both Larry and his brother, Stan, that were both introduced to Timely / Atlas Comics by their Uncle Robbie Solomon! Here's what Joe Simon, (who hired Stan at eight dollars a week), said in an interview: "Simon: "Your Uncle Robbie brought you into the office one day and he said, 'This is Martin Goodman's wife's nephew'. [sic] ... You were seventeen years old". As to what relationship Robbie was to Stan and Larry... Robert Solomon was a brother to Stan & Larry's mother, Cecilia née Solomon, who married Jack Lieber. So what did Robert do for Martin's companies? Here's a bit from Brad Elliott: "If you pay attention to the names in the Ownership Statements, you’ll notice that up until 1952, Robert Solomon is listed as the Atlas Business Manager". From Vince Fago, (source - Alter Ego #11 by Jim Amash): "Robert Solomon was married to Martin Goodman's sister, and he kept everybody honest. It was a sin if you worked on the side for anybody else. Some guys would rent a hotel room and moonlight". BTW, I couldn't find a photo of Robert Solomon, and mentioned this to Allen Bellman. As a follow up email from Allen Bellman stated: "Michael, I once asked Stan for his (Solomon's) foto, and he didn't have one. I was going to write a story on Robby Solomon for Alter-Ego mag. He was a short gentleman, nice looking face but got on every ones back to draw like Mac Raboy and artists like him".
From CopyCatEffect Blog on Blogspot: "(Mel) Stuart was also survived by his first cousin, Marvel Comics genius Stan Lee. Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber in New York City on December 28, 1922, in the apartment of his Romanian-born Jewish immigrant parents, Celia (née Solomon) and Jack Lieber, in Manhattan. Recall that Mel Stuart was born Stuart Solomon. It was with the help of Stan Lee's uncle Robbie Solomon, Lee became an assistant in 1939 at the new Timely Comics division of pulp magazine and comic-book publisher Martin Goodman's company. Young Stanley Lieber made his comic-book debut with the text filler "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge" in Captain America Comics #3 (May 1941), using the pseudonym "Stan Lee," which years later he would legally take as his name. Lee, whose cousin Jean was Goodman's wife, was formally hired by Timely editor Joe Simon". From the book, 'Stan Lee: Comic Book Superhero': "Lee's Uncle Robbie, who set up Lee with the job at Timely, did not bother telling Goodman that Lee had been hired. According to Lee, Goodman appeared suprised when he saw him in the office". Via the Marvel Wiki: Link. As you can see, there is next to nothing on Robert at that link. Per Atlas Tales... Robert Solomon was the Business Manger for Atlas Comics in 1951, as seen at this comic book listing, and others at the web site. It would also be shown that Robert was also involved as an 'editor'. From GCD - The credits for Robert Solomon are seen at: List of searched items. That's about it on Robert 'Robbie' Solomon at this time, as there just isn't that much online to refer to him... Other than the same repeated line that he helped get Stan Lee into comics. For more info on Larry Lieber, here is the link to his Wikipedia entry. Here is the link to Stan Lee's Wikipedia entry. Unfortunately Robert Solomon doesn't have a Wiki entry... Again, my thanks to Mr. Allen Bellman, (his web site linked here), who started this blog post! ~ Michael
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Stan Lee was the nephew of Robert Solomon, called "Uncle Robby" who was a brother in law to Martin Goodman, Solomon was a former ladies hat salesman who was brought in to work for Goodman. And that is how Stan began his career. I can always remember Stan walking behind Robby Solomon following him around, I suppose "breaking" him in for his job . After passing, Robert Solomon, at a young age, Stan Lee never walked behind anyone again !
Larry Lieber: "I remember once, and I don’t know when it was, but my uncle, Rob Solomon, took me down to Timely Comics. They were in a building called the McGraw Hill Building, (seen to the left in 1936), later on in the Empire State Building. I actually worked there when I was about 17, but not in the comics; and he took me down there."
From HollywoodNepotism.net: "Martin Goodman, (shown at the left), began publishing pulp magazines in 1933, just as the earliest comics books were appearing. His company was nepotistic from the start, with his brother Abe Goodman in charge of accounting, his brother Dave Goodman doing photography, and his brother Artie Goodman in production. Martin's brother-in-law, Robbie Solomon, was the office gopher".
NOTE FROM
Martin Goodman, (pictured to the left in 1942), who was the owner of the magazine house 'Magazine Management Company', founded Lion Books in November of 1949. Early releases carried the imprint "Red Circle Books" (numbers 1-7, 12 and 13); later volumes were "Lion Books" (numbers 8-11 and 14-233).
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