Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Charles Lippincott, Comics, entertainment, rob liefeld, roy thomas, stan lee, star wars

Rob Liefeld Vs. Charles Lippincott Over Star Wars And Stan Lee

Published Tue, 15 Sep 2015 11:00:39 -0500

Robert Liefeld purchased a Star Wars pocketbook from 1977, which reprinted Marvel Star Wars comics in black and white with a paperback spine. These days we'd call it a trade paperback.

He scanned and posted from the forward by Stan Lee on Facebook.

I love comics history! It is well documented that Stan Lee turned down Star Wars as a comic several times until one last press by Roy Thomas to make it happen and save the day. I purchased a rare pocketbook reprint of Marvel's Star Wars adaptation in black and white and loved reading, in Stan's own words, why he had reservations, even though they sound semi-ridiculous. Bottom line, he gets the credit for giving it the all important green light and getting the comic off the ground and into the history books. Star Wars kept Marvel in the black during a difficult publishing period.

Time for some commets…

Warren Hayes Charles Lippincott had a lot to do with this as well.

Rob Liefeld I see Charles take a lot of credit for lots of stuff. No Roy Thomas, no Star Wars, period.

Did someone mention Charles Lippincott? Advertising publicity supervisor on the first movie, who has written a series of blogposts about how the Marvel comic book was all down to him, such as,

Sure enough, Ed knew Roy and set up a meeting that evening. We went to Roy's house and I pitched him the star wars comic books. Roy loved it. Roy wanted to be involved! Great! I mean, Roy was a legend! It would be a phenomenal team — Roy writing and Chaykin drawing. the two would do a great comic book. Roy then set up a meeting with Stan. See, what this proves is that there's more ways than one to get into a door. I mean, in LA it's legendary that writers try everything from throwing scripts over a producer's fence so it lands next to them sunbathing by the pool to getting to know an actor's hairdresser. I was going to use every possible connection to get an in to meeting Marvel.

The meeting. Stan Lee and Eddie Shukin, business manager for Marvel, were there as Roy pitched the project. I stepped in, telling them the number of comic books I wanted to do, when I wanted to have them out, and how I would promote the comicbooks. Besides the typical publicity route, I would arrange for us to get put on San Diego's 1976 Comic-Con's schedule, and even bring Roy and Howard out for a presentation. We would do a Chaykin poster that would be sold for a minimal fees to give the fans something they could take away with them until the comic book came out. While the idea of getting fans reved up and interested in Marvel's Star Wars Comics thrilled Stan and Shuykin, what excited them even more was they weren't going to have to spend a penny licensing the comics. We were giving them the rights free. And to top it off, we would not only give them the first 5 issues free, they wouldn't have to spend a nickle promoting it. We would foot the bill, from Comic-con to ads. This was an offer Marvel couldn't refuse.

So it was time for Charles to pop up on Rob's Facebook feed.

Charles Lippincott NEWS FLASH GUYS — This is Hogwash. I was there. I made the deal. Both Stan and Roy are taking credit for stuff they did not do.

Rob Liefeld So Stan and Roy are both lying?

Charles Lippincott Rob, what you are looking at is copy that was written in 1977 that was based on the an advertising insert in Marvel Star Wars Comics #1. This is where this Del Rey introduction comes from. Would you like me to send you copies of private emails between Roy and I from Nov. 2014-Jan 2015 where Roy admits he didn't remember certain events?

Rob Liefeld Charles, I have no agenda here. I'm a fan who saw Star Wars umpteen times at the age of 9 in '77 and I have read a few of these remembrances from Shooter, Lee and Thomas. I shared something of interest to me, without intent to stir any pot.

Charles Lippincott Rob, if that was the case, you would not have deleted the post I had uploaded.

Rob Liefeld I delete all tags on my page. This is getting creepy

Rob Liefeld Here's my brain cramp – this forward had to be at least advised or at most approved by Lucasfilm. Ditto the forward that Roy Thomas writes in the 2015 Star Wars Marvel omnibus. I had no idea the level of hostility that Mr. Lippencott associates with this stuff. I'm sharing snippets of catalogued history for the fun of it. I was 9 when this was published. I'm very excited about everything Star Wars with Force Awakens getting closer. I had planned on sharing the Roy Thomas forward but I think that would prove even more incendiary.