Home News North East News

Comic book legend Stan Lee inspired by Newcastle-born wife

Oct 23 2011 by Joanne Butcher, Sunday Sun

Former head of Marvel Comics Stan Lee with wife Joan. Photo courtesy of Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment

A BONNIE North lass inspired the career of one of the biggest stars of the comic-book world.

Stan Lee, the former head of Marvel Comics, says his Newcastle-born wife Joan Boocock was the one who encouraged him when his career was flagging.

And the stunning redhead was also the inspiration behind some of his most famous cartoon heroines – including Spiderman’s girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson.

Joan, now 90 and still living with Stan in Beverley Hills, California, has told the Sunday Sun of her fond memories of life in Newcastle.

“I was born in Gosforth, and grew up there and in Fawdon,” she said. “It was about a mile out of town on one of the blue buses. They called us Geordies, or Fighting Northumbrians, because we were the hardest fighters in the war.”

Stunning Joan, a successful actress, model and singer, met Stan after the Second World War in America, where she had moved in search of glitz.

“At the end of the war I looked around and, after all that excitement, England seemed so sad and war-torn,” she said.