"TRUE BELIEVER"
"STAN LEE TRUE BELIEVER: The Father Of SUPER HEROES"
or "HOW I GOT INVOLVED WITH THE STAN LEE DOCUMENTARY
by Matt Hawes
"THE VOICES of MARVEL"
In 1965, Marvel Comics editor STAN LEE and most of the Marvel Comics creative staff (known as the MARVEL BULLPEN) made recording for members of its official fan club, known collectively as The Merry Marvel Marching Society. This recording was put on a plastic flexible 45 RPM record and it featured a spoken skit with STAN and the Bullpen. It was called, appropriately enough, "The Voices of Marvel"!
In November, 2006, I had the idea to take that audio recording and add images to it that would fit with what was being spoken. I tracked down some pictures of STAN LEE and the various other people that were on the recording or mentioned in it. In an effort to help track down some images I did not already have saved, I requested assistance from members of the JOHN BYRNE message board. I took the images I gathered and cropped, colored, and placed them in the video I was editing. Once I was finished working on the video, I uploaded it to YouTube.
Only weeks after the video was posted, MARK EVANIER, a respected comic book and television writer, posted the video in one of his blog entries at his website. And, not too long after that, I was contacted by a representative of STAN LEE from STAN's company, POW ENTERTAINMENT. STAN had seen my video and was pleased with it, I was told. He also inquired about the many photos used in the video. I sent STAN a copy of all the pictures I had gathered, many of which were not even included in the actual video. STAN was grateful and sent me a very cool signed photograph: 
In the Summer of 2007, I was contacted by a producer for "TRUE BELIEVER: The Father of SUPER HEROES," a documentary of the life of STAN LEE. It seems that STAN had mentioned my video to the producers and they wanted to include it in their documentary.
In addition, they asked if I would like to serve as a consultant on the film, providing them with information and scans from comics and related materials that could be used in the film. I agreed to do so, and I was even put in charge of running the official MySpace page for the documentary.
As of Spring 2008, the final editing and effects are being worked on for the film. More news on "TRUE BELIEVER" should be coming out around the time of the SAN DIEGO COMICON in the Summer of 2008. In addition, I will be updating this page and the MySpace page as soon as I am given anymore information from the film's producers.
