斯坦·李（2023）

(作家文摘 1947年11月)
如今我有那样的工作了
and now I had one.
写作对我来说很容易
Writing came very easily to me.
在那个年代 那样赚钱很有趣
And in those early days, it was a fun way to make money.
我以编辑、艺术总监 和首席作家的身分领薪水
I was getting paid as an editor, art director, and head writer,
但只要写故事 我就论件计酬
but any stories that I wrote I got paid for on a freelance basis.
我以编辑的身分买♥♥下我所有的故事
So as the editor, I bought all my stories.
我太太和我有点挥霍无度
My wife and I, we were a little bit extravagant.
我们赚多少花多少
We lived right up to whatever I made,
当时与现在我都深爱着她
and I was and am very much in love with her.
不管琼恩要什么 我都说
So whatever Joanie wanted, I’d say,
「没关系 老婆 今晚我再写个故事就有钱了」
“That’s fine, honey, I’ll write another story tonight to pay for it.”
不只是她 只要我想买♥♥什么
Not only her, anytime I wanted something.
我想要新车
I want a new car.
就写几个故事 支付头期款
Okay. I’ll write a couple of stories, that’ll take care of the down payment,
每次到缴款日 我就继续写故事
and I’ll keep writing stories every time the payments come due.
我总是在写故事 应付我们的开销
I was always writing the stories to keep up with what we were doing.
可以说骑虎难下 但我们热爱那种生活
It was like having a tiger by the tail. But we loved living that way.
(1954年)
当时漫画的地位不高
In those days, comics weren’t thought of very highly.
我记得我们去参加派对 有人走过来说
I remember we’d go to parties and somebody would walk over to me
「你做哪一行?」
and say, “What do you do?”
我尽量不说实话 就说我是作家
And I tried not to say, and I would say, “Oh, I’m a writer,”
走开之后 那个人跟过来
and I’d walk away, but the person would follow me,
「那你都写什么?」
“Well, what do you write?”
我说:「给年轻人看的故事」
And I’d say, “Oh, stories for young people.”
走开 他又跟来:「哪种故事?」
Walk away further. Follow me, “What kind of stories?”
「杂♥志♥故事」 「什么杂♥志♥?」
“Magazine stories.” “Well, what magazine?”
后来我只好说漫画
At some point, I had to say comic books,
问个不停的那个人就说:「我懂了」
and the person who had been interrogating me would, “Oh, I see,”
然后转身离开
and turn around and leave me, you know.
阅读 如果阅读有价值的东西
Reading. What a wonderful thing this would be
会有多么美好
if they were reading something worthwhile.
但他们不是阅读建设性的东西
But they’re not reading anything constructive,
而是描写通奸、性变♥态♥
they’re reading stories devoted to adultery, to sexual perversion,
恐怖、卑劣犯罪的故事
to horror, to the most despicable of crimes.
当年我们必须把漫画
In those days, we had to submit the comics
交给出版界成立的
to a self-censorship organization
一个自我审查组织
that had been set up by the publishers.
它叫漫画审议局
It was called the Comics Code Authority.
我们出的书都得交给他们
All the books we published had to be presented to them
他们会确保书中内容
and they would make certain there was nothing in them
不会伤害美国年轻人
that would ruin the youth of America.
人们认为漫画只是给小孩看的
People thought of comics as being just for little kids.
编写时也是以小孩为目标
And they were written and drawn with that in mind.
在那个年代 看漫画时
In those days, you’re reading a comic book,
上面可能是任何超级英雄
and it could really be any superhero,
他走在街上
and he’s walking down the street
穿着他的彩色长内♥裤♥装
and he’s got his little colorful long underwear suit on,
看见一个虫眼大怪兽走过来
and he sees a big, bug-eyed monster coming toward him,
他的对话差不多就会是
and his dialogue would have been something the equivalent of,
「来自外星球的生物
“Oh, a creature from another planet.
我最好在牠毁灭世界前逮到牠」
“I had better capture him before he destroys the world.”
(美国队长)
我的出版商马丁古曼常对我说
My publisher, Martin Goodman, he used to say to me,
「记住 斯坦 别用超过两个音节的字
“Remember, Stan, don’t use words of more than two syllables.
不要有太多对话 动作要多
“Don’t have too much dialogue. Get a lot of action.
别担心角色刻画」
“Don’t worry about characterization.”
过了一阵子 我很想辞职
After a while, I really wanted to quit.
(机械人!)
最佳影片得奖的是 《公♥寓♥春光》 比利怀德
For the best motion picture, The Apartment, Billy Wilder.
别问国家为你做了什么
Ask not what your country can do for you…
(1961年)
我总觉得我在浪费时间
I always felt I was really wasting time.
我想 好吧 我靠卖♥♥漫画讨生活
I felt okay, so I’m making a living with selling comics,
有人造桥 有人做医学研究
but there are people building bridges and people doing medical research
有人在做重要的事
and people doing things that matter.
我却在写这些愚蠢的幻想故事
And I’m writing these stupid little fantasy stories.
(救命啊!)
(我是谁?)
我总觉得
I always felt, you know,
一个大男人怎么能做漫画?
how could a grown man be doing comic books?
他觉得不能那样下去
And he just felt that he can’t just go on doing this…
做那些幼稚的东西
What he thought was childish stuff.
我对他说
And then I said to him,
「你何不创造你喜欢的角色?」
“Well, why don’t you create characters that you like?”
「最糟的结果就是你被开除
“The worst that’ll happen is you’ll get fired
反正你也想辞职了
“and you want to quit anyway.
就试一次看看嘛」
“Get it out of your system.”
(马丁·古曼 年轻优秀的杂♥志♥之王)
当时马丁古曼发现 我们的竞争对手DC漫画
At that time, Martin Goodman had found out that our competitor, DC Comics,
出了一本《美国正义联盟》
they had done a book called The Justice League of America.
一群超级英雄 销量非常好
A group of superheroes, and it was selling very well.
(有了!)
他对我说:「斯坦 你干脆做一本
And he said to me, “Stan, why don’t you do a book
关于一批超级英雄的书」
“about a group of superheroes?”
我想这是我发挥创意的好机会
So I figured this is my chance to do it my way.
我回家动笔
So I went home and wrote.
我想到写出自己喜欢看的故事
It occurred to me that it might be fun to put out the kind of stories
可能很有意思
that I would enjoy reading myself,
比为八岁小孩写来得有趣
rather than just writing for the eight or nine-year-old.
当时杰克·柯比已经回来了
By that time, Jack Kirby had come back.
我说:「杰克 如果好人
So I said, “Jack, wouldn’t it be fun if we have good guys
偶尔会摔倒 偶尔犯错
“who occasionally fall on their faces, who occasionally make mistakes,
会在最后一刻失手 让坏人逃走
“trip at the last minute and let the bad guy get away?
如果坏人几乎让你同情
“Wouldn’t it be nice to have bad guys that you could almost relate to
让人觉得如果我是他
“and feel, ‘Ah, well, you know, maybe I’d have done the same thing
也许我也会做一样的事」
“‘if I was in his position?'”
五、四、三、二、一、零
Five, four, three, two, one, zero.
那正是一切的开端
That was really the start of everything.
(李德博士 班 苏珊 钱宁)
我想出四个超级英雄 称之为神奇四侠
I came up with four superheroes I called The Fantastic Four.
他们都登上一艘火箭
See what happened, they all went in a rocket ship
受到宇宙射线影响
and they were affected by cosmic rays.
宇宙射线给了他们超人类能力
And the cosmic rays gave them superhuman abilities.
但我设法写得写实一点
And yet I tried to be realistic about it.
这个英雄并不完美
The hero wasn’t just a perfect guy,
他跟我一样 话太多
he was a fellow like me. He talks too much.
他总是让别人觉得无聊
He was always boring the others,
因为其中一人老是说:「闭嘴好吗?」
because one of the other guys was always saying, “Will you shut up?”
女生不是那种常见的女性角色 她晓得英雄的真实身分
And instead of an obligatory female, who doesn’t know who the hero really is,
她是英雄的未婚妻
she was the hero’s fianc茅e,
她也有超能力 跟别人一样厉害
and she also had a super power that was as good as anyone else’s.
这团体中的少年不想当超级英雄
The teenager in the group didn’t want to be a superhero.
跟我青少年时期一样
Like I would have been when I was a teenager.
他想跟女生约会 开跑车
He wanted to go out with girls and ride his sport car.
第四个人是怪物 他出过事
And the fourth guy was a monster. Something had happened to him,
变得很丑 非常强壮
and he became very ugly and incredibly strong.
我用他来引人同情和搞笑
And I used him for both pathos and humor.
他总爱和其他人吵架
He was always fighting with the others,
总爱找霹雳火麻烦 就是那个少年
and he was always picking on the Human Torch that was a teenager,
他也常跟他打闹 他们发生很多搞笑情节
who was always picking on him, and I got a lot of comedy out of them.
我没让他们住在虚构的地方
Instead of having them live in a fictional place
像是大都会或高谭市
like Metropolis or Gotham City,
我让他们住在纽约市
I plunked ’em right down in New York City.
因为我了解纽约市 可以写纽约市
Because I knew New York City, I could write about New York City,
我想何不让他们住在真的地方呢?
and I figured why not let ’em live in a real place?
有一天我想到
And one day it occurred to me,
让他们失去所有的钱应该很好玩
it would be fun to show that they lost all their money.
(神奇四侠的末日)
我想其他漫画没发生过这种事
I don’t think that had ever happened in any other comic book,
一个超级英雄团体被赶出总部
where a superhero group got kicked out of their headquarters
因为付不出房♥租
’cause they couldn’t pay the rent.
我尽量维持故事的写实性
I tried to keep everything as realistic as possible
即使那只是超级英雄漫画
even though it was just a superhero comic.
(神奇四侠)