Stan Lee (1922–2018) began his career with wartime Timely Comics, and staying the course throughout the Atlas era, Stan the Man made comic book history with Fantastic Four #1, harbinger of a bold new perspective in story writing that endures to this day. With some of the industry’s greatest artists, he introduced hero after hero in Incredible Hulk, Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, and more, forming a shared universe for rival publishers to measure themselves against. After an almost literal lifetime of writing and editing, Lee was involved in movies and television via his company POV! Entertainment. He was Marvel’s chairman emeritus and best-known public representative.

Jack Kirby was regarded as one of the major innovators of comic books as one of its most prolific and influential creators. He, along with Joe Simon and Stan Lee, created the highly successful superheroes such as Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk.

The Lee-Kirby titles garnered high sales and critical acclaim. Called "the William Blake of comics," in 1987 Kirby was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Marvel, not entirely happy with the end result of the Prisoner work by Kirby, decided to commission Steve Englehart to write the rest of the comic. He was known for his work for DC, Malibu, Eclipse Comics, Topps, Valiant and Warren Publishing and co-created Shang-Chi Master of Kung Fu for Marvel Comics.

Roy Thomas worked for Marvel Comics between 1965 and 1980, during which time he served as writer, editor and editor-in-chief.

Having co-written two films, contributed to a number of books and co-authored one with Stan Lee, Roy is truly an expert on all things Marvel.

Considered the groundbreaking artist of the 1960s, Neal Adams was born June 6, 1941, in New York City. He attended Manhattan's High School of Industrial Art and, while still a student, found work ghosting the Bat Masterson syndicated newspaper strip and drawing gag cartoons for Archie Comics. Neal received his own comic strip, based on the popular TV series Ben Casey, in 1962. The strip ran until 1965, at which time Neal made the move to comics for Warren Publishing and DC Comics. Neal's realistic style on such strips as Deadman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow, at odds with the more cartoony comics of the day, made him an immediate star. He became DC's premier cover artist, contributing radical and dynamic illustrations to virtually the company's entire line. Neal's work has also appeared in Marvel's X-Men, The Avengers and Thor, on paperback book covers and on stage, as the art director for the Broadway science fiction play Warp. In the 1970s Neal and partner (and frequent inker) Dick Giordano started the art agency Continuity Associates, out of which came, in the 1980s, Continuity Comics. Neal is the winner of several Alley, Shazam and Inkpot awards, and was inducted into the Harvey Awards' Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999.