In what must have been the most wholesome wartime collaboration in military history, Marvel legend Dr. Seuss to help the Allies win World War II. Seriously.
Stan Lee got his start in comics in 1939, working as an assistant at Timely Comics. Two years later, in 1941, he'd get his first big break writing a two-page short for Captain America Comics #3. Lee quickly rose in the ranks at Timely (which would eventually become Marvel), becoming the publisher's interim editor that same year. It was this nascent stage of Lee's comic book career that would lead to him crossing paths with one Theodor Seuss Geisel.
Lee enlisted in the army in 1942 during the height of World War II and was set to deploy overseas when his brief history in comics totally changed his wartime course at the last minute. "I was practically waiting at the pier for the ship to take me overseas when I got a tap on the shoulder, and some colonel said, 'You worked in comics?' Yes. 'We have a job for you,'" home to Theodor Seuss Geisel, the man who would one day become Dr. Seuss.
Remarkably, Lee and Seuss weren't the only ones in the unit who would later go on to become legends in the entertainment industry. The division also included Frank Capra, director of movies like It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Also in the division was Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright William Saroyan. Lee returned to comics in 1945, but the work he did while working alongside the beloved Dr. Seuss would not go unrecognized. In 2017, Lee was inducted into the Army Signal Corps Regimental Association and the U.S. Army's official Twitter even sent out a message honoring Lee following his November 12, 2018 death, tweeting, "Rest in peace, Soldier."
But despite what he and his team helped to accomplish, Lee remained humble, saying, "it was the least I could do for my country." They may not have fought on the frontlines, and they may be best known today for their fictional characters, but in real life, Stan Lee and Dr. Seuss teamed up in an unlikely collaboration to help win World War II.
