Stan’s Soapbox: The Collection, which I’ve told you about many times before, is finally out. The book, which collects all of Stan Lee’s “Stan’s Soapbox” columns which originally appeared from 1967 through 1980, plus essays from people such as Joe Quesada, Roy Thomas, and others, including me, has been published by the Hero Initiative as part of its fundraising efforts for comic-book creators in need of financial support.

The large trade paperback is in full color, beautifully illustrated, and turns out to be far more elegantly designed than I’d anticipated. You should all rush out and buy it right now!

But I must admit that there was one page of the book which took me aback.

Page 7, to be exact, which reprints the two-page photo gallery “Meet the Gang in the Merry Marvel Bullpen” from 1964’s Marvel Tales Annual #1. In that spread, an excerpt of which you can see here, all of the Marvel maniacs of the day were pictured along with their nicknames, as given by Stan.

Why did the sight of this bother me?

Well, ten years later, when I started on staff at Marvel, Stan gave me a nickname as well—henceforth I was to be known as “Sparkling” Scott Edelman. I’ve always cherished that appellation and thought that it was mine and mine alone … until today, when I saw that Stan had once dubbed Sol Brodsky “Sparkling” in a feature I’d certainly seen as a kid but had long since forgotten.

By the time I’d met Sol, any “sparkling” was long in his past. He had given up his art chores, worked behind the scenes making the trains run on time, and was known instead as “Jolly” Solly Brodsky.

So it turned out that much the way a baseball player might take over an unretired number, I had inherited a slightly-used nickname, rather than one that was new and, ahem, sparkling. But I guess I shouldn’t complain, because the same thing had happened to Sol, since Jack Kirby had once also been known as “Jolly” long before he became “the King.”

And besides, any nickname direct from the hand of Stan is to be cherished, whether it’s been recycled or not!