On Monday November 12 we all received sad news, we had lost a comic book titan, Stan Lee, one of the founding lights of Marvel comics, indeed the creator of the modern comic book era died aged 95*. His work revolutionized the comic book turning them from tales of fancy, to stories with true narrative and consequence. Superheros with real world problems, issues and flaws, sounds simple, right? But it changed the landscape and helped build Marvel in to the powerhouse it is today. Now, a lot of creatives know Stan Lee a lot better than me, but I do have my very own special story involving ‘The Man’, this is the day I met Stan Lee

The Day I Met Stan Lee

A few years ago I was at Baltimore Comic Con, I was in the Artist Alley under the Alt World Studios banner and was solo tabling. One of the perils of solo tabling is the pee break, with no one to really watch you table and a high amount of grab items, you really don’t dilly dally when you take a bathroom break.

I was on my way back from the bathroom and almost at my table, making my way through an unexpectedly heavy crowd, over the top of the heads I could see some looking at my books, and desperate to make to sale so I could afford to eat that evening, I really started pushing my way through the crowd. Just in front of me and at the epicenter of the crowd I could see a white haired old man, dressed in khakis slowing making his way. Right in my way! With my eye on the prize, I sort of half pushed, half slide past him with a mumbled ‘excuse me, sorry’ and got to my table just in time to see the potential customer walk away.

It wasn’t until later, after looking at photos from the convention did I realize I had shoved the great Stan Lee out-of-the-way! I had touched greatness in the most impolite way possible. So, you see I sort of met him, in a sort of get out of my way old man fashion.

So ends my Stan Lee story, thank you Sir for all the marvels you have seen and for sharing it with us all. You will be dearly missed and I will do all that I can to carry your legacy forwards. Excelsior!