Stan Lee (1922-2018)

To all true believers, keep on dreaming! - Stan Lee

We just came across this precious nugget on YouTube, featuring Stan Lee and partner-in-crime John Buscema, sharing their best tips and tricks on how to draw comics “the Marvel Way”. It’s an hour long but we just couldn’t help ourselves.

How, err, Marvel-ous to see dear old Stan in his prime, a welcome respite to soothe our little aching hearts from his recent passing.

Born Stanley Martin Lieber, he was the force behind comics legends like the Fantastic Four (his first creation with artist/writer/editor Jack Kirby), Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, and Thor, among others. Starting his decades-long career in 1939 as an office assistant, he shepherded Marvel Comics through a World War, a bitter rivalry with DC Comics, a successful foray into cinema, and a seamless evolution into the digital age.

Certainly, superhero blockbusters will never be the same again without Mr. Cameo inserting himself in random movie scenes. He played a hot dog vendor (“X-Men”, 2000), a security guard (“Hulk”, 2003), a wedding crasher (“Fantastic Four”, 2007), his almost-but-not-quite-lookalikes Hugh Hefner (“Iron Man”, 2008) and Larry King (“Iron Man 2”, 2010), and many more. Even comic books weren’t spared from Stan’s surprise but welcome appearances.

As if that wasn’t enough, he also created POW! Entertainment, starred in History Channel’s “Stan Lee’s Superhumans”, and published his autobiography. And like a kid out of school, at 95 years old, Stan even made a final trip to L.A. Comic Con, a mere two weeks before he passed.

Wish we had half your energy, Stan. You, your talent, your creativity, and especially your humour will be missed.