Stan Lee charms MegaCon crowds, calls his co-creators’ art ‘beautiful’ as fans follow
Photo/Edward Liu
Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel Comics’ greatest heroes like the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, was the guest of honor at MegaCon. Lee moved from photo shoots to autograph sessions to Q&A panels with hundreds of fans following in tow. The Orange County Convention Center was packed full of fans all eager to ask Stan “The Man” Lee a question or two.
Speaking about death of the Human Torch, a recent event in the Fantastic Four storyline, Lee admits that “I don’t think comic characters ever die real deaths. They die for awhile and the next clever writer comes along and finds a way to revive them.”
Laughter erupted when he was asked about working with Kevin Smith and Jason Lee on “Mallrats”: “It was difficult. I had so much to teach them. I had to teach Kevin Smith to be uninhibited…to say what he thinks…you know…to come out of his shell.”
The continued to lob questions and Lee batted back jokes, anecdotes and memories.
“Wouldn’t it be groovy to have a superhero who could crawl around on the wall like a fly” discussing the inspiration behind Spider-Man and telling fans who do watch his History Channel show “Stan Lee’s Superhumans”: “Shame on you.”
When asked about who are his favorite characters, he simply said: “Yeah me!”
There was also a kind and gentle side that the 88-year-old comic book giant conveyed as Lee passed along the compliments to his partner Jack Kirby but also described the work of a few other artists he worked with in the past:
“Steve Ditko had a totally different style (than Jack Kirby). It was simpler and not impressive looking at first glance but it told the story beautifully…clearly, beautifully and he put a lot of drama…gave every panel a lot of thought and people really liked his Spider-Man and Dr. Strange.”
“John Buscema, to me, was the Michelangelo of the artists. He was the greatest artist! (I mean) He could draw a body perfectly…he was just a great illustrator.”
“John Romita (Sr.) was beautiful to work with and he could imitate anybody’s style” and Lee complimented the transition from Ditko to Romita and then said: “..then Romita got into his own style which was beautiful” and “I loved the way he drew girls.”
Did Lee have advice for the random person: “Sure, stop asking me silly questions.”
Hundreds, thousands in fact, waited for their opportunity to get close to the comic book icon.
Everywhere Stan went, the fans were sure to follow (check out the video from fan named rorschach924)
It was easy to understand why.
