Ross Hutchinson
I will never meet Stan Lee. I will never get to stand like the thousands of others in leviathan long lines to get him to take a picture with me or sign something. I am not that lucky. I live in Africa far far away from regular comic cons and the opportunity to have met the man in person.
I will never get to meet Stan Lee face to face or get the chance to shake his hand and gushingly stammer my thanks and I will never physically be in his presence. But this doesn’t matter because Stan has been speaking to me for years through his writing.
Other far better writers who have read more and know more than I ever will be able to tell you things in much greater detail about his body of work. All I can tell you is that I always felt as a little kid growing up and even later as a comic reading adult that whenever I read anything written by Stan Lee it has always felt like he was talking straight to me and this has not changed in the 36 odd years I have been reading comics. Those intro’s in Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and of course X-men spoke to that kid I was then and even the adult I am now on a personal level that I cannot say many other books ever have. Stan’s Soap Box is the reason I started paying attention to the writing columns of all comics, not just Marvel.
As time has moved on and I have been able to watch interviews with him. I was always amazed at the remarkable passion and aura of pure energy that comes straight through from the man whenever he talked about things he had probably spoken about hundreds if not thousands of times with that hypnotizing boundless energy that sweeps one up whenever he was asked about comics and all things associated.
There is no doubt that the Marvel Universe is built on the backs of more than just the writing and creations of Stan. It’s a body built and sustained by the hard work and innovation of thousands of amazingly creative and hardworking talents over the years from A to Z but Stan has been for the better part of his whole life its voice and its heart and that love and glorious infectious enthusiasm that permeated the pages of my youth is something worth celebrating.
So thank you, Stan Lee, from that kid reaching for the Marvel comic in the spinner in the corner of the convenience store all those years ago and thank you from the comic buying adult that still gets giddy going to the comic shop to get his comics as a 43 year old grown up.
We love you, Stan. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Rest in peace.
I write this with a heavy heart and embolden spirit about a man I never had the chance to meet but gave me a universe to live in. I am so unbelievably grateful to Stan Lee for the characters, worlds, and acceptance he created and offered to me when I needed it the most. I am indebted to him for giving me Spider-Man, Dr.Strange, and most of all the X-Men which all made me feel special and not just weird. I am honored to consider myself a part of a community he worked almost tirelessly to create by his inspirational writing, newspaper/radio/television interviews, and touring. And as my eye welled up with tears I am so so very blessed to have learned from him through his work, empathy. I truly believe Stan understood and embraced the worlds need for empathy and tried his best to pass it on to as many as possible. And I am pleased to say in his passing what I would have said if I had met him in life, Thank you very much Stan “the man” Lee.