Stan Lee - (95) RIP

I was very much into comic books just long enough to realize that it was an obsession- or close to one. I had to quit reading them. But Stan Lee's appearances in films, similar to Hitchcock's, always made me smile.

Lafayette, I too, am crippled. I never thought much about the X-Men & the metaphors they may have been, until recently, though.

Jeffbert said:

I was very much into comic books just long enough to realize that it was an obsession- or close to one. I had to quit reading them.
Lafayette, I too, am crippled. I never thought much about the X-Men & the metaphors they may have been, until recently, though.

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One of my quiet joys as a teen-ager was sitting next to a pile of forty to fifty comic books reading them one after another and sipping on a soda. That was living!

My brother, Ron (who passed away in 2007 with our muscular dystrophy) and I were not politically correct. We referred to ourselves and others like like us as crippled suckers. Also our mother wouldn't let us feel sorry for ourselves.

This is the end of an era for modern story-telling. I would argue that Stan Lee holds more influence over culture and media than JK Rowling.
I hope they continue making movies and tv series from his comics for a long time.

Lafayette said:

One of my quiet joys as a teen-ager was sitting next to a pile of forty to fifty comic books reading them one after another and sipping on a soda. That was living!
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Yes!

Lafayette said:

One of my quiet joys as a teen-ager was sitting next to a pile of forty to fifty comic books reading them one after another and sipping on a soda. That was living!

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Hugh said:

Yes!

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Yes! I've still got a load in a case under the bed. Just occured to me they may have been instrumental in encouraging the whole reading activity for me.

Lafayette said:

One of my quiet joys as a teen-ager was sitting next to a pile of forty to fifty comic books reading them one after another and sipping on a soda. That was living!

My brother, Ron (who passed away in 2007 with our muscular dystrophy) and I were not politically correct. We referred to ourselves and others like like us as crippled suckers. Also our mother wouldn't let us feel sorry for ourselves.

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I never even started that intense or anything near it, comic book reading. A guy at church got me into it in my early twenties.

Off topic:
I was in a homeroom for cripples from mid 5th grade through 9th, & again, during 11th grade. I knew two boys suffering from MD, 1 was a thin as a toothpick, while the other was quite the opposite. The thin one died at age 14, the other, in his late teens. He had to literally walk his fingers up his chest, just to reach his face. That was way back in the late 60s, to mid 70s. Sorry for the negativity, but those telethons (as I recall) were so hopeful of finding a cure; it was just around the corner. That was 45 years ago! I admit, I do not know what progress has been made, but a cure is still elusive. You say "our muscular dystrophy" I take it, that you, also suffer from it?

The first drawing book I ever received was Stan Lee's "How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way". His "Hail well met, fellow" series of patter throughout that wellspring of knowledge of all things commercial art was as enlightening as it was cosy and I fell into artistic step easily under that all enveloping welcome.
The first series of comics I followed after graduating from the odd intertwined friendships of Archie, Betty and Veronica, was The New Mutants. From there I dabbled my reading toes in an ever spreading pool of Marvel Protagonists. And I found the very best part of these were the cozy corner set up of editorials written by that master wordsmith.
Quite often I started to purchase another title solely upon the basis of those essays. They were warm and so welcome. A letter from a friend I had never met but always cherished because with those editorials I had become part of a group of which I felt to belong. Which for me the "loner" was a very great deal.
He had the greatest gift of being able to create a community among individuals who upon their own initiative would never have considered to collect themselves to be a part of any group.
Indeed I truly believe that his welcome towards those marginalized individuals has done more over the past fifty years of his working life to creat the legacy of today's now centralized science fiction and fantasy media rich culture then any other single causative factor.
Thank you Mr. Lee for being my friend.
You made our world a better place.