When my sons and I met the great Stan Lee at a Comics Convention in 1994, I said "Stan, I feel like I've known you my whole life." Stan smiled and said, simply, "you have." The amazing drawing of Stan above was done yesterday by my nephew Larry Cooney Jr. when the Marvel Comics Icon passed away at age 95. It captures the sadness millions of us feel since hearing the news...we cried as if we'd lost a family member.
We have.
Actually, I didn't know Stan my entire life, but from ages 12-15, (1967-1970), he was more like a father to me than my REAL father was. It wasn't just the comics he created, but the "personal" touch in each one, the CONNECTION to us via his "Stan's Soapbox" column and the letters pages (where he often personally and publicly responded to fan mail) in each issue. He communicated to millions of us kids, imparting good values and perspectives to us, where often our own dads did not. My very first published writing was a letter to Daredevil in 1969, and Stan responded to lil ol' ME. This encouraged me, at age 14, to write, (just as Larry said yesterday, regarding Stan, that "If not for this man, I very well may have never started drawing.")
Note: my dad and step-father thought I was gay, and ridiculed me, because I was a writer / artist type. Stan Lee, however, encouraged me by printing my letter and responding as he did.
And here I am now on MY "Soapbox," Lol!!
I've laughed at Stan's cameos in almost EVERY recent Marvel movie, but his greatest contribution to my life, his LEGACY for me, is that he helped keep me from becoming a racist as I entered my teenage years. Let me explain.
As I mentioned in recent blogs here, in the early 1960s my two favorite baseball players, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, happened to be black. I was certainly not prejudiced THEN. But in 1967, I was sorely tempted to follow the example of my dad (who I only saw on weekends), and my step-father, and hate all black people like they did. That's because we lived in Newark, NJ and terrible, polarizing race riots broke out in our city that summer. The men in my life saw all black people as a dangerous enemy, and urged me to "grow up" and "see the light" and be like them.
Now, the summer of 1967 was only a few months after I began to read Spider-Man comics, however, and I got to "know" Stan. ("Spider-Man" was created 5 years earlier by Stan Lee and the great Steve Ditko, who died only a few months ago, by the way.) And it was right at the height of the '67 riots that Stan introduced a black newspaper editor, a very noble guy named Joe "Robbie" Robertson, in Spidey comics. It was unheard of, at the time, you see, to have a black character in a recurring role in a comic book, but Stan and John Romita Sr. bravely broke that ground. Additionally, Stan and Jack Kirby had T'Challa, the Black Panther, a noble king of a fictional African nation, in The Fantastic Four comic on a regular basis and Daredevil had a black friend, a BLIND guy, in one issue entitled "Brother, Take My Hand" (courtesy of "Stan The Man" and "Gene The Dean Colan.")
It was obvious that Stan was NOT a racist, and this helped ME not become one during those turbulent times of racial unrest, until I got to Arts High School and made many black friends. See, in my pre-Christian days, Stan's GOOD example helped overpower the BAD example of my racist, absentee dad and my step-father at the time when I needed it most. He definitely had more INPUT into my life than they did!! Is it any wonder that I've often asked PRAYERS for Stan, on Facebook, as I've heard his health was failing, and when I was concerned about his eternal salvation? My book "Human Heroes" identified him as ONE of those, and my "Chetitorial" of Feb. 10th here defended him against slanderous accusations. I loved this man because God used him to change the course of my life....without his input, well, I might not be married to the woman I'm married to today (who happens to be black).
Stan wrote this poem two years ago, appealing for racial unity, and I love the way he mentioned GOD so freely!!
He was promoting his "Hands of Respect" pins, which are still for sale via the website, by the way.
In closing, my wife, via her Facebook page, asked prayers for Stan's family yesterday because he passed.
All I can say is, in a very real sense, I am PART of that family mourning his loss, with heartfelt tears, and much Respect, today.
Stan wrote this 50 years ago, in his "Stan's Soapbox" column, as he condemned racism....Let's lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them—to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater—one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, he’s down on ALL foreigners. He hates people he’s never seen—people he’s never known—with equal intensity—with equal venom.
ReplyDelete"Now, we’re not trying to say it’s unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race—to despise an entire nation—to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill out hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of God–a God who calls us ALL—His children."