When Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee died 9 months ago, in November 2018, you may recall I blogged about him a few times. Well, today I want to blog briefly about August 20th, 1994...25 years ago today...when my 12 year old twin sons and I (and a carload of their young friends) MET Stan, face-to-face!!
It was at a huge Marvel Comics Convention in Secaucus, NJ on a Saturday morning. (Usually, I worked on Saturdays, but I took the day off because this was my son's BIRTHDAY PRESENT....their birthdays are on the 25th.) We pulled into the parking garage of the hotel EARLY and so there were few cars obstructing my view of the tall, skinny man walking towards the hotel elevator.
Instinctively, even though his back was towards us, I knew it was Stan and I called out to him...he walked all the way to our car and chatted with us for 5-10 minutes!! He was EXTREMELY outgoing and friendly and funny...just like his "image," and when we were done, after telling him I started reading Marvel at the same age my SONS were going to be, 12, I said "Stan, I feel like I've known you my whole life."
"You have," he replied!!
Now, I do NOT gamble, but by attending the Convention I was automatically entered into a RAFFLE to win an old, worn copy of "X-Men #1" (worth "only" $300 at the time because of its condition.) Amazingly, I won the raffle, out of ALL the people who were there!! I stood in a long line to have Stan SIGN it for me (see picture above.) THAT was as amazing as having the "private audience" with Stan in the parking garage!!
At this Convention, there were SEVERAL Marvel artists and writers...I recall Stan speaking to the crowd saying a live-action Spider-Man movie was in the works with "Terminator" and "Titanic" director JAMES CAMERON behind it. (It wasn't until six years later, 2000, that the first "real" Marvel movie came out...it was "X-Men." And, Sony's "Spider-Man," WITHOUT Cameron, debuted in 2002. (Marvel movies have been HUGE across the globe in the last ten years...the new AVENGERS movie just topped Cameron's AVATAR for the largest worldwide box office of all time!! Stan has had a cameo in just about EVERY Marvel movie...I think there have been about 35 of them by now.)
Looking back, it was a good thing there was no BLOGGING in those days...I would have certainly blogged about meeting Stan and my "Camping" friends (see last blog) might have thought I was crazy...excited about meeting a COMIC BOOK guy, but NOT excited that "Jesus was going to return" (many said) in a few weeks from that date, Lol!! In fact I, personally didn't begin blogging until 2004, ten years later. To my recollection I've never blogged as FULLY about meeting Stan as I just did, so I'm happy to write about it TODAY. I also wish there were cell-phones with cameras in those days...I'd have some digital pics of us WITH Stan, if so. Unfortunately, I don't have ANY photos of this event....only fond memories. We took some "old school" pics, but they were lost.
Above: What I wrote about Stan for one of the New York papers, after he died 9 months ago.
GOD WAS VERY GOOD TO ME that I had the pleasure of meeting Stan that day, that WAY (all to ourselves, in the garage, BEFORE we went in to the crowded Convention) because that very NIGHT, I learned my dear grandfather had cancer, and he died within a month. Lord Willing, I will write more about GRANDPA in future blogs.
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