THE HOLY TRINITY: STAN, ME, SPIDERMAN
I was thinking about this over the weekend: Living in Ohio has given me the opportunity to meet many of my childhood heroes.
Last year, I met Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus during the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction weekend in Canton and then had dinner with Adam West in Niles. Sayers and Butkus were the heart of the Chicago Bears team that first awed me when I was 9 year old; West starred on the TV show that captivated me when I was 6.
In many ways, that kid is still alive inside somewhere. Hence, less than a year after my dinner with Adam, the kid talked me into taking the opportunity to meet Stan Lee.
For the non-true-believers and the uninitiated, Stan is the creative genius behind Marvel Comics who, along with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Roy Thomas and others reinvented the comic book genre in the 1960s. Their impact is still felt on pop culture even more than 40 years later.
Don't read comics? OK. Have you been to the movies lately? Ever hear of Spiderman, Iron Man or the Fantastic Four? Stan the Man had a role in the genesis of all of them. And the X-Men. Daredevil. You get the idea.
He is an icon and he was booked for the Pittsburgh Comicon at the Monroeville Exposition Center. Mary and I had toyed with the idea of attending, but her work schedule got in the way.
The kid inside kept reminding me: "Stan is 86 years old and what are the odds we'll ever get another chance to meet him? It's only 70 miles..."
So, I decided to hit the convention solo, snatching up two of the remaining Stan Lee autograph passes ($40 each which I thought was a bargain) and a one-day pass for Saturday, though I eventually upgraded to a Sunday pass to when organizers talked me into staying for the Saturday night auction.
The convention was a hoot. It is not one of the huge, corporate deals like the San Diego Comic Con run by the fine Wizard folks. The Pittsburgh event is homegrown and has all of the pluses – and minuses – such efforts entail. I won't go into a blow-by-blow evaluation (Like: The floor was big and featured many cool booths – but there was no map or guide to what was where) but suffice to say I had a great time and hung out with fellow geeks of all ages.
And the place was a geeks dream: Scores of artists were on hand to talk to fans and sell their artwork; tens of thousand of comics were on sale; every superhero toy you ever sought as a kid was there for a price.
I spent the first couple of hours walking the floor, staking out claims and comparing deals. At about 12:30 p.m., they started lining us up for the afternoon signing. Tickets were numbered through the 800's; mine were in the mid-600's.
IT'S A LONG LINE
For the better part of the next two hours, I stood in line bonding with my fellow fanboys. There were all ages there. Directly in front of me was a high school student/football running back who had called off of work and now fretted about what to give Stan to sign (the convention folks could have done a better job letting folks in line know there were no items like 8-by-10 pictures of Stan available to get signed). I tried to talk him into getting his cool Avengers-themed hat signed; he chose a blank piece of paper to get framed.
Behind me was a Cortland resident who manages one of the big Mahoning County bar/eateries. He agreed to shoot a pic of me when I got to Stan and did an awesome job as you can see aboved.
Now, they sold 900 passes which meant poor Stan's hand was going to be hurting after the five-hour signing. The actual signing was a precision-like assembly line: Items were taken, slid across a long table to Stan, an aid told him which color of Sharpie to use, he signed, mumbled, you moved on.
I chose, from my comic collection, two books from Marvel's early era that were penned by Stan: "Tales of Suspense" No. 47 from 1963 (featuring the last appearance of Iron Man's clunky armor and "Amazing Spiderman" No. 40. featuring the second part of the epic battle with the Green Goblin.
Now, after the signing, you could stand in another line to get a "certificate of authenticity" for $3 a piece. After trolling the floor and snatching my brother's Christmas gift, I got into that line just as Stan's signing duties had wrapped up. As he was whisked into his awaiting car, he came by and I reached out and got to shake the great man's hand!
"Hey Stan," I said.
"Nice to see you," he said as he shook and moved quickly along.
It was awesome! Excelsior!
Now I have videos which I will put up tonight. All in all it was a great weekend. And while Stan Lee was awesome, someone else stoled the show...
More later,
Mark
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