The Time I Met Stan Lee
And what he had to say about science fiction.
I have a confession to make: I used to be a super hero when I was in my early 20’s.
My college roommates and I patrolled the streets at night clad as costumed crime-fighters to ensure the protection of the local citizenry from unseen malevolence.
Before the era of camera phones and social media, before the era of Marvel films, before geekdom took over the entertainment marketplace… it was an antic and a stunt, and it played well for laughs.
Our reputation grew.
There was even a rival super hero gang that I had to confront one night alone.
People would ask… hey, do you know those Super Hero guys?
We did it for the fun of it. For the sheer audacity.
But we also did it because deep down, we all wanted to be Super.
I Shook the Hand of Stan
Years later I was out in Hollywood seeking my fortune when I heard of a book signing by none other than Stan the Man at the Grove Barnes & Noble in LA.
He’d written a little book called Election Daze.
I got a copy right away. It wasn’t about the book. It was about standing in line to get an autograph from Stan Lee himself.
I was standing in line with my friend Emily. She went first. I told him I was Emily’s friend. This is exactly what he said with his uncanny exuberance that is 100% real:
“Well, Adam, any friend of Emily’s is a friend of mine.”
He called me his friend!
So I told him. “Stan, I belong to a Super Hero team that patrols the streets to fight the forces of evil.” If anyone could understand, it was Stan. He’d practically created us, just like he did Spider-Man.
He looked right back at me and with a shade of solemnity said: “Adam, that’s as it should be. It’s as it should be.”
Stan had just validated my existence.
He Created Science Fiction
Back when Stan and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were swirling in that frenzied, wild burst of creativity, they were creating science fiction.
It wasn’t just about spandex and capes.
It was Star Trek, and Flash Gordon, and the Atomic Age of science fiction, all spread out into a bold new media: the comic book.
You can see the influences of the era in the pages of the Fantastic Four:
It was about weird science. It reads very much like a dime store version of Asimov or Heinlein, made accessible on the corner newsstand.
It opened up science fiction to another demographic.
I highly recommend reading Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. It’s an incredible biography of the company, how it all started, and how it was framed by an optimism for the future of science, and ignited by Stan’s, Jack’s, and Steve’s bold creativity.
Super Hero Science Fiction
In this vein, we’ve published a couple Super Hero Science Fiction books at Future House.
I guess it’s in our blood. In fact, I’ll send over a few chapters for you to read in upcoming emails. It’s all inspired by this blend of science fiction, super heroes, and the stories that Stan began.
By The Way
Did you know that Future House Studios is a Finalist for VR Innovation Award of the Year? Yep. Pretty cool. I guess it’s because we made that Transformer game and that other metaverse thing with George W. Bush.
Did you know that the Bored Apes NFTs are showing up on M&Ms? It’s a new world out there. You can also get Rugrats and Star Trek NFTs. Is anyone here into the NFT craze?
See you in the future.
Adam Sidwell
Creative Director
Future House Publishing & Future House Studios
And Another Thing…
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I always love hearing your comments. Tell me what you think, or tell me what you want to hear about in upcoming posts.
That is such an awesome story. Some years ago, I wrote an award-winning article about Marvel writer Bill Mantlo, and how he fell through the cracks of the modern healthcare system. One of my sources for that was Chris Claremont, who was a friend of Bill's. Before I interviewed Chris, I said out loud, "You will be a professional. You will not tell him how much you love the X-Men." And I didn't. And it was a great interview and did a lot to help the story. (Which, in turn, did a lot to help Bill.) But it was a year later, at ComiCon, when I met Chris at his booth, I thanked him for his help, and he thanked me for the story. To be thanked by a hero like that is no small thing. To be thanked by Stan the Man? There's only one word for that: EXCELSIOR!
Really empathize with your comments on early Marvel. I grew up with that stuff in the 60's (yeah, I'm really that old!). As a kid it was an unbelievably exciting time; those great sci-fi stories in the FF and elsewhere, the characters and artists. Nothing around like it at the time - Star Trek didn't arrive till late '66 by which time Kirby and Lee were well into the Surfer/Galactus storyline. Nail biting times waiting for the new issues to hit the newsstands! Shouldn't forget, at the same time Jim Steranko did his incredible tech noire Shield/Hydra series in Strange Tales - my goodness his artwork was cutting edge and still stands up today. Plenty of inspiration for the book series I'm writing.
Excelsior!
Ade