RIP Stan Lee

The Man is gone. I guess we all knew, deep down, we wouldn't have much longer with the old showman, but still a shock.
Just like Ditko, I first met Stan in the pages of The Mighty World Of  Marvel #1, where of course, I also met Spidey, The Hulk, Reed, Sue, Ben & Johnny for the first time, and fell in love with them all.
Sean just emailed me to say that, without Stan, he wouldn't have had a career, and we probably would never have met, and become lifelong friends.
I bet there's thousands of people, in and out of the industry, saying similar tonight.

Our gang preferred Marvel over DC hands down ( as great as their material was ), and I believe a huge part of that was down to Stan. Name any writer or artist from the start of Marvel through to the end of the Bronze Age. Now name their Marvel Bullpen nickname. Jazzy John, Roy The Boy, Genial Gene. You still remember them all, right? That's Stan.
The Bullpen Bulletins. Stan's Soapbox. F.O.O.M. The inclusive, fun letters pages. That's Stan.

And all those tons of great stories and characters. Just for tonight, let's not talk about credit, and who did what, or who didn't.
Stan, Jack, Steve, Larry, Don, Gene, and all the rest I talk about daily on this blog. They all did it. And gave us a childhood full of fun, adventure and excitement. And made us all want to go out and do it ourselves. And it started and ended with Stan.
And how wonderful that we ( and he ) got to see the rest of the world catch up with us. That he became everybody's favourite cameo star. And that even little kids in their Spidey or Cap T-Shirts know who he is.
Yes, he was a huckster, yes, he was a showman. He was also our lifelong friend, our cool uncle, our hilarious Grandad. The Man.
But why're you listening to me? If I'm ever gonna let anyone take over this blog, it'd be this guy. Hey Stan, what d'you think?

Thank you, Stan. Thank you for everything. Excelsior. Forever.