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| Stan Lee promoting DOCTOR STRANGE with Ditko hands. |
My mother taught me to read, but Stan Lee and Forry Ackerman probably encouraged me to read more than anyone before I could find my own way. When I was a kid, he (or at least the work he signed, it usually carried his unmistakable voice) gave me most of my ideas about what it meant to be a responsible adult, about how sometimes people’s best intentions were not enough, about the importance of continuing on when it just didn’t seem possible. I understand that he had flaws and faults of his own, as always seems to enter the picture with money and success, but when I think of all the talent he introduced and gave a regular platform and voice for so many years, how can I not be eternally thankful?
I was actually there when what we now know as Marvel's Silver Age was starting up; I have vivid memories of getting THE AVENGERS #3 and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #14 off of drug store spinner racks. I remained a serious Marvel collector well into my early teens, when the company's product began losing its character as various of its classic creators left to pursue something closer to their real worth, and when Stan himself began relinquishing his writing duties - around the same time I was beginning to favor actual novels. To me, that decade of real time experience was every bit as privileged as having been around to witness the The Beatles.
Excelsior!
(c) 2018 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.
