Stan Lee

HMV on Queen street west (across from the Silver Snail)

I found out through Leah that Stan Lee was going to visit after making his rounds at the New York comic convention. This was enough to get me out of my cocoon-like apartment bed and out into the cold wintery world known as Toronto.

Trudging through slippery slush and ice I made my way to the HMV on queen street only to find this little yellow sign in the door...


Stan Lee couldn't make it.

Crud. The first hing that came to mind was that Stan "the man" Lee was snowed in and couldn't make it over from New York. Later on I found out he got sick. So Stan, if you're reading this "Get better soon and thanks for trying to make it out here.".

For those that don't know, Stan Lee is one of the quintessential people in the comic book field. Known for his text layout and unique vocabulary in various Marvel Comics and bigger than life comic book heroes like Spider-man and the Fantastic Four, Stan Lee was a known entity to any kids that were cool when I was growing up.

For me he instilled the sense of right and wrong, that with "great power comes great responsibility", that great comics have great composition and well as great stories and that text placement in your comic book panels is everything.


A photo depicting snow on Queen street today

From the photo above would you go outside? Not me. At least not today. Going out wasn't a lost cause even though the main purpose of going out was to meet Stan Lee. I had to deliver photos to Darryl from the photoshoot. Since his office is located only a block away I went over with my laptop and made a photo CD on the spot.

We ended up going to swatow for dinner. For the first time I can remember in years (about 18 years) we were the only ones in the restaurant. It seems we were the only ones willing to brave the snowy elements for food.


Darryl and I in an unusually empty Swatow.