By Kyle Laugh
As most of you already know, last week we lost a legend. A man who revolutionized the comic book industry, brought life lessons to children whom would later share these same lessons with future generations be it via the comics themselves, Saturday morning cartoons, Live action television series or the box office success in which each separate character as well as the combined teaming of the Avengers have been portrayed.
The man we’re speaking about is Stanley Lieber or better known to his fans around the world as Stan Lee, the man who brought us the likes of the X-Men, The Invincible Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor the God of Thunder, Fantastic Four, Black Panther and of course Spider-Man.
He inspired so many people to be good, do good or to push themselves towards realizing their own dreams and life goals.
Many from the horror community were heartbroken to hear the news and quickly shared their thoughts and feelings about the man and the profound effect he has had on their lives.
Here are what some of them have shared via Twitter:
In these few examples, the effects of his life’s work inspiring and entertaining even some of the most prominent artists shows us how how strongly his craft has made an impact on the world.
Although I am far from being a famous celebrity, I’ve always been inspired to do more thanks to what he himself has been able to accomplish.
From a young age, my father shared his love for the original Spider-Man cartoons from the 60’s when showing me the shows reruns, explaining to me who the character was, the enemies and their backstories as well as who Stan Lee is. As I grew a little older, I was introduced to an updated version of the character with the “Fox Kid’s” Spider-Man series. This series had also given me interested in the X-Men cartoon which began to blow open the doors for me leading to anything Marvel related I could get my hands on. Unfortunately, as far as comics went, they were a rarity where I grew up and could only be occasionally be found at our local grocers when they would bring in a random issue of Spider-Man, the occasional Batman book but typically would only carry the Archie series as a regular.
When I did find my first issue of Spider-Man however, I jumped at it and begged my parents to get it for me. After a bit of bartering, they finally gave in and purchased it.
To this day, I still have that issue and hold it dear to my heart. “The Amazing Spider-Man: Chaos in Calgary”
We typically like to speak horror here, let’s shift our focus a little towards that exact subject interjected with some Stan Lee flair.
Lee was a massive fan of cinema when is was younger and took inspirations from these films in order to create an abundance of his characters. Some of his favorite included Errol Flynn who typically portrayed the hero character, you know the type, the one who always gets the girl by the films end. This would obviously set a precedence for some of his superheroes but did you know that a lot of his characters were based off of creatures and monsters from the classic horror film era?
For example, the creation of the Hulk was inspired by the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and used in a way where the antagonist character would be able to use his new found abilities in order to become a hero while Bruce Banner (the Dr. Jekyll in this scenario) would constantly try to rid himself of the beast or at the very least, attempt to keep the beat under some form of control in order to use him for good.
For further examples of his love of these types of horror films, Lee had adapted both Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster into each their own individual series, both of which had their fair share of success.
The Thing and Ghost Rider are just a few of the characters which were inspired by the likes of horror antagonists. However there is one character that goes much further back in film and lore than another of the other characters had been inspired by.
This character would be Mephisto and his presence in films from the early 1900’s onwards was never to be missed. Although his name changed from film to film, he is simply known to most as the Devil himself. And not unlike the films, the character in comics went through a variety of name changes and was used in a multitude of story-lines throughout many different comics.
Although I’m incredibly upset about the loss of such a legend, I’m incredibly happy to be able to enjoy his work at any given time I want, in a variety of media as well as have him to thanks for the future of films, comics, television and video games as his characters will not only live in, they will inspire new material for generations to come, myself included.
Thank you for everything you’ve done for the fans, the readers, the viewers, the creatives and the children at heart. Stan, you will never be forgotten and we thank you sincerely for everything you’ve given to us and the kindness you’ve shown fans over all the years.
Rest In Peace Sensational Stan Lee! You will forever be missed!
Excelsior!
This week on Beyond The Void Horror Podcast they talk about two brand new movies this year. Terrified & Errementari w/ special gues Jason Smith of Sinister Cinema Reviews / In The Mic of Madness Podcast. One of these 2 movies is on our Top 2018 Horror. You can listen here or you can Listen/Subscribe on iTunes here!