Stan Lee honoured in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES • Comic book giant Stan Lee, who dreamed up such pop culture icons as Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, the Black Panther and countless others, has been honoured in Hollywood by hundreds of fans and celebrities.

Lee, who died in November at age 95, saw his ink-on-paper, pulp comic characters grow into movie money-makers. He famously made cameo appearances in just about all of them, and as a writer and editor, he was key to the ascension of Marvel into a comic book titan in the 1960s.

American film director Kevin Smith, best known for the movies Clerk (1994) and Chasing Amy (1997), and the television programme Comic Book Men, hosted the tribute at the TCL Chinese Theatre.

"His like is never going to pass this way ever again and I'm not just talking about the sheer professionalism of his output. Think about the entire universe of characters he created. That's not going to be duplicated ever again," Smith told Reuters.

Actor Wesley Snipes, who played the Marvel Comics' character Blade, said: "He's an inspiration for all of us creative artists to remind us your creativity is never wasted and sooner or later you hang in there long enough, I don't know, a movie theatre, a hologram, AR, VR, something will come along and the whole world will see your magic."

Taboo, from The Black Eyed Peas, who created a comic book with Lee, praised the late creator's career.

"There's only a couple of figures in the history of entertainment and storytelling that have been as iconic as Stan Lee - Jim Henson, Walt Disney, Stan Lee.

"That's just how it was," he said.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 04, 2019, with the headline Stan Lee honoured in Hollywood. Subscribe