Long before he'd illustrated his first issue of the classic Marvel comic "The Amazing Spider-Man" in 1988, a 16-year-old Todd McFarlane had a chance encounter with Stan Lee, the book's creator, "as a Canadian kid down in Florida on vacation."

McFarlane didn't know his childhood hero was in the hotel. McFarlane, a comic collector who'd just started thinking of trying to break into the industry, walked up and introduced himself to the co-creator of Spider-Man.

"At that point, Stan Lee was the biggest thing there was because every comic book would say 'Stan Lee Presents,' " he recalls with a laugh. "So every single comic book I owned had this man’s name on it. And I go over, introduce myself like a normal fan and then say, ‘Hey, I’m thinkin’ of trying to break into comic books. Is it OK if I stand here and ask you some questions?’ "

Lee invited him to take a seat instead.

"I sat there like a groupie and for seven hours, when he wasn’t busy, I would ask him questions," McFarlane says Monday, just hours after learning of Lee's death at age 95.

Becoming friends with Stan Lee

The second time they met, McFarlane had already taken over illustrating "The Amazing Spider-Man," having previously worked on "Incredible Hulk."

"And I’m a little nervous," McFarlane recalls, "because at that point, I’m artistically altering the look of Spider-Man. That got me in a little bit of trouble, but it was making the sales of the book go up. So I finally get to sort of show it to Stan and go, ‘I hope I don’t offend you. I’m not trying to change what you did, because I thought you and Steve Ditko and others were wrong. This is just how I draw Spider-Man.' "

And again, Lee's reaction surprised him.

"He goes, 'Oh my gosh! I’m surprised they don’t let everybody do this. Why aren’t more of you young artists taking chances?' He said, 'Of course Spider-Man needs a change! All of them need a change!' He wanted to push it."

That was another big moment for him, he says, " ‘cause I was like, ‘Uh-oh, he’s either really gonna like this or I’m gonna be this sort of blacklisted artist.' And it was literally from that moment that we became friends."

That friendship grew to where Lee would often ask McFarlane to introduce him at events, including the day he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 1992, McFarlane teamed with several other artists to form Image Comics and created his own title, the occult-themed "Spawn." In 1994, he moved to Ahwatukee and launched McFarlane Toys. He also runs a film and animation studio, Todd McFarlane Entertainment.

Even after parting ways with Marvel, he stayed friends with Lee, a constant source of inspiration, often marveling at his ability to hold onto his inner child until the very end.

"Here's what I know about creative people," McFarlane says. "When you get them one on one, they are just these gleeful children that have never lost that youthful bounce in their soul. He held onto that for as long as he could. These are people that haven’t learned the complete definition of death and taxes. The world has still got joy in it and they see way more positive than negative."

What makes Stan Lee special

Q: You were obviously a comic book fan before you decided to pursue that as a calling. I’m interested in your take on what made Stan Lee and Marvel Comics special.

A: The early ‘60s were just a year or two away from the Senate hearings in which they were saying that comic books were a degradation on society and were harming the children, right? It was proven not to be true. The psychologists said you can read comic books and still be a normal human being. But there was a little fearmongering going on.

So Marvel tasked Stan to create these characters and said, "Hey, give a little levity to this. Have a little bit of fun with this. Don’t make it so serious." On top of that, Stan started putting flaws in these characters so they were far from perfect. The big superheroes of those days were, you know, Superman, who was almost the perfect Boy Scout. So he said, "I’m gonna make them teenagers who are worried about whether he can finish his homework while he’s trying to fight the bad guy."

I would say one of the things that should surprise people the most was that when I talked to him privately about him creating these characters, there were still a lot of doubts in him. We forget about the reality that Stan Lee, when he was creating in the early ‘60s, was still doing stuff that he didn’t think was gonna work, but he goes, "I’m gonna try it anyway, and I hope enough people like it." And all the reasons why any of us don’t move forward with any idea, whether it’s business or creative-wise or whatever, that we stop ourselves? He had the same doubts.

So I encourage people to go, "Yes, even Stan Lee didn’t think the Hulk would work." But he did it anyways. I think he was just as surprised by the magnitude of what ended up happening over time as anyone. He’d say, "Hey Todd, who would’ve known?" or "Who could’ve imagined?" He was going along with the ride and having fun.

The other thing that defied the norms is that most of us, when it comes to celebrity, have a bell curve. You become the hot thing, people like you, you trend for a little while, and then eventually, you sort of get a little outdated and somebody young comes along and to steal your mantel.

Who amongst us is gonna sit there and go, "Man, I hit my peak, celebrity-wise, at 85" —when these Marvel movies start coming out — “and I’m gonna go out on top at 95." The trajectory was still going up. You’d go, "Oh my God! Stan Lee’s got another cameo in another movie. At 95. What are you talkin’ about? That’s not how it’s supposed to happen.” And luckily, I had a partial seat to some of this stuff. I would watch it from 5 feet away going, “This is like a lotto ticket. We’re not gonna replicate this." I don’t think people understand the lightning in a bottle that the man was.

And his legacy for me is not defined today, because although you and I can write a pretty good story as to what Stan Lee means, Stan Lee is gonna fall into the same category for me as Walt Disney. There are few people in history that have created numerous characters that had global impact. And their legacy wasn’t what they created. It was what their creations began and what their creations begat over time. We’re now decades removed from Walt Disney, and it didn’t stop when Walt went away. It grew. I think the same is gonna be said about the characters that Stan co-created with his artists. Twenty years from now, we’re gonna say, "Wow, whatever we wrote up for his obituary in 2018, we were only half right," because it kept growing and growing.

How conventions energized Lee

Q: What was his take on the Marvel empire suddenly blowing up like it did with the movies?

A: Who doesn’t want their ideas, their co-creations, to seep into the lives and the vernacular of humanity? That’s the big moment when you know your ideas are gonna outlive you, arguably forever. He would go, "Todd, I’m gonna enjoy this and suck it up as much as I can because it’s pretty fun." He didn’t enjoy the adulation, per se. It wasn’t like, "I need to go get my people patting me on the back."

Especially as he got older, he’d get on the phone and go, "I’m looking forward to this convention this weekend. It’s gonna be a fun time, Todd." And it would just be almost like vitamins to him. When he went home, he felt like he was 10 years younger. Because he was pulling their energy and putting it into himself. I saw him. He’d have a bounce in his step for a couple days after conventions.

The time Stan Lee said Spawn was his favorite

Q: Do you have a favorite memory of the times you spent together?

A: I’ll give you my two selfish Todd moments. One, like I said, when I was 16, he let me sit next to him for seven hours. That is by far No. 1. That arguably changed the arc of my wanting to break into comic books.

And then, let’s go maybe 40 years into the future. I’m on a panel with him because we did a bunch of panels. And invariably, as a journalist, you know, that there are sometimes standard questions that come up. And one of the questions that would come up at the end of the panel when you’d let the fans come up and ask a question, was always, “Who’s your favorite character?"

Now, I’d been with him lots and lots of times, and usually it was Spider-Man. Sometimes he’d change it. But it was Spider-Man. So one time, they asked this routine question and I’m waiting for the routine answer. And he contemplates for a moment, then he goes, "You know, I’m gonna make a lifelong fan today. My favorite character is Spawn."

And he turns to me with this boyish grin and this devilish look, like, "I bet you never thought I would say that your character is my favorite and it wasn’t one of mine." I could see it all in his look as the crowd goes sort of crazy. And then he gets up and he leaves. It was his mic drop.

I go, "Wow, now I’ve got it on film that Stan Lee says Spawn is his favorite." But the reason he did it was because he liked me. And even after all those years that we had been friends, he still found a way to put a smile on my face. He goes, "I’m gonna give some joy to Todd. Here." He didn’t have to do any of that. I go, "Shoot, look at this dude." I liked him even more that day.

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