DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

[HudsonHawk]

Baseball great Willie McCovey died yesterday at the age of 80. McCovey played in four decades, from 1959 to 1980, most notably with the San Francisco Giants, where teaming with Willie Mays was part of the most feared 1-2 punch in any National League lineup. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1959, National League MVP in 1969, was a six time All-Star, a member of the 500 HR club when it actually meant something, and a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1986.

RIP, "Stretch".

 

[LizzieMaine]

 

[HudsonHawk]

McCovey later said that was the hardest hit ball he ever hit in his career. Baseball is a cruel game sometimes.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

French composer & musician, Francis Lai, has died aged 86. He composed countless French movie scores which won't mean a great deal to the average American, however, you may know this one.

 

[MisterCairo]

Canadian stage legend Douglas Rain has died, aged 90. He had 32 seasons at the Stratford Festival alone, with multiple more at Shaw at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Toronto's many theatres along with Broadway.

If the average person, however, has heard his voice, he was HAL 9000 on 2001: A Space Odyssey.



https://www.stratfordbeaconherald.c...ford-festival-pioneer-douglas-rain-dies-at-90

 

[BobHufford]

Marvel Comics' Stan Lee dead at 95. RIP Stan Lee...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Without doubt the single most influential figure in the comics industry with the exceptions of Siegel and Shuster, and an unforgettable personality in his own right. What comes next is a really ugly battle over his estate and the rights connected to it, a battle likely to make the Siegel and Shuster litigation look like a card party.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Oy, I'm sick about it. Stan Lee was like family. Like a clever uncle who's been entertaining you forever since you were little.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/obituaries/stan-lee-dead.html

I could make an argument for Jack Kirby also being on your short list, Lizzie. But I just heard about Stan, and I really don't feel up to it now...

 

[OldStrummer]

R.I.P. Stan. I collected pretty much everything that Lee and Jack "King" Kirby produced. I wish I still had that collection!

On a flight last week I watched Deadpool 2. I never saw Lee in his customary cameo. I wondered about that.

 

[Frunobulax]

R.I.P. Stan. I collected pretty much everything that Lee and Jack "King" Kirby produced. I wish I still had that collection!

On a flight last week I watched Deadpool 2. I never saw Lee in his customary cameo. I wondered about that.

I was kind of hoping they had canned a couple dozen cameos for the future.

"Purveyor of American Mythology."

RIP, Stan. Thanks for Spidey and all the rest. Ya done good.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[MisterCairo]

R.I.P. Stan. I collected pretty much everything that Lee and Jack "King" Kirby produced. I wish I still had that collection!

On a flight last week I watched Deadpool 2. I never saw Lee in his customary cameo. I wondered about that.

Apparently Stan was not in the best of health, and his recent management/family issues were heating up, so a personal appearance was tough to film.

You can however see his face very briefly as part of a mural, and allegedly in bust form in the X-Men castle:

 

[Formeruser012523]

Thanks, Stan. This is a tough one.

https://www.marvel.com/remembering_stan_lee

 

[OldStrummer]

True story: In the early 1960s as a child of about ten, living in Bangkok, Thailand, I would routinely visit a local store that carried American and British comic books. A dollar back then would go a long way in Thailand, so I would often trek home with a handful of comic books. Marvel was just breaking out, and one of the comics I regularly purchased (including the debut) was The Amazing Spider-Man. Curious about some of the symbolic artwork Steve Ditko employed, I wrote a letter to Marvel.

Much to my surprise, Stan Lee replied to my letter! He answered my question and thanked me for writing. My letter was also published in a later issue.

This kind of personal touch may not be practical in this day and age, but it left a lifelong impression on a starry-eyed ten year-old!

 

[Doctor Strange]

There have been lots of great appreciation articles and tributes to Stan Lee pouring out since last night, but this one is really special:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/obituaries/my-moments-with-stan.html

 

[Doctor Damage]

I wonder if I'm the only person here who read Marvel's Conan comic series which I used to buy at our the local variety store which was called, I kid you not, the Green Lantern (the store didn't sell DC comics as far as I can remember). Anyways, here's Lee rocking Members Only jackets - nice!

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

I wonder if I'm the only person here who read Marvel's Conan comic series which I used to buy at our the local variety store which was called, I kid you not, the Green Lantern (the store didn't sell DC comics as far as I can remember). Anyways, here's Lee rocking Members Only jackets - nice!

You are not alone: as a young fan of Howard's Cimmerian barbarian, I eagerly awaited the debut of Marvel's take on Conan. It was enjoyable as another medium for the stories, but I never became a fan. For my tastes back then, I preferred John Severin's version of King Kull.

 

[Touchofevil]

I wonder if I'm the only person here who read Marvel's Conan comic series which I used to buy at our the local variety store which was called, I kid you not, the Green Lantern (the store didn't sell DC comics as far as I can remember). Anyways, here's Lee rocking Members Only jackets - nice!

The first two comics I ever saw, owned, and then read were a Conan and a Man-Thing comic. I was hooked after reading them (over and over) and could not wait to find, purchase, read, and treasure. They were a magical escape for an extremely shy kid. I would spend hours drawing and rereading them. I knew the names of the comic book world like I knew those of the NFL and MLB; they were equally as important to me. Stan “The Man” Lee was their leader. Stan Lee was a celebrity of epic proportions in my world; like Elvis, Bob Hope, and John Wayne. And as with them, I hoped he would live forever.

 

[Worf]

I wonder if I'm the only person here who read Marvel's Conan comic series which I used to buy at our the local variety store which was called, I kid you not, the Green Lantern (the store didn't sell DC comics as far as I can remember). Anyways, here's Lee rocking Members Only jackets - nice!

No you're not. My father bought home some paperback repro's of the classic pulp heroes. Through him I learned of The Shadow, Doc Savage and last but not least "Conan the (fill in the blank)". Lancer was republishing all the old saga's with fantastic Frank Frazetta covers. I was hooked. I packed my bags and headed for the Hyborian Age. While I was busy buying all the Lancer books I could find I discovered that Marvel, my comic brand of choice (Merry Marvel Marching Society Member) was doing a book on Conan... The art of Barry Windsor Smith combined with Howards words... turned the mind of a Black Kid in the NY City Projects... inside out! "Red Nails" "The Black Hounds of Vengeance"... god what work! So no you're not the only lover of Marvel's Conan series.

As an aside I was never a Stan Lee worshiper.. I just considered him more of friend than a god. But lord knows I'll miss him. So sad he couldn't see or hear how great his hero's had become.

Worf

 

[Doctor Strange]

I first encountered Conan in the Marvel series (*) when I was in college, and still have a bunch of them. Those first twenty-plus issues, the Barry (Windsor) Smith/Roy Thomas run, are some of the greatest comics ever. (No sleight intended against John Buscema, another of my favorite artists of that period, who made Conan his own for many years after taking over the penciling. The book lost Smith's psychedelia, but gained Buscema's wonderful figure work and posing.)

(* A few years later, when my sister was working as a production exec for Grosset & Dunlap, I got a bunch of the Ace paperback reprints of Howard's stories as freebies... and devoured them.)



And speaking of Barry Smith, he also provided the art for my favorite Doctor Strange story (that's not by Steve Ditko!), Marvel Premiere #3 - its cover image is my avatar. This Stan Lee-penned story reintroduced Strange to his own book for the start of what became the outstanding Frank Brunner/Steve Engelhart run of the mid-seventies. Smith's baroque style was a worthy successor to Steve Ditko's psychedelia, but alas, it was his only work on the character. Bigger image:

 

[MisterCairo]

Katherine MacGregor, best known as Mrs. Oleson on Little House on the Prairie, has died aged 93:

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainm...rie-actress-dies-at-93/ar-BBPIWSI?ocid=ientp2