“Stan Lee might call.”
I only told my assistant that I would check my voicemail once a day to look for calls from her. That is, we already had a camping trip planned. I would be at Crawford’s Notch looking for “Slick Rock” and the other nicknames we had for markers on the mountain to get us to our campsite by the waterfall named “Carpe Nuts.” Yeah, seize the nuts. Mountain water is refreshing but freezing.
Stan didn’t call that weekend, but at some point later, Max Anderson (maybe he was a bad person?) from the Lee camp got in touch, and we arranged a time and date to chat.
I booked some time at Jamspot, a band studio that allows bands to rehearse by the hour. This was before I was aware that WeWork was an option. On this note, I made some critical mistakes. For one, I forgot how noisy a practice space could be with people rocking out and tuning drums. It was a little noisy by the time we arrived, but it wasn’t so bad toward phone-call time. I brought all types of recorders, and mic stands, and typically, what I had envisioned wasn’t precisely what I needed or correct. I was working on instinct.
I wanted my BFF in comics, the titular Commander of our comic book podcast, Dursin, there with me. My friend Mark told me in the ‘90s about smoking a joint, “It’s much better to share a buzz than to go it alone.” I mean, here we have been tapped to talk to The Generalissimo for DigBoston. If I couldn’t share a byline, as we do with our podcast, I would want to share the weird and wonderful experience, and if possible, both of us would speak with the creator of all of our childhood dreams!
Dursin shares more in common with Stan Lee than I do. He wrote and produced more than one issue of an excellent comic book (buy it)! I have remained on the sidelines as a ‘comics journalist’ or at least a cheerleader for these two men most of my life!
Clay and Dursin with Essential Marvel Comics at Jamspot, July 22, 2015, 7:14 PM.
But I digress. For some reason, I brought a bunch of Marvel Essentials with me, including Ant-Man. Ant-Man was the Marvel movie of the summer, starring Gregg Turkington, aka Neil Hamburger, and Paul Rudd.
Dursin at Jamspot, July 22, 2015, at 7:16 PM.
The nerves bubbled up, and we were ready to conference into Max’s phone. My idea was to have both of us chime in and ask questions, if possible, as if he were on the phone with a radio station and we were the Morning Zoo. The only Morning Zoo part was the unexpected cymbal crashes and the sound of SVT casters being rolled down the hall by filthy animals (local rock musicians).
The man was 93 years old, and here I am with a recorder mic, our podcast mic, and an iPhone 6 on speakerphone. Maybe I was amplifying it through the PA? Perhaps “Ultimate Dursin” (the A/V Tech Reed Richards of our universe) remembers differently. But the lesson is: That didn’t work. It didn’t work, and Stan couldn’t hear us properly because we weren’t set up for that very obvious oversight. I was already jacked up and nervous. We could have rented a real music studio, but we made it work. Now with Zoom calls being the norm (I somehow have to hop off this to take a work-related Zoom on my vacation in a few minutes).
I had to do a strange thing by trying to record it, and decipher what I said later on a recording that barely had the VU meters pushing. But, the questions were prepped, and I could dig in and decipher the transcription just fine. There are references to Ken Bald, also at the convention, who was the oldest living comic artist. Bald died in 2019 but was also at this Boston Comic Con with Stan.
I had no idea who or what “The Man” was referring about at the time of the actual call, but figured it out ‘in the edit.’ And I am glad I did. Otherwise, it would have been a snippet of conversation lost to the ether.
These two WWII veterans met at that convention, and I hope they said, “Look, we’re still here,” in Boston that day.
Dursin and I aren’t veterans of anything, just growing up in a small town and attending high school together, though a year apart, and we’ve made a real meal of it with our podcast since 2009.
When we are in our 90s, I hope we see each other at a convention table (as attendees, of course). I’ll still be pushing a laundry cart with three short comic boxes. Dursin will still be looking for Terry Moore’s table. We’ll set up some mics that don’t work quite right for what we need, and we’ll record a barely audible podcast in a room at a round plastic table with cosplayers on actual Back to the Future hoverboards zipping by us.
We’ll remember the days of podcasts, the quarantine, the movies, the G.I.Joe, the James Bond, and the day we sorta kinda spent some time talking to Stan “The Man” Lee on the phone as Somerville’s answer to TOOL droned away in the background.
“Look, we’re still here.”
P.S. Looks like I made an errata in the original DigBoston piece. Ken BOLD should be Ken Bald. I ‘deeply’ regret the error. but only enough to offer the correction here and not to my friends at DigBoston unless it bothers someone ELSE enough to let them know!
P.S.S. I am streaming on NEW YEAR’S DAY at noon ET.
I Think This Is Great! Live from The Mantry with Clay N. Ferno at Noon ET on NEW YEAR'S DAY. twitch.tv/claynferno
Set Reminder: http://evt.to/aihsuhsew
CODA
Hundreds and thousands of others have interviewed Stan Lee over the years. Though this fact doesn’t make me unique, what does make me feel special is that Mom shared this significant accomplishment with me while she was still alive. She also walked the two of US over to Joe Kubert and Neil Adams' tables at a Boston convention and charmed both men. Wow, she was great.
When Boston Comic Con changed venues, I was almost run over by Stan Lee, driving his little scooter past me at the new convention center. He was moving like a bat out of hell. I would have sued if he did any damage. Just kidding. I was honored to be nearly knocked over by the old So-and-So.
When I would read my first comic, G.I. Joe specifically, I noticed “Stan Lee presents:” as the first words on the page. Did he at least write this with a fancy pen on all of the first pages of Marvel Comics? I knew Stan culturally even though I was just 10. He was the narrator (of our LIVES) on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981-1983) and The Incredible Hulk (1982), natch!
During the early days of our podcast, I asked what "natch" from Stan’s Bullpen Bulletins meant. I was in my 30s and was still confused. Maybe you are too. John Hunt (The Elder) told me it was short for “Naturally.” It doesn’t make sense if you don’t say it aloud and just read it on the page. I never said I was smart!
Listen to our League Vs. The Incredible Hulk Episode from this year, now streaming.
Another collector scanned this page.
Mine has a bite mark from carrying it home in my teeth.
Before I knew all of the names on the ‘indicia’ or comic credits, I thought that, ultimately, Stan Lee created all comics with his name on them! Idiot! Now I understand marketing, branding, and the Andy Warhol ‘Factory’ approach to media properties.
Thanks to you, Dursin! A VERY well gift!
You bet your sweet bippy that Hasbro would need be included on the page these days. Look! There they are! RIP G.I. Joe: ARAH #300! Long Live G.I. Joe at a new publisher!
My letter is in G.I. Joe #110, March 1991. I’ll sign copies! I had not planned on posting this here, but Apple Photos OCR recognized this as a ‘Christmas’ photo because fellow New England fan Shawn Phillips (No address given) mentioned Christmas.
I’ve seen 3 or 4 adaptations of A Christmas Carol this year. Listen to Neil Gaiman’s version below. The lessons about ‘you can’t take it with you’ might quell my young family member’s recent anxieties about death and dying.
My cyclical obsession with the same anxieties has been eased a bit, and Rob Delaney’s
A Heart That Works helped ground me this holiday week with naps of listening and crying to his narration. I awoke a post-ghost Scrooge, who was bopping around and handing out raises to everyone.
“‘ere’s an extra bob for Bob.”
Greaaaat!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epOInfo_LWU&feature=emb_title