When I was reading comics as a kid, I had always assumed the comic book artist created everything. And they did, to a point. What I never realized then was that they worked from scripts that were written by writers. Stan Lee was one such comic book writer. Working with such brilliant artists like Steve Ditko and the legendary Jack Kirby, Stan Lee pretty much re-vitalized the comic book industry in the 1960s by creating Spider-Man, The X-Men, The Hulk, and many other iconic heroes that arose from his furtile writer's imagination. He has a brief cameo in Spider-Man (left picture), watching the battle between Spidey and the Green Goblin above the streets of New York.

The nice thing about Stan Lee when he ran Marvel Comics was that he had a great, casual way of speaking to his readers, without ever talking down to them. As both a writer and editor, he stressed imagination, and was the type of storyteller that remembered his history, creating vast, complex sagas within the Marvel Universe. Reading his Bullpen editorials, one always felt as if he were truly a kindred spirit, a fellow comic book fan who really enjoyed what he did for a living. He did another brief, blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in Spider-Man 2, as another bystander--maybe even the same guy from the first film--who witnesses Spidey taking on Doc Ock (picture right). Now semi-retired from comics (he recently did a mini-series for rival comics publisher DC where he reworked the origins of their major heroes), Stan Lee has made cameos in just about all the movies based on his Marvel Comics characters, including The X-Men, Daredevil, and The Hulk. It's a thrill to see the father of these classic characters enjoying their newfound success in films.