L.B. Comic Con: It's Stan Lee Day!

It was a particularly good day to be a comics legend.

Stan Lee, mighty co-creator of a bevy of popular Marvel characters you already know and love (Spider-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, etc...) graciously and hilariously received two proclamations.  Today, Oct. 2, 2009 is Stan Lee Day in the city of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

The proclamations were presented this afternoon by writer-producer Jeph Loeb ("Heroes," "Ultimatum") representing the County of Los Angeles and Long Beach 1st District Councilman Robert Garcia for the L.B. of course.

"Not only am I a councilmember represeting downtown, I am also a lifelong comic book fan and self proclaimed comic book nerd," Garcia said. "And so I love Stan Lee very much."

Martha Donato, Long Beach Comic Con event boss, said they petitioned for Lee's Long Beach proclamation and The Hero Initiative did the same for Los Angeles and both came through.  We've mentioned The Hero Initiative before -- a non-profit organization that raises funds to support comic creators who are down on their luck.

Check out the video for highlights and some words from Stan "The Man" Lee.

Not much from me today, I have been collecting some interviews with comics creators and will grab some more tomorrow to post for you.  My head cold has slowed me down a little bit, but I am still in the game.

Reporter Phillip Zonkel and photographer Jeff Gritchen ran into Boba Phat, A.K.A. David James from Costa Mesa, who occasionally acts like he is drunken and cranky but he really is the fun version of the notorious Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett (see the video below I took at San Diego Comic-Con 2008.)  And pictured with Boba Phat is the "Tuscan Raver."  See the opening day LB Comic Con photo gallery.

Expect some panel coverage from the team tomorrow.

An extremely well-cropped image By Jeff Gritchen/The Press-Telegram