BY ROBERT KOUMARELAS
Fans around the world are finding ways to pay their respects to Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee, who died Nov. 11 at age 95. Stan Lee would influence and inspire the works of countless artists and storytellers. And Sheridan’s animation and illustration students here at Trafalgar campus are no exception
One of his biggest fans, Connor Haley, was especially saddened.
“He’s always been such an icon to me, so just to hear of his passing it was a little bit emotional, it took a bit of a toll just because I grew up watching his stuff and reading his comics.” Haley a Sheridan Technical Production grad said.
“As I got older I was inspired by this universe that Stan Lee had created he had a creative mind he just went and created this whole entire universe that we as the fans loved so for me, that was an inspiration to kind of represent that. I would like to do something creative of my own so I went in to the Technical Production program at Sheridan for theatre and live events. So here I was building sets for shows that we were doing, which was building a world of characters of imagination,” said Haley.
Born in 1922, Stan Lee came from humble beginnings of working as an intern at the precursor comic company that would later become Marvel. After returning from his military service during World War Two, he and artist Jack Kirby would go on to create iconic Marvel heroes such as the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men, Spider man and many more. Marvel Comics would soon become a multi-billion-dollar industry, and an influence on people’s everyday lives. (Information taken from The Hollywood Reporter)
Many such as Jaida Soloman, an Illustration student at Sheridan, admired the humanity that Stan Lee brought to his characters.
“They’re real people, they have flaws but they also have some really, really good characteristics and features about them that kind of make them heroic and just the challenges they can overcome so kind of like seeing that in my work as well creating just real people, real heroes,” said Soloman.
Check out this link for Jaida’s drawing of Stan Lee.
From this early success, Stan Lee’s work would evolve into many forms of art, media and storytelling that inspired countless fans through the 20th century. This includes some of Sheridan’s own professors such as Peter Palermo, the coordinator for Art fundamentals. “I was a kid when he started, so I was a fan right away, particularly drawn to Peter Parker and Spider man.”
“I often refer to comic books as perfect examples of perspective because they exaggerate in comic books… I often use Stan Lee’s examples cause I actually have a collection of his characters in my slides when I show the students this is what perspective is, this is what texture is, this is what artists do and the students obviously know his work.”
Palermo and many others at Sheridan believe that their continued drawing, animation and storytelling will honour his memory and keep his legacy of realistic super heroes alive for years to come.
