Stan Lee interviewed in 1998 (raw audio)

It’s a tradition on the birthday of Marvel Comics’ fearless leader, Stan Lee, for me to revisit one of my favorite encounters with him: A July 18, 1998, sitdown at the Wizard World pop-culture convention in Rosemont, Ill.

This time, though, something different: Raw, unedited (stereo; he’s in the right channel, I’m in the left) audio of the session we recorded—followed by the sound of one of my Merry Marvel Marching Society membership perks, a record featuring Stan and many of the old Marvel Bullpen team.

As you’ll hear by comparing the session below to the finished product, not much wound up on the cutting room floor, but you’ll get a sense of Stan’s off-air demeanor by listening to the banter before and after the “official” session.



Enjoy this? Check out my 1997 list of 10 things I learned from Marvel Comics written by Stan Lee, an interview with Howard the Duck co-creator Steve Gerber and Understanding Comics author Scott McCloud …

■ … and (update, Dec. 28, 2024): My 2021 interview with two of Lee’s biographers

(Photo: Stan Lee in 2014, by Gage Skidmore; CC BY-SA 3.0.)