Northridge : Comic Creator Draws Fans to Store Opening

Stan Lee, father of some of the most popular super-powered mutants in history, drew hundreds of fans of his own when he appeared Thursday at Northridge Fashion Center.

The creator of comic icons Spider-Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four was on hand for the reopening of the shopping mall’s Bullock’s department store. The 198,400-square-foot store closed after sustaining damage in last year’s Northridge earthquake. Its official reopening Thursday focused upon heroes, from real-life rescue workers to their comic book brethren.

While hundreds of visitors crowded around the costumed actors portraying Wolverine, Storm, Iron Man and other crusaders, a similar-size crowd waited in line to get autographs from Lee.

Some snapped photos. A few left artwork samples. One gave Lee a hologram disk showing Spider-Man and Peter Parker, the web-slinger’s alter ego.

“It’s really very gratifying, of course,” said Lee, 72. “I’m always surprised to see so many little kids. How do they even know who I am?”

Lee, who lives in Los Angeles, is credited with being the first to humanize comic heroes. Spider-Man had great strength and agility, but he also struggled to pay bills, keep his job and court his girlfriend.

“It isn’t the name and it isn’t the power” that makes a popular hero, said Lee, who heads Excelsior Comics, an independent branch of Marvel Comics. “It’s the personality. That’s what we work on the most. It has to be more than a cardboard, one-dimensional character.”

Tall, slender and with brown hair gone white at the temples, Lee resembles his own Mr. Fantastic, the super-intelligent leader of the Fantastic Four, who can stretch his body like putty. He chatted amiably while autographing posters, trading cards, T-shirts and, of course, comic books.

“Wow. I haven’t seen this one in a long time,” Lee said as he signed a Spider-Man comic he drew in 1964.