Stan Lee’s First Cameo was 75 Years Ago

For the last 18 years part of the fun of going to a Marvel superhero movie was looking for Stan Lee’s cameo. Over the years they’ve become a little more obvious, although the one in Deadpool II was a curveball. At the very end of this post I’ve included a video compilation of Stan Lee cameos (Stanmeos?) starting in 1989 with the TV movie The Trial of the Incredible Hulk and going right through Ant Man and the Wasp which came out a few months ago.

So when do you think Stan “The Man” Lee made his first cameo appearance in any medium? 30 years ago? 40? What’s wrong with you? Didn’t you read the title of this article?? It was 75 years ago! Pay attention!

Stan’s first cameo was in a 1943 issue of Terry-Toon Comics. Lee was already a private in the U.S. Army when he appeared in a comic as “Stan Lee, 3rd Assistant Office Boy”.

Just to put this in perspective, this issue came out a full 18 years before Lee would create The Fantastic Four which would begin the Silver Age of Marvel Comics.

To put it another way, Stan Lee had already been in the comic book business for over two decades before he created his most famous characters. Stan Lee, who we only lost just yesterday, was a middle-aged man when he dreamed up Spiderman, The Hulk, FF and all the other great characters of Marvel lore.

Truly, the world has lost a great man. ‘Nuff said!

Here’s the video of Stan Lee’s cameos (but not all of them) in movies and TV through the years.