(Copied from my Anthony Camber blog.)
Don’t get excited: it was a while ago.
Fifty years ago, in fact. It all started fifty years ago today. 👶👨🦲👴💀
Picture it: London, 1976. October 14th. The Words and Music store on the Charing Cross Road. Marvel supremo Stan Lee hunched behind a table signing autographs, with Spider-Man watching mutely on.
Getty took some photos I don’t have permission to reproduce, but here’s a link to them.
I was there with my mum and a freshly bought copy of Bring On The Bad Guys, a collection of Marvel’s origin stories for famous villains like Doctor Doom and Loki. Whatever happened to those two, eh?
After a long wait in an endless queue, Stan Lee signed my copy. Then a photographer took my photo, alongside some randoms I didn’t know.
A few weeks later issue 10 of Captain Britain came out. After the main colour story and a black-and-white second story, there was a double-page spread about the signing. And there I was!
I bought three copies of that comic. I still have them in plastic slips in great condition – as well as my copy of Bring On The Bad Guys, and Captain Britain issue 1 (minus the free gift sadly). All worth very little I’m sure: but proof that I’ve appeared in a Marvel comic.
That was the second time I’d seen Stan Lee in person. Almost exactly a year earlier he’d appeared at the Camden Roundhouse, and I was there with my mum and (I think) cousin.
I (my mum) bought a copy of Son of Origins of Marvel Comics, and on that occasion I obtained a coveted Spider-Man autograph (but not Stan Lee’s). The book was stamped for the occasion.
I’ve made a 30-second video for social media about my Captain Britain appearance. Find it on my Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube channel.
Excelsior! (as Stan Lee would say)
