Kevin Smith Pays Tribute to Stan Lee at “Excelsior!” Event Honoring Late Comics Icon

Kevin Smith remembered the great Stan Lee in an emotional tribute at an event celebrating the late comic book icon this week. Variety reports that Smith hosted the event, titled “Excelsior! A Celebration of the Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible, & Uncanny Life of Stan Lee” at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Some highlights from Smith’s comments to the site are below, along with those by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse producer Chris Miller and Mark Hamill:

Smith on his first time meeting Lee on the set of Mallrats: “He never gave me any advice, which was so awesome because that’s what a friend is. He doesn’t tell you how to live your life. He just enjoys the life that you live. He never gave me advice, but he gave me so much more than that. That man lived the life, where I was like, ‘I’m gonna borrow that, gonna borrow that, gonna borrow that.’ He was never like, ‘Kev, be like me.’ I just chose to be like him.”

Smith on Lee’s legacy: “Stan’s greatest creation was himself. We love all the superheroes that Stan was responsible for, but we don’t get to meet those superheroes unless we met the character of Stan Lee. If Stan wants to live forever, this is how it begins. Sometimes I lament because I honestly think I’ve met the best f**king human being in my life, and now he’s gone. He meant the world to everyone in this room. We’re talking about someone who didn’t have to touch personally to touch personally. This is a guy who lives in everybody’s hearts.”

Miller on his and Phil Lord’s experience with Lee: “Our first encounter with him was at eight years old reading comic books. We first met him when we were 20 years old and snuck into a Comic-Con after-party and ran up to him. Any other person would’ve totally been calling security over. Reading his notes to the readers in those pages was the first time we felt part of something bigger. He made ordinary people feel extraordinary. To me, that’s his legacy.”

Hamill on Lee: “He had such a personality that came across the pages. He put a human face on what it was like to work for a comic company. He had catchphrases, like ‘Excelsior,’ and ‘Stan’s Soapbox.’ You really felt like you knew him. He branded that company. He was the figurehead. He was the guy, Stan the Man.”