East Meets West--When Legends Gather, 1978

The last issue of Marvel's FOOM fan magazine came out in 1978 and was put together by David Anthony Kraft (who would many years later have me interviewed for his COMICS INTERVIEW) and Jim Salicrup (who is now one of my Facebook friends!). Buried within its pages for those still reading it was an interesting interview with a man named Gene Pelc who worked in marketing and licensing in Japan for Marvel's then-parent company, Cadence. Within the article, there were several rather murky reproductions of photos which now, all these years later, seem to take on slightly more significance. The photos are of Marvel's own Stan "the Man" Lee being introduced by Gene to a couple of Japanese manga cartoonists on a seventies visit to the Far East. The first here is Stan meeting the young artist Go Nagai (not "Nagai Go" as printed) whose most popular creation remains CUTIE HONEY. The other shows Stan being introduced to the legendary Dr. Osama Tezuka himself, the father of Japanese Manga and creator, to American audiences of the day, of ASTRO BOY!