Stan Lee’s Last Known Photo Shows Him Visiting With an Old Marvel Friend

Just a few days before he passed away, Stan Lee talked shop with Roy Thomas and now, Thomas has shared an image of the visit. Originally shared on Bleeding Cool, Thomas posted the picture of him and Stan with an anecdote about their conversation.

According to Thomas, Lee sound liked he was “more than ready to leave this Earth.”

“I’m sadder than I can say that Stan has died,” Thomas told Bleeding Cool. “Even though I know, from my recent phone conversations with him, that he was more than ready to leave this Earth. I’m so grateful that, by sheer circumstance, I got to spend a half hour or so with him this past Saturday, less than 48 hours before he passed away.”

Thomas continued by saying that Lee still had a passion to film as many film cameos as possible.

“At that time, it was obvious that he lacked much of the old Stan Lee energy that everybody had got to know at conventions and in movie cameos,” Thomas reflected. “But when I asked him about future cameos, he expressed a real interest in making them, if he could find a way to do it without there being too much trouble.”

When Lee was promoted to publisher of Marvel in 1972, Thomas took over his role as Editor-in-Chief of the House of Ideas.

Thomas went to mention how Lee’s creation of Spider-Man in 1961 might have been one of the most important creative decisions ever made.

“I opined as how maybe the one important creative decision Goodman ever made was when he commissioned Stan to create a super-hero group back in 1961,” Thomas said. “Stan seemed to get a kick out of that.”

“Still, I consider myself so very lucky to have known and work with him for so many years…one of the most important mythmakers of the 20th century.”

Lee passed away Monday morning at the age of 95. Joan — his wife of over fifty years — died last summer. The two are survived by their daughter J.C.