Picture of the Week: Stan ‘The Man’ at The White House

This week, President Bush presented nine recipients with the National Medal of the Arts, managed by the National Endowment of the Arts. Among the recipients was legendary comic book creator and geek icon Stan Lee, who created Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four — to name a few.

I think this is the beginning of a new trend in which mainstream culture recognizes the literary genius of many comic book writers. Right now major film adaptations of Stan Lee’s characters are being released annually as blockbusters, but I think in the near future we’ll start to see acclaimed works of sequential art — graphic novels like Watchmen — on English class reading lists along with staples like Beowulf and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Congratulations, Stan — this is a huge honor. Excelsior!