Besides the usual rollout of comics news, the New York Comic-Con also presented an award for a comics great, a memorial for one just passed, and a preview of an eagerly awaited movie.

On Thursday night, Stan Lee, co-creator of the classic Marvel superheroes of the 1960s, was presented with the convention’s first “New York Comics Legends Award” at an exclusive party at the Virgin Megastore in Times Square. Befitting Lee’s stature in the medium. it took not one but three speakers to introduce him: comics writer Peter David, Virgin Comics CEO Sharad Devarajan, and Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada. (Surely not coincidentally, it was announced during this same weekend that Lee would be editing and overseeing a new line of superhero series for Virgin Comics.)

This award is intended to honor New Yorkers who have made major contributions to the comics medium. Though he has long been based in Los Angeles, Lee was born in New York City and grew up there, and it was in New York that he did his groundbreaking work at Marvel. In his speech David declared that “truth above all is his [Lee’s] major contribution to comics.” For example, David explained, “Stan gave us heroes with problems that we could relate to: sick relatives, girlfriend trouble, money trouble.” Another example, he continued, was setting most of the classic Marvel series in New York. “You want truth? It doesn’t get truer than New York City." Lee, he continued, didn’t set his stories in “made-up places—not Smallville or Metropolis or Gotham City or Los Angeles!”

Noting that Lee had co-created so many world-famous characters, Quesada kidded him by running down a list of some of Lee’s lesser lights, like the Porcupine, the Living Eraser, and the monster Googam. Son of Goom. But Quesada concluded that “Stan’s greatest creation is Stan Lee,” the persona that he devised for himself, which Quesada compared to P, T. Barnum. “Thank you for being Stan Lee.”

Finally, as Spider-Man 3 played on videoscreens nearby, Stan Lee himself rose and accepted the award. As his fans would expect, Lee took neither the award nor himself too seriously. “You want to hold that?” he asked, passing the award to another person on the platform. In mock annoyance, he complained that Quesada had just badmouthed Googam and even the Porcupine: “One of my greatest creations! I’m saving him for a movie. I’ll never let Quesada talk about me again.”

As for the award, “I think I’m very grateful for whatever that was,” Lee told his amused audience. “I have to make some explanation to my wife, ‘You traveled three thousand miles for that?’”

Characteristically, Lee took the opportunity to promote his new book, Election Daze (Filsinger Publishing), which—again, surely not coincidentally—was being sold just across the room. Back in the 1960s Lee did books like Monsters to Laugh With, for which he wrote funny word balloons for photographs of movie monsters or golfers or politicians. In “Election Daze” Lee applies the same method to pictures of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and other current politicians. Lee told the audience that he didn’t want us to buy the book just to make him money; he wants us to read it so we’ll realize, as he put it, “Despite what everyone says, he really IS clever!”

Then Lee told the audience “Thanks a million! You’ve all been wonderful!” But Lee remained a good while longer, moving through the large room, greeting the delighted fans surrounding him.

Steve Gerber Memorial Panel

Saturday morning a memorial tribute was held for Steve Gerber, the writer of comics from Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown at Marvel to Nevada and Hard Time for DC’s Vertigo line, who passed away in February.

Comics and animation writer Mark Evanier, who hosted the tribute, reminded us that Gerber had “a great laugh.” Gerber’s satiric wit infused many of his most memorable stories, and, fittingly, this tribute too was marked by humorous anecdotes, affectionately recalled by his friends, and considerable laughter.

“Like all of you I can think of a lot of people I’d rather have dead than Steve Gerber,” Mark Evanier began. Then he added, “Some of them are guests at this convention,” to surprised laughter and applause.

In a sense Steve Gerber too was a guest at the convention. “Steve is represented by his ashes here,” Evanier explained, gesturing towards a nearby container. “Later we will celebrate by going upstairs and flinging them in the faces of various publishers.” The audience appreciated this even more, well aware of Gerber’s various conflicts with comics companies, notably his legal struggle with Marvel over ownership of his most famous creation, Howard the Duck.

Evanier recalled once when Gerber visited him in his old apartment and they suddenly heard a woman scream outside. Evanier got up to investigate but discovered that Gerber “did a Barry Allen on me” and had already rushed out to help the woman (who turned out not to be in danger after all) without a second’s thought. Evanier was struck by Gerber’s characteristic and “immediate compassion for a stranger.”

Gerber’s brother Michael chose to present what he termed “a portrait of the artist as a young man”: Steve Gerber before he moved to New York and started working for Marvel. Michael Gerber said that as boys he and Steve would watch The Adventures of Superman on television. “My sister said it was a mystical experience for him.” He continued, “It certainly transformed him”: for Steve, bath towels became capes, and “blue pajamas were for adventures.”

Comics writer Gail Simone said she had never met Steve Gerber in person, but they had spoken many times by telephone and by e-mail. Their correspondence began when Gerber sent her an e-mail about her work in Birds of Prey, saying, “I hope to hell you know how good you are.” Having long admired Gerber’s work, Simone told the audience she wanted to write back, “You know you’re effing Steve Gerber, don’t you?” Simone gratefully said “he was always so supportive” of her work, and that he inspired her and others to take unconventional approaches to comics: “I admired his guts so much.”

DC publisher and president Paul Levitz observed that “Steve was one of the first people pointing out the injustice” in the way the comics industry once treated its creators, even before Gerber began actively fighting it, and this inspired both those who tried to reform it both from inside the companies and outside them.

Next Steve Gerber appeared in screen, thanks to a video introduced by former comics editor Hildy Mesnik, which was made as a kind of comedy Christmas card when they both worked for the animation company Sunbow Productions. On screen Gerber humorously played the part of the curmudgeon, a role that would not surprise admirers of Howard the Duck.

But there was a very different side to Gerber. The next speaker, animation writer Buzz Dixon, marveled that Gerber was “so happy, so upbeat” even in the hospital that it was “impossible to believe he was facing a life-threatening disease. He was in a much better mood than in that video!”

Comics and animation writer Martin Pasko observed that “If you’re lucky you’ll work with someone you’re in awe of. If you’re really lucky, he gets to be your friend.” This is how Pasko felt about Steve Gerber. Pasko recalled being amazed at Gerber’s creativity when they worked together on the animated series Thundarr the Barbarian. Listening to him. Pasko said he realized, “I can’t think like this. This man’s a genius.”

But Gerber nevertheless did not receive the recognition or the financial rewards he deserved. Buzz Dixon recounted a hilarious story about how Gerber once had to file for bankruptcy, only to discover that the court clerk was a big fan of his: “He had fans who loved him in the most inappropriate times and places.” Pasko spoke about how, though Gerber was not involved in making the Howard the Duck movie, he was forever linked in the press with this legendary disaster.

But Gerber retained a sense of humor about it. Pasko recalled that in 1988, when Martin Scorsese was making The Last Temptation of Christ, people at Universal Studios expected it to bomb and nicknamed the movie Christ the Duck. Pasko said he wondered whether he should tell Gerber this, and finally did. And Gerber responded with “the longest, loudest, warmest laugh I ever heard Steve emit.”

Pasko was followed by Gerber’s daughter Samantha, who reminisced about Gerber as a warmhearted father and predicted that his comics legacy would last forever.

Finally, Mary Skrenes, Gerber’s longtime collaborator from Omega to Hard Time, came onstage and referred to the ashes. “I’m going to dump Steve all over New York.” she told the audience. “This was his favorite place in the world.”

Mark Evanier then closed by encouraging everyone to donate to the Hero Initiative, which aids comics creators in financial trouble or ill health, noting that Gerber would approve.

Spirit Move Panel

Late Saturday afternoon MTV News’ Kurt Loder moderated Lionsgate Films’ panel on the forthcoming film Will Eisner’s The Spirit, with cartoonist turned screenwriter/director Frank Miller; actress Eva Mendes, and producers Michael Uslan and Deborah Del Prete.

The centerpiece of the presentation was the world premiere of the movie’s teaser trailer, which fused the look of Eisner’s classic comics series with Miller’s Sin City movie, as a silhouetted Spirit raced across the rooftops of a film noir cityscape of blacks and grays, illuminated by the bright red of the Spirit’s tie.

Although the filming of the actors has been done, the movie will not be ready for release until early 2009. The actors were shot against “green screens,” and now, as Del Prete explained, there is the long post-production process of creating the computer-generated backgrounds and other special effects.

Del Prete said that The Spirit movie follows in the path of the Sin City film by bringing “a new element”: adapting the visual style of the comics artist to the screen. In this case, that means both Will Eisner’s art style and Miller’s own. Del Prete noted that Miller not only provided copies of Eisner’s work to other people working on the film, but that “We had Frank there drawing on the set at all times.”

As for sequels to his previous film, Miller stated that “I’ve written Part 2 of what I consider a trilogy of Sin City movies,” but that he was “allergic” to talking about when it might go into production.

However, “I’m certain to direct more films in the future,” Miller asserted. “I love the job.” And will other comics artists follow Miller’s lead and become movie directors? Miller believes that they will: “Slowly, steadily, the inmates are taking over the asylum.”

But what about comics? Miller declared himself happy to be working with Jim Lee currently in All Star Batman and Robin and stated that he had completed “122 pages of my next graphic novel.” Although he enigmatically said that he could not reveal its title yet, Miller announced that he would “finish it in the next few months.”