New mural in Stockton dedicated to the Fantastic Four

CBS News in Sacramento reports there's a mural that's been painted on a building in Stockton that's dedicated to the Marvel team that boosted Marvel's profile in the Silver Age:

As you're walking down Miracle Mile in Stockton, you may hear the sounds of colorful graffiti when all the sudden, you come across a striking mural.

"Behind us is the iconic Fantastic Four mural that is currently being worked on," co-organizer Orlando Molina said.

The Fantastic Four, the classic team from Marvel, is coming to life at another classic spot: Al's Comic Shop.

"It is inspired by the old comic book with The Thing on the front that claims that Stockton is the hometown of the Fantastic Four," Molina explained. "It's a very rare comic. Al's Comics, which is right here in the building, they have the comic and they had Stan Lee visit here and kind of do the stamp of approval."

Al's Comic Shop owner Al Greco can be seen in a picture right next to Marvel creator Stan Lee in 1986. That's when Stockton was officially recognized as the hometown and birthplace of these four hometown heroes.

This was a moment Greco pushed for and succeeded.

"It was a big day for Stockton. When Stan Lee came, he went to the city and they gave him a key. Then he came here and kind of signed all day for kids," Greco continued. "He was a nice guy. He was friendly. He had Spider-Man with him, jumping around."

Now isn't that great. Painting a mural on a local building is certainly more worthwhile at this point than reading the modern comics output from Marvel, and it's too bad the publisher couldn't have closed down in the early-to-mid-2000s, because that could've minimized the damage Joe Quesada brought about when he became EIC. So congratulations on this new mural being painted in the city. But it's a shame that Marvel's modern output dampens the impact that could've been had if they'd stopped publishing comics years earlier. If they had, Lee's legacy could've worked far better for this.