Marvel Comics co-founder Stan Lee immortalized in cement in Hollywood

Lee, who created or co-created some of Marvel Comics' most well-known characters, including Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Iron Man, The Avengers and Dr. Strange, paid tribute to his wife of 69 years, Joan, who died on July 6.

"I can't tell you what this means to me. I'm thrilled, I'm overwhelmed and if I'm half as good as everybody said I am, I'm far too good to be wasting time with ordinary people, but I seem to be spending my life with ordinary people who are the best people in the world.

"I seem to be the luckiest man in the world because I've had friends and to have the right friends is everything, people you can depend on, people who tell you the truth if you ask for something, I've been lucky in that area. I've been lucky to have a wonderful wife," Lee told fans during the ceremony which was the first hand and feet ceremony sponsored by fans, according to the TCL Chinese Theatre.

Shortly after the ceremony, Lee said seeing his comic book creations on the big screen was "thrilling."

"It's really a hard feeling to describe. It is so thrilling to take something that you've written years ago and suddenly you realize that they're making a big budget movie out of it, with fantastic special effects.

"You go to see it and you say when I did it it was just pen and ink drawings on a page and now it's one of the most exciting movies I've ever seen," he said.