For more than 30 years, an appearance from the late, great Stan Lee was as integral a part of a Marvel movie experience as the costumed heroes themselves. From showing up as a befuddled hot dog stand customer in 2000's X-Men to his final Marvel Cinematic Universe bow as a vocally anti-war motorist in Avengers: Endgame, Lee was the great Easter Egg every fan waited for in a Marvel flick. But it's time to face front, true believers. Lee may have been the greatest Marvel cameo artist, but he was not the first. That honor belongs to none other than legendary Marvel artist Jack "King" Kirby.
Stan Lee's first-ever Marvel cameo came in 1989 when he appeared in the TV movie The Trial of the Incredible Hulk. That film is also notable for featuring the first live-action incarnation of Daredevil, three decades before he served as Peter Parker's lawyer in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The Man Without Fear teams up with the Green Goliath to take on Wilson Fisk, better known to Marvel fans as Kingpin, with Lee making a brief appearance as a jury foreman during a dream sequence. While this kicked off a 30-year run for Lee as the king of cameos, Jack Kirby had already beaten Lee to the punch by a full ten years.
In 1979, during The Incredible Hulk's second season episode, "No Escape," a witness in a hospital bed is providing a statement to the police about their encounter with Bruce Banner. As he gives his description, a sketch artist furiously tries to capture what the witness saw. When the camera cuts to the artist, he is revealed to be Kirby himself, looking sharp in a blue blazer and a groovy shirt with a very 70s-style giant collar.
Although Stan Lee went on to make a veritable career out of popping up in Marvel projects, this uncredited cameo would mark the one and only time Jack Kirby would appear in anything Marvel, whether on TV or in film. Looking at his IMDB credits, he is also listed as having a small role on Starsky and Hutch three years before the Incredible Hulk gig, playing the part of "Officer Day."
There's a little bit of irony in the fact that Jack Kirby was the first to plant a flag on Cameo Island ahead of Stan Lee. While, as writer and artist respectively, Lee and Kirby had a partnership that gave fans everything from the Hulk to the Fantastic Four, they also had a bit of a rivalry through the years. Kirby later claimed that he did the majority of the writing during the Silver Age while Lee phoned it in. Things got so heated at one point that, during his run at DC, Kirby created a character named Funky Flashman, a fast-talking con man who was a not-so-subtle caricature of his former partner.
Still, while Jack Kirby may have lit the Marvel cameo torch, there can be no question that Stan Lee took it and ran with it straight to the top of the mountain. All told, Lee notched more than sixty appearances in Marvel movies and TV shows to Kirby's one. Sadly, Kirby passed away in 1994, 14 years before the MCU began. Had things gone differently, perhaps fans could've seen the two of them show up in a Marvel flick together, surrounded by the characters they brought to life.