AN INTERVIEW WITH STAN ‘THE MAN’ LEE
By Matthew Price

Stan Lee knows that many people who toiled in the early days of comics didn't receive pensions or insurance. That's why Lee, who created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and legions of other super-heroes and nefarious villains, helps raise money for the Hero Initiative, which aids aging or ill comic-book creators facing hard times.

"Almost every group, every union, has something for people who are having a hard time of it, but in comics there was nothing like that. I felt this is really a good thing for people who have spent years doing comics. Maybe they're too ill, or too old... now they're out in the cold and they need help…We should help our own," Lee says.

That led Lee to Maverick Interactive, and a starring role in the documentary feature, Marvel: Then and Now, An Evening With Stan Lee And Joe Quesada, Hosted By Kevin Smith.

"I think it was kind of informative, if anybody's interested in comics, because Joe Quesada had a lot of cogent things to say about the new wave of comics and how they're being done and why they're being done. Kevin Smith [Hollywood’s leading under-40 filmmaker] is always a delight to listen to. He always manages to say things that are totally unexpected, thoroughly ridiculous and entirely provocative," Lee says.

"It's probably the most informal group of three people ever on a stage," Lee laughs. "It was three people having a good time and kidding around. And I think anyone watching will also learn a lot in the middle of the kidding around."

Lee started in comics in the 1940s, and created or co-created much of the Marvel pantheon in the 1960s along with Marvel artists.

With Jack Kirby – the father of Captain America and about the only renowned comic creator who predates Lee -- he created The Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men and Thor. With Steve Ditko, he created Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. Daredevil and Iron Man were also Lee co-creations.

Lee says the success of the stories over the years -- and in Hollywood on the big screen -- was something he didn't foresee when creating the characters.

"When I was writing these stories ... I never in a million years thought that things would turn out the way they did. I just hoped that people would buy the comic books so that I could keep my job," he says.  "A few years ago I realized how good a job Marvel does in producing these movies, and what a good job the studios do in picking the best writers and the best directors and the best actors. And I think the movies are just going to be getting better and better."

Lee has become a star in his own right; in addition to fans who know him from the comics, he’s also been highly visible in cameos in Marvel-based films and in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats. 

"Obviously the reason that everybody goes to them [the Marvel films] is to see my cameo," Lee says with a laugh. "Mention that every so often -- 'he says with a laugh' — I mean I can picture people reading this and saying jeez, that Stan Lee is as conceited as everybody says he is."

Lee’s latest appearances in Spider-Man 3 and The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer are more involved than his previous cameos.

"In these two movies I actually have cameos where I speak. In the Spider-Man movie I say a little something to Peter Parker, and in the Fantastic Four movie, I replicate a scene that had been in one of the comic books."

Lee's charm and self-deprecating humor have served him well on television, as well — the Sci Fi channel recently ordered another 10 episodes of "Who Wants to Be a Superhero," the reality show in which contestants compete to become a Stan Lee hero. Lee says he was surprised at the impact his work has had on some of the contestants.

"A few of them almost got misty-eyed when they were talking about how important the comic books were to them when they were young and how great it is to be on that show and so forth," he says. "As I travel around and meet more and more people, I'm amazed at how important comic books were to so many people over the years. ... And so many of them will say to me how much these comics meant when they were young, and some of them say that they still mean a lot to them. They still read them. And it's very gratifying to hear that from so many people."

Lee is no longer with Marvel, the house he built.  He’s founded a new company, POW (Purveyors of Wonder), which is affiliated with Disney and is releasing animated DVDs of new Stan Lee creations, including Mosaic and The Condor.

"There's nothing more enjoyable than working on bits of entertainment that you're going to put before the public," he says. "And then there's the excitement of hoping and wondering, will they like it or not? Of course in my case they always like it — he says with a laugh!"