SCI FI PI

Stan Lee is the one of the greatest, most prolific storytellers of all time. He is quite literally, the most famous comic book writer in history. It is without a doubt that the creator of Spider-Man, THe Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, THe Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Dr Strange, Thor and Daredevil (to name just SOME of his superheroes) is a living legend.

And we got to speak with him, face to face.

Here is Part 2 of our 2 Part Interview


Comic book circulation isn't as big as it was. How do you reach the kids today with your company, POW!?
For those of you who don't know, POW! stands for 'purveyors of wonder' and we put the exclamation mark in their so no one thinks it means Prisoners of War. We're not doing comic books yet, although we may. We're doing movies, television shows and DVDs and electronic entertainment, things you'll be able to see on your phones. I've never been so excited, or busier. We've signed a first look deal with the Disney company, and we have three really big movies that are being developed there now - two of them feature new super heroes. I can't tell you what they are, but one of them is called Blaze, one is called Nick Ratchet, and one is called Tigris.

We're doing an animated seires with Paris Hilton, because I feel she needs a bit of publicity. We're also doing something with Hugh Hefner, the real story: you may think of him who just likes wine, women and song - oh no, that's just an act - he's one of America's greatest superheroes - and I'm gonna tell the truth about how this man has been saving our natuon. And there's another guy I want to make famous - Ringo Starr. These three are going to be cartoons. I'm having more fun that I have in a long time.





What does the future hold for the superhero film?
Everyone is now working on 3D - you'll see a lot of big movies coming out in 3D. But if you just use technology for the sake of using it, then you're cheating your audience, you're not giving them the best story.

But I'm not the smartest guy in the world, and I don't know everything about the movie business - I'm just learning. I am so impressed who really can make a good, big movie. the amount of work that goes into it is incredible.

I'm lucky, I don't have to produce the whole movie, what I've been doing is just coming up with ideas for movies. I write a concept, a treatment, an outline. If I sell that to a studio, then somebodya else does the actual production, and I go onto the next thing - although I keep the title of executive producer and try to butt in from time to time. So I'm not the biggest expert. Everything I tell you is just my opinion and I may be wrong. although I so rarely am!


What do you think of the less than universally praised Daredevil, and Electra?
Electra should've been better. I'm one of the people who didn't think Daredevil was that bad, I though Affleck did a good job. There were a number of things wrong, though. There were too many stories in one. They should've had just the one villain - I woud've made Bullseye the one villain. Bullseye versus Daredevil, that's it. I also would've kept it a little bit lighter. Other than that, I didn't think it was a bad movie.





Didn't you almost quit comics before you created Spider-man?
I'd been doing them for a number of years, working for a publisher who had no respect for the audience, he considered that comic books were read by illiterate adults and children who didn't know any better. He'd tell me "take out that dialogue in the story! No one wants all that dialogue! Just have a lot of action, all I want is a lot of fight scenes!"

For twenty years I did what he wanted, because it was a job, but I was getting sick of it. I thought this isn't what I want to read, and I was going to quit. He learned about the Justice League, and that was eelling, so he said "why don't you come up with a group of super heroes like the Justice League!". I felt I'd had enough.

My wife said to me "you wanna quit? - do the book he wants, but do it the way you want to do it. The worst thing that can happen is that he'll fire you, and you want to quit anyway, so what's the difference?" So I did this book called the fantastic Four. And I tried to go against a lot of conventions. I didn't give them costumes, I didn't give them secret identities, they all knew each other, the heroine was engaged to the hero; I tried to make them as realistic as I could within the framework of a superhero comic - and it caught on! And that's how it got started.


What were you like as a boy?
Oh, I was adorable! The teachers in school always tried to get me to shut up. I never got great grades, but I did okay because I never liked to study. I read a lot, but I never read the books you're supposed to read. I lived in the city, played roller-skate hockey in the street - the kind of skates with four wheels on each corner!

We never had any money. In summer I was the only kid who stayed behind when all the other kids went off to camp. I'd be stuck in the city with my ball hoping someone would come and play handball with me. That was my big game.

The greatest thing that happened to me when I was a kid was when I was ten or twelve, my parents pooled enough money to get me a two-wheeled bike. Oh Man! My world changed! I loved that bike. I think I really was an awfully nice kid!





Was there ever a story you were never allowed to do?
After the success of Spider-man, I was pretty much allowed to do whatever I wanted, which scared me. Before, I could always blame my publisher - now I had no one to blame!

There was one character I cam up, which was the one failure. Jack Kirby and I were working on a book, and we had to come up with the book. And evey month we had to get it done by the time we had to print, because if the book wasn't ready the publisher had to pay for the prinitng anyway, and that came out of my salary, so it better not be late!

Anyway, we needed a story quickly, because we'd taken too long on the previous story. Finally, I came up with a name - Diablo! And I thought, what a great name for a villain. And Jack drew a great villain, who looked really evil - with a cape.

To this day, I have no idea who he was, what his powers were - he remains just a name. But the book sold. But in those days, everything we did sold.

Which other character would you like to see get his own movie?
I can't wait till they do Dr Strange. He's the master of the mystic arts for those of you untutored in comicdom. I imagine they'll get around to him pretty soon.

Didn't they do a telemovie some years ago?
Yes they did! And it was damned good. But you know what? They pitted it against Roots, and it got no ratings! It's a shame, it was a good movie.

Who is your favourite superhero out of all your creations.
You know, I don't really have one. It's like asking a parent who's your favourite child. When I wrote them, the one I was writing at the moment - that was my favourite, because I was INTO IT!

I love 'em all. Everyone of them have such compelling, beautiful characters!





What about the next five years of characters for Marvel?
Marvel is planning to make movies of every major character they have, and the so called 'minor' characters. They're going to tap that well and draw out as much as they can out of it. Any character you can name at Marvel, the chances are, someone is dreaming up a movie for them right now.

They're doing Thor, they're doing Captain America, they will do Dr Strange, they're doing The Avengers, they're doing Deathlock.

What actor would you like to see Captain America, or Thor?
Captain America has to be very tall, very good looking, rugged - the best you can find. I don't know - I'm too old, so they'll have to ask someone else!


Part One of this interview is also online.


Iron Man is out on DVD and Blu-ray on Oct 9, The Incredible Hulk is out Oct 23.