Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Leeis a comic-book writer, editor, publisher, media producer, television host, actor and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics. In collaboration with several artists, including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he created Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men, and many other fictional characters, introducing a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. In addition, he headed the first major successful challenge to the industry's censorship organization, the Comics Code Authority, and forced it to...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComic Book Author
Date of Birth28 December 1922
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I think if I were a superhero saving the world, I'd expect at least not to have to pay income taxes. I mean there should be something in it for a hero who risks his life to save mankind every day.
I have to force myself to get angry. But I want to show the world that there's another side to me, that I am capable of deep, deep anger and fury. They better watch out for how I'm treated.
I know the world expects me to have superpowers, and it'll be quite a disappointment. But I just play myself.
The public always loves anything that's different, as long as it's well-made, if it's well-done. You never know what to expect when you go to one of these so-called superhero movies.
I think there's the element of the excitement of what I'm going to see, and with the special effects where you see men flying and walking through walls and shooting flame or whatever they do, especially the younger audiences, which make up a bulk of the moviegoers, they love that sort of thing.
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, and if I sell that to a studio, then someone else does the actual production and I go on to another project, although I keep the title executive producer.
When I was a kid, I loved reading Sherlock Holmes. Now, you don't think of him as a superhero, but he was so damn much smarter than anybody else.
My biggest regret is that I don't really have time to read.
I have a reputation for doing superheroes, but I like all kinds of writing. In fact, hardly anybody knows this, but I've probably written as many humor stories as superhero stories.
I never tried to write for other people. I liked people who had problems I might have, because we all have insecurities, regrets. I like heroes who were not 100-percent perfect, who things to take care of.
No one has a perfect life. Everybody has something that he wishes was not the way it is.
So I'm happiest when I'm working with artists and writers, and involved in stories, whether we're talking about animation or movies or comics or television.
The cliché I tried to avoid was I hated "teenage sidekicks." I always figured if I were a superhero, there's no way on God's earth that I'm gonna pal around with some teenager. So my publisher insisted I have a teenager in the series, because they always felt teenagers won't read the books unless there's a teenager in the story; which is nonsense.
When you work with people whom you respect and whom you like and you admire because they're so good at what they do, it doesn't feel like work... It's like you're playing.