NOTE: This was the
premier entry in my series of "Thwack!" columns for iFuse.com. "Thwack!"
was my bi-weekly column on comics that ran of the iFuse.com "PopCulprit"
site from Nov. 1999 until the dot-com downturn caught up with iFuse in
October, 2000.
I usually try to avoid insanely gushing
generalizations, but here's one
anyway: Without Stan Lee there would
be no such thing as superhero comics.
In fact, they would have gone out
with a whimper four decades ago. When
Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four No.
1 appeared in 1961, it ignited the torpid
industry as sure as the Human Torch
could say "Flame On!" and burst into a
ball o' fire.
Comics were still reeling from the
crisis of the early '50s when they came
under attack for supposedly encouraging
kids to grow up to be rapists, bank
robbers, drug users or gay lovers
-- like Batman and Robin! (An actual
accusation from comics' No. 1 inquisitor,
"mental hygiene" specialist
Frederic Wertham.)
Complying with the newly-imposed and,
at that time, absurdly restrictive
comics code, the industry cleaned
up its act and in the process, desiccated
the life out of its greatest characters.
Most superheroes couldn't live with
their dejizzification and simply went
into remission. Those that remained
active -- Superman and Batman, primarily
-- were consigned to rote tales in
which they defeated bug-eyed alien
invaders and other such inane
adversaries. They weren't exactly
the sorts of stories kids could relate to.
They were pretty dull.
Lee, along with a number of now-legendary
artists, most significantly Jack
Kirby, changed all that. He followed
FF with a Dimaggio-like streak of
characters that have long since passed
into our permanent zeitgeist: The
Incredible Hulk, Spider Man, Iron
Man, The Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, to
name but a few. All were regular guys
(and gals) first, superpowered
world-saviors second. It suddenly
made sense to read comics again.
The '60s and '70s were Lee's heyday.
Starting in the early '80s he served
largely as a figurehead at Marvel
Comics, relocating to L.A. and
concentrating on repurposing Marvel's
classic characters for Hollywood.
But as the new century dawns, 77-year-old
Stan Lee -- now freed from his
lifetime contract with Marvel -- is
starting anew. This time, he's in
cyberspace.
On Feb. 29 his new venture, Stan Lee
Media goes online with a new set of
Web-animated characters and stories.
The debut show will be The Seventh
Portal, in which six teenage beta
testers enter another dimension, through
the "portal" of the Internet (Yahoo?
Excite?) where they gain superpowers
and battle a squadron of supervillains
led by the ultra-evil "Mongor." Other
titles (which Lee says he is "not
permitted to talk about") going on the
site later include The Accuser, The
Drifter and Stone Man. Ultimately, Lee's
company plans to debut a new "webisode"
of at least one show every day.
I found Stan the Man in his Encino,
Calif. office, looking very much like
the caricature that ran with his weekly
"Stan's Soapbox" column in every
Marvel Comic. The hair, the mustache,
the sunglasses and the irrepressible
enthusiasm were all in place.
iFUSE: Will the Web have an impact
on the comics industry? It seems that
everything that happens in the world
has a bad impact on the comics industry
these days.
STAN LEE: I think all the bad impacts
have been the fault of the comics
industry. I think the Web will be
great for it. I think it'll create a whole new
audience of people who like these
kinds of stories. If we can increase the
audience, since we can only give them
one new one a day, they'll have to
turn to comic books to get their superhero
fix.
iFUSE: What do you think is wrong with
the comics industry? It seems like
sales keep going down and there's
a dismal atmosphere inside the business.
SL: We used to appeal to young kids
and older people. Today I think most of
the comics are written with the older
reader in mind. The writers and the
artists enjoy the fact that older
people are reading their stuff -- which is
good. But what's happened is they've
lost the younger kids. It used to be
there was always a new generation.
As older readers would fall off there
were new ones. Now there's no new
ones. The stories aren't accessible to
young readers anymore. You feel like
you're coming in the middle of a movie
and you don't understand who the people
are or what they're doing.
I think the comic book publishers
are beginning to realize that. Also there
are less stores to buy them. If you
wanted comics, where the hell would you
buy them? Everybody doesn't live near
Golden Apple.
iFUSE: You used to buy them at the
drugstore or the newsstand.
SL: You don't see them there anymore.
iFUSE: If you were in charge, what
would you do to change it?
SL: I'd start making the books more
accessible to younger people, and I'd
find a way to have them distributed
in K-Mart, Wal-Mart, grocery stores,
music stores. All over. They've got
to work on the distribution. They've got
to find a way to get them where people
go.
iFUSE: Now, your new company isn't
the only one doing Web-based comicsÖ
SL: Webisodes! I don't think of them
as our version of comic books on the
Web. It's not done in panels. We don't
have dialog balloons, we have actors.
I think of them as mini-movies. They
just happen to be animated. They're
like the old movie serials. The only
thing comic-booky about 'em is, they're
the same kind of stories that I've
done for years. They're fantasy, science
fiction, bigger than life, over the
top stories -- done as realistically as
possible.
iFUSE: The first question fans are
going to ask is how much is Stan really
going to write?
SL: I've created all the characters
and the concept of our different
Webisodes. But then I have writers
actually writing the scripts. Our main
one, The Seventh Portal, I'm co-writing
with [President of Linear Content
and Television Production] Bryce Zabel.
I'm writing a lot of the features. I write little messages that will start
appearing for the users. I'm going to write all kinds of novelty humor.
I love writing humor.
I go over everything, of course. I
want everything to read as if it was done
by Marvel years ago. It should have
that same feeling. I want them to be
fantasy mixed with reality, a touch
of humor in certain areas, a lot of
great visuals and a lot of provocative
themes.
Other than that, the usual stuff.
iFUSE: It seems your site is aimed
at very young people, so-called "Gen Y."
How much cachet do you think your
name has with that age group?
SL: I get a lot of fan mail from them.
I get a lot of kids eight years old
asking for my autograph. I don't know
if their older brothers or their
fathers tell them about the comics.
I don't know what it is. But they do
seem to know me.
In business you always have to say
who your target audience is, who your
demographics are. So [Lee's business
partner] Peter [Paul] usually says
between 10 and 20, something like
that.
I never think of demographics. I've
always tried to write stories that would
be clear an understandable enough
for young people but intelligent enough
and with enough little bits of humor
and reality for older readers.
iFUSE: At an age when you could be
retiring to be an elder statesman of the
industry, why are you starting a whole
new venture?
SL: I'd rather be the younger statesman
than a retiree. I never thought of
retiring. I love what I do. I've always
had a lifetime contract at Marvel
but last December I was able to work
out a new deal where I'm allowed to do
other things. I figured I was in on
the ground floor of comics and was able
to do something that turned out to
be kind of big. Wouldn't it be great to
be in on the ground floor of the Internet,
which is infinitely bigger than
comics could ever be? Who could resist
an opportunity like that.
iFUSE: A lot of Web entertainment sites,
it seems, produce shows for the
Web, but what they're really doing
is pitching to TV through the back door.
Is that your plan?
SL: I always just concentrate on what
I'm doing. I'm trying to see to it
that we get the very best, most exciting,
most engrossing Webisodes that
it's possible to get on a computer
screen.
Now, in this world in which we live,
very often anything that's good, people
in other lines of endeavor want to
grab that thing and put it to use.
So it's not unlikely that some Saturday
morning network would like to do an
animated series. It's not unlikely
that some interactive game company is
going to say, "Hey, this would make
a great game." It's not unlikely that
somebody would want to make a movie.
That they'll want to make toys. But
that's not what I concentrate on.
If that happens, great! If it doesn't
happen, fine. I want to get the best
damn shows we can get on the Internet.
iFUSE: You have people out there shopping
you around, though?
SL: Oh, we have licensing people. We
have everybody. But that's not my
primary concern. I find that the minute
you try to do a show that will be
good for something else you're not
giving a hundred percent to that show.
I had that experience some time ago
with a toy manufacturer. I don't want to
mention who, what, when, where. Instead
of giving the most compelling
characters and show we could, he wanted
this to take place on a million
different planets so that each planet
would have different kinds of people
and each one would be a different
toy. From his point of view the show was
great -- it had all these toys! He
overlooked the fact that it was a lousy
show!
iFUSE: Do you follow the comics industry?
SL: No time, no time. I follow it as
much as I can but I don't have time to
read the books.
iFUSE: I was going to ask if there's
anything being done today that stands
out.
SL: There may be, but I wouldn't know.
I don't even have time to read good
stuff. It's my biggest regret. I used
to go to sleep every night with a book
on my night table. I'd read a chapter
or two. Now I work until I can't keep
my eyesanymore and I plop into
bed. I barely have time to read the
newspaper. One paper at breakfast.
I don't even have time to read Variety
and The Hollywood Reporter which I
used to read faithfully.
iFUSE: All your time goes to this company?
SL: All to this! And I'm not complaining.
I love it! I love every minute of
it!