This interview was originally published in 2014.
The Marvel Comics blockbuster machine, driven by the Avengers, Iron Man, X-Men and the many iterations of Spider-Man, has been a hero for the movie industry, but the biggest Marvel superhero may be a somewhat wrinkly 91-year-old with tinted glasses and a white mustache.
Stan Lee, aka “Stan the Man,” the elder statesman of the comics industry, is a former president and chairman of Marvel Comics. He had a major hand in creating Marvel’s menagerie of champions, many of them from titles he invented in the 1960s, and as a writer and collaborator, he helped turn those heroes into both flawed human beings and cultural icons.
Today Lee is one of the few survivors of that era and is the unofficial ambassador for the Marvel brand. He makes an appearance this weekend at the Wizard World Atlanta Comic Con, where he will pose for photographs, sign autographs and smile like a master of all he surveys.
And why not? Marvel rules the comics world. More significantly: Marvel creatures propelled “The Avengers” to the biggest opening weekend in movie history, and there is plenty more to come. The fifth big-budget Spider-Man movie opened this month, and “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” will follow. The comics fans who will attend this convention revere Lee like the boss that he is, and will line up for hours to get a selfie (and pay $100 for the opportunity; $80 for just the autograph).
But, we wondered, outside of some extra pocket change, what is in it for Lee? It’s obviously more than just the pacemaker he had installed two years ago that keeps him ticking.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had a brief but exclusive conversation with Lee, who phoned from the Beverly Hills office of his production company Pow Entertainment.
Q: You’re 91 years old. Why are you still going to comics conventions?
A: I love what I do. It's not like work, it's like playing. I'm with fans who are excited about comics and the work we do; I can talk to them.
Q: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, were all created 50 years ago. What was it about the early 1960s that made it such a fruitful period?
A: It's not for me to say. Just that we were — me, and the people who worked with me — were lucky enough to hit on a formula that people liked.
Q: Which one of your characters do you identify with most?
A: Oh, I think Iron Man, because he's so handsome. But probably Peter Parker, because he's got a million problems, and even when things turn out good, they're not perfect.
Q: What do you think of the fans you meet at comics conventions, and what do they think of you?
A: They seem to like me. A lot of them say, "Thank you for my childhood." … You don't know how remarks like that touch me. The amazing thing to me is their age. I'll get a kid 5 years old who acts like the biggest fan in the world, and I'll get a fan who looks like he's in his 60s, and he says, "Thank you for teaching me how to read." I get so many, maybe three or four at each convention, who ask me to sign my name on their leg or arm, 'cause they want to get it tattooed.
Q: And other body parts?
A: I don't want to mention those.
Q: So how do you stay healthy?
A: It's the excitement of this work. I think the worst thing in the world is to retire.
The Wizard convention takes place Friday through Sunday at the Georgia World Congress Center. Lee, who appears on Sunday only, joins a host of other pop culture celebrities who will appear at the convention, including Karen Gillan of “Doctor Who,” Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker of “The Walking Dead,” and Darryl McDaniels of the rap group Run-D.M.C.
