arvel

Comics'
Stan "The Man" Lee

I I

andthe late |ack "King" Kirby

Well, he wes no Stan Lee!(|oking) Don't you dare put in that line! (Laughs) I keep forgetting I'm doing an

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i: '

t* a o
o

were 20th century

Brothers Grimm, spinning modern-day fairy tales with atomic

interview - Ia think I'm talkin'to person! That's my superpower. You tell a story about the Lee-Kirby style, that "Sgt. Fury and His Howling
Commandos" came about when you bet your publisher that no matter how silly the name, you two would make it successful.

radiation in place of

magic. With such ther storie d c ollab or o-

tors os Steve Difko, Dick Ayers, Don Heck

and others, Lee in the 1960s pioneerednatur

alistic,

" r e al-w

orld"

comics

from the likes of DC's

Supermanand
BatmanMarvel superheroes such as the Fantastic Four andSpider-Man soonbecamehits
amongcollege-age
reeders,

far removed

Except...itdoesn't

andLee,who

gamered suddenpopuI arity, le ctur e inv it ations andsnowballing mediq attention, began writinghis fabled comics at home in Hewlett Harbor three days a weelc, away f'rom office distracnons. Andwith Kirb,r' and oth er artists
such os Gene Color\

sound like a silly name! It did at the time. First of all, it was too long for a title we didn't have any-that were six words. And "Howling" was a iong word, and "Commandos" was a long rvord.

I got the name "Howling Commandos"

because in the Army

there was a group called the Screaming Eagles. And I loved the
sound ofthat. So I

figured we'd have the

have no pride!

JohnRomitaandlohn
Buscema living nearby,

Howling Commandos. I'm a copier! (Jokes) I

it'sfair to

say the

Mar-

vel Age of Comics came out ofLonglsland.

Lieber, the son of

Born Stanley Martin

Ja',tbh-Romonian
immigrants, Lee got
his stort in comics in 1939, aged 76, os a

getting letters from college students, back in the early thing different was

You've said that when Marvel started

'6Os, you knew some-

gofer at hk cousin-inIaw MartinGooda

vel. When editor loe Simonleft in a dispute a yeor later, Lee beand stayed there 32 y e ar s, b e coming publisher himself in 1972.
For the post several years, Lee
e

man's Timely Comics, forerunner of Mar-

came interim editor

face of the Earth. Unfortunately, I'm far from that. (Chuckles)

In the Army, we had this expression where the sergeant

online venture Stcn Lee Media fi.2 zled, his cun ent c ompany, POW! Entertainment, keeps the
sup erher

now 84 andMarvel's'publish-r emeritus" go dw ill amb as ador has lived in Califumia - wife, Joan. While his withhis
o
s

o sult an sup er -busy. F or instance, Lee was at the New York Comic Con in February to

audinorcfor his Sci Fi Chonnel reality show "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?" Therehe spoke w ithfr e quent c ontribut or (full disclosur e: and former Morv eI
see

Yeah, not that far. Within the last three years you've gotten that series and the TV movie "Lightspeed" on the air; published the hardcover book "Stan Lee's Superhero Christmas"; announced deals with Hugh Hefner and Robert Evans; partnered with a company to do cell-phone episodes of "Stripperella," "The Accuser" and "The Drifter"; and just now released two directto-DVD animated features:

would say, "Don't anticipate the command!" I was just going to say that our third [animated DVDI stars Ringo Starr of The
Beatles. I wanted to do somethingto make him famous! (Laughs) So I decided to do this

happening. Did you hope or could you imagine it'd become this big thing? Never in a million years. I figured maybe we'd reach the point where we start selling as many [comicsl as DC. That u'ould have been great. That was all we could hope for. The idea of movies, television - guys from Newsday interviewing
us!

bestsellingDVDof. .

comedic adventure. Ringo provides both the voice and the music, and (winds into his pitch) it will probably be the

.of. . .

Say, that's right - you lived on Long lsland when all this was happening. I loved Newsday when I lived on the Island. And I think I would love it now if I could see it lin California]. V'ou can always go to

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CL

The history of alt humankind? Certainly of 2008! Speaking of The Beatles, you and Jack Kirby were the Lennon and McCartney of comics. You're absolutely right. He was the greatest guy to team up with. He was a genius, fack.

writer) FrankLovece.

What would be your power if you auditioned for "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?"
I always thought the ability to sell an idea is the greatest power of all, so if I had my choice, I'd wanna be the most convincing human being on the

"Mosaic," with Anna Paquin, and "The Condor,t'with Wilmer Valderrama.

I have to be carefirl doing an interview with a guy who knows my stuff better than I do!

newsday.com Great! (|okes) You're too cheap to send me a paper, huh?! "Go look at it online!"

z r
o

c z
o
NOW{37:a'"?'wtti.

What happened with that Ringo Starr thing you announced in 2OO4?

But like Lennon or McCartney, not as much :o by himself.

, , :

Which comic book superhero would you choose to be? Vote at newsday.com/entertainment.

N o o !