How I Did It: Stan Lee of Marvel Comics

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Martin was good at what he did and made a lot of money, but he wasn't ambitious. He wanted things to stay the way they were. He hired a good friend of his to be his business manager, and they would spend two or three hours a day in Martin's office playing Scrabble. I didn't understand it. I was always frustrated.

In the late '60s, Martin sold the company to an outfit called Perfect Film and Chemical. Everything changed. Martin had hoped that his son Chip would become publisher; instead, the new owners made me publisher. Later, they made me the president and even chairman. But I was never a businessman. I remember when the board asked me to come up with a three-year plan for the company. I said, "Guys, I don't know how to predict where we'll be in three years. I don't even know what I'm going to have for breakfast tomorrow." I resigned as president after about a year. I mean, I can add and subtract, but I hate to read sheets of numbers. I like to write stories.

All of the characters at Marvel were my ideas, but the ideas meant nothing unless I had somebody who could illustrate it. For Spider-Man, I called Jack Kirby, and he did a few pages that weren't right. Jack drew everything so heroically, and I wanted Peter Parker to look more like an average, schlumpy kid. So I got Steve Ditko to do it. Whenever I would discuss the strip, I would say that Steve Ditko and I created Spider-Man. I certainly don't own the Marvel characters. I've never owned them. If I did, I'd be too wealthy to be talking to you.

New World Pictures bought Marvel in 1986. At last, we were owned by a big, rich company. But everybody was nervous. I was invited to a meeting of the New World executives. I figured I was going to be fired. I'll never forget: I walked in to the boardroom, maybe a dozen people sitting around the table, and the first thing one of the executives said was, "Stan, would you mind autographing some of these comic books?" So I figured that was a good start.

Ron Perelman got the company in 1989. But at a certain point, Marvel was forced into bankruptcy.

They let everybody go. I don't like to be idle, so I moved on to Stan Lee Media. We started out doing well. We were doing a lot of different projects. Everybody was coming to us. I had no idea there were problems, but one day there was a meeting called of the executives and I was told that we had to close down, because we couldn't meet payroll.

When Stan Lee Media went bankrupt, we decided to form another company, POW! Entertainment. It's been a lot of fun. A couple of years ago, we made a first-look deal with Disney, where anything I create I have to show them first. If they don't want it, I'm free to take it elsewhere. We're doing a couple of television things, and we have a couple of deals with other film companies and some publishing companies. My name does open doors. The most important thing in Hollywood is to get people to take your calls. At least people take our calls.

When I was a kid, Disney was one of my gods. I just loved movies like Snow White and Pinocchio. I remember telling Martin Goodman, "Our books and characters are so popular; if only we could do a movie…we could be another Disney!" He totally ignored it. I never dreamed that years later I would have a first-look deal with Disney. That in itself is so gratifying. And then, when Disney bought Marvel, it was almost like completing the circle. I just wish it had happened when I was active with Marvel.

Being Marvel's chairman emeritus is strictly honorary. Occasionally, they'll ask me to write a story for a special issue, and I go to their booth at the comic book conventions and sign autographs. I do whatever I can for them. Even when I sued them in 2002, I used to say it was the friendliest lawsuit there ever was. [Lee alleged that Marvel failed to pay him a share of profits from the first Spider-Man movie. The suit has since been settled.]

At POW!, my partners Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman do all of the business. All I do is write the stories and come up with the ideas. If Gill says to me, "Stan, we need another thing to submit to Disney," I sit down with a pencil and paper at my desk, and I think about what I can do that hasn't been done before. If I can't think of a new superpower, I try to think of a new quality that a character might have. Maybe this character has a certain ability that's given him nothing but grief. Thinking up stories is easy. Thinking up the characters is easy. It's finding a way to make it something that people have never seen before -- that's what's difficult. It's also what's the most fun.

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