He was penning a dozen or more comic books a month through the 1960s and into the early 1970s.
Since 2001, he and entertainment marketing executive Champion have been running POW! Entertainment. POW!, of course, has been a comic-book sound effect for decades, but the current incarnation is an acronym for Purveyors of Wonder.
"I added the exclamation point," Lee says, "because I didn't want people thinking 'Prisoners of War.' "
These days, Lee, who retains the energy level of a man half his age, comes up with the ideas and puts his name and considerable reputation behind their promotion.
"Mainly, the people at Disney are doing the design for Time Jumper," he says. "I just furnish the story. They're writing the script, and they're designing it. They go over the characters with me. ... Some of them are great-looking. They've got a great artist working on it."
As Lee puts it, "everything's good" about his role as an idea-generating elder statesman. Still, with several decades of productive creativity on his resume, one suspects Stan Lee isn't fully satisfied with remaining behind the scenes.
"I love collaboration," he says with both a wink and a sigh, "but sometimes, just wish I could write one of them myself."
LEAPING TO NEW MEDIA IN A SINGLE BOUND
Comic books
April 1938: The Golden Age of comic books kicks off with the arrival of the first great comic-book character, Superman, in Action Comics #1.
Movies
January 1941: Comic books hit the big screen with the arrival in serial form of Adventures of Captain Marvel, starring Tom Tyler. Other early big-screen comic-book adaptations include an animated Superman (1941), Spy Smasher (1942), Batman (1943) and Captain America (1944).
Television
September 1952: The Adventures of Superman, with George Reeves as planet Krypton's most famous expatriate, introduces comic-book heroes to TV audiences. The parade of comic-book characters on TV continues with Adam West as Batman (1966), Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman (1975) and Tom Welling as Clark Kent and Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang in Smallville (2001).
Graphic novels
October 1978: Will Eisner's A Contract With God is among the first graphic novels, a decidedly adult variation on the comic book.
Internet
June 1995: Charley Parker's Argon Zark !, the adventures of a computer hacker (how appropriate) is among the first Web comics, created expressly for distribution online at zark.com.
