ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 26, 1997 TAG: 9702260028
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOCA RATON, FLA.
SOURCE: GARY SCHWAN COX NEWS SERVICE
He's the legendary master of Marvel Comics, the man who pumped up The Incredible Hulk. But Stan Lee's first superhero was a lowly Dogface and his first supervillain was V.D.
As a Signal Corpsman in World War II, Lee had to create a poster warning soldiers about venereal disease. He produced a grinning GI, whose thumb pointed proudly at his puffed chest. The caption: VD? Not Me.
The brass liked it, Lee recalled recently before a lecture at the International Museum of Cartoon Art. But who knows if his creation had any effect on the extracurricular activities of Army dogfaces? What's well known is that Lee's creations for Marvel - Spider-Man and dozens more - had a remarkable effect on that company's bottom line.
Marvel grew from a publisher of stale comic books into a media empire that includes movie projects. Granted, it is an officially bankrupt empire undergoing Chapter 11 reorganization, thanks in part to a big plunge in the comic book market and unlucky timing in the acquisition of trading card companies.
Nevertheless, Lee seems as serene in the face of difficulty as one of his own superheroes. The bankruptcy features a complicated battle between two Wall Street takeover titans, Ronald Perelman and Carl Icahn.
Lee predicted that Marvel Entertainment Group, which is controlled by Perelman, will emerge ``better than ever'' after the reorganization. He says he's rooting for Perelman. ``I'm hoping and feeling he'll come out on top.''
Lee, 74, is now the breezy, wisecracking chairman of the Marvel Comics and Marvel Films divisions. Although leery about discussing the financial maneuvering now taking place, Lee is candid about the trends that helped create trouble in the first place.
``Comic books became big collectors' items for a time,'' he said. ``People were buying 20 copies of a single issue. They thought if you held onto a book long enough, you could sell it for an enormous profit.''
Eventually, he noted, these speculators figured out that if everybody was buying the same comic books, it's doubtful they would become rare and expensive, such as the original Spider-Man issue of 1963 that once sold for $30,000. ``The market was inflated,'' Lee conceded.
Lee also cited ``bad timing'' in Marvel's acquisition of the Fleer and Skybox trading card companies. ``It didn't help that we got them about the time there was big labor trouble'' in professional sports. Today's kids, who are often more interested in video games than collecting baseball cards, had another reason to be turned off.
Is it time for an adventure tale - say, Stan The Man To The Rescue? Couldn't hurt, even though he joked that ``I've been in the comic book business much longer than you should be in any business - more than 50 years, and we're still trying to get it right.''
Lee said he may begin writing regularly for comic books again. He's definitely going to reinstate ``Stan's Soapbox,'' which was a popular feature of Marvel Comics. The news brought cheers from the hundreds of fans - many middle-aged - who crowded the museum to hear him speak.
Lee is something of a cult figure, whose autograph is in demand. This must be satisfying for a man who originally wanted to be an actor.
Born in New York in 1922, he grew up a voracious reader. ``My mother said I would read the back of boxes,'' he recalled.
Answering a newspaper ad, he joined Marvel Comics at age 16. A year later, he became the youngest editor in the industry. Over the years, he's held nearly every position possible, but his greatest contributions have come as writer and idea man, often working with the noted artist Jack Kirby.
For example, when Lee returned to Marvel Comics after the war, it had a respectable roster of characters - Captain America, Sub-Mariner and The Human Torch. But Lee sensed the writing was creaky and formulaic. Perhaps his greatest contribution to the genre was also the most risky. He decided to create superheroes with everyday problems that readers could identify with.
``That's what made Marvel different from everybody else. I thought if we could get readers to resign disbelief, then we had something special.'' He gave his superheroes a human touch. ``Acne, dandruff, ingrown toenails.''
More than that. Take The Fantastic Four.
``Why don't we put out a team of superheroes?'' he recalled asking. ``But we won't give them secret identities. And instead of token friendship, let's make things personal. Let's get a female [Sue] who is a full-fledged member of the group, but who is also engaged to Mr. Fantastic [Reed], as he modestly calls himself.
``Remember,'' Lee continued, ``this was before The Hulk. I wanted to include a character who was ugly, but still super [Ben, a.k.a. The Thing]. Remember Jimmy Durante? I based the idea on him. And this character became the most popular of the four.''
Lee became publisher of Marvel Comics in 1971. In 1977, Spider-Man spun its way into the newspapers as a syndicated strip. Lee has written and edited this seven-day-a-week feature since its inception. It currently appears in more than 500 newspapers worldwide.
In 1981, Marvel decided to launch an animation studio in California. ``I graciously volunteered to move to Los Angeles,'' he laughed. He began transforming Spider-Man and the Hulk into Saturday morning TV cartoons. He also eyed live-action feature films.
The film division's first major effort for the big screen involves the character Blade, the Vampire Hunter. ``Blade is a vampire, but a good vampire. He fights evil vampires,'' Lee explained.
Marvel's bankruptcy mess forced the cartoon museum to cancel a glitzy exhibition based on the comic book heroes. Museum officials said Marvel couldn't underwrite the show in the amount promised, so it was put off for at least nine months.
Lee predicted the Chapter 11 problems will sort themselves out in only a few months. He noted that before he joined Marvel, he worked writing the obituaries of celebrities who hadn't died yet.
Is there a message here? Maybe this: If The Fantastic Four can't be killed by Dr. Doom, Marvel Comics won't be killed by Carl Icahn.
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Stan Lee: ``I've been in the comic book business ...by CNBmore than 50 years, and we're still trying to get it right.''