From: [a--b--y] at [gold.gvg.tek.com] (Richard Allbery)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Stan Lee on Larry King
Date: 2 Sep 93 09:05:58 GMT

Stan Lee was on the radio talk show Larry King Live this afternoon, and I
thought I'd post a summary and see what everyone thought.  I don't know
if he was on the TV show or not.  Tom Synder is hosting the show this
week.  These were my impressions; Lee may not have meant some of this
stuff (I sure hope he didn't).

One of the first exchanges was rather interesting.  Snyder asked Lee about
copyrights, and Lee responded that he wasn't an expert in copyright law.
I believe the following are direct quotes:

    TS> They've been stealing from you for years.  [asked as a question]
    SL> I'm afraid so.

Kinda speaks for itself, doesn't it 8-).

Anyway, a lot of the early discussion was about Stan's book.  Actually it
isn't Stan's; it is written by Bill McKay (sp?).  The title is RiftWorld
(or Rip World, or something like that).  Stan Lee just came up with the
idea, but he didn't have time to write it so he gave it to McKay (at
least Lee gives McKay credit).  The premise, Lee's part, is about a
comic book company.  A rift opens to another dimension, and 20-foot
superheroes come through.  The comic book company signs them to
merchandising contracts (I am *not* kidding).  They then discover that
these superheroes may not be good guys and that more may come through
this rift.  Gee, I'm excited.  How about you?

Oh yeah, Stan Lee says that he's gotten two nibbles about a movie, two
nibbles about a line of toys, and Marvel is starting a miniseries (of course).
Says a lot about the state of the world, doesn't it?

When asked what comic books he read as a kid, Lee mentioned Dick Tracy
reprints and Superman.  He also said that the most talented artists in the
world today are working in comics.  (I agree; they just aren't working
for Marvel.)  He then went on to talk about writers, and the only people
he mentioned were Clive Barker and Harlan Ellison.  As good as your work
on Hulk and Spidey 2099 is, PAD, I think you're with the wrong company.

I also could have sworn that Lee said Clive Barker is sort of like an
English Steven King.

The first caller (and about the only one who really sounded like he had
fanboy potential), was upset that the cover to the Submariner VCR tape had
Wolverine on it when Wolverine wasn't in the video.  He also said that
the Torch was on the cover of the FF video and not in the video (the Torch
wasn't in the FF video?!).  Lee said in response that the cover artists
often just drew the characters they liked, even if they weren't in the
video (!).

Another caller asked if Marvel could print their comics on recycled paper.
As if the paper they use now isn't bad enough...

The next caller asked why it was so hard for Marvel movies to make money
(get a clue!) and how much control Marvel had over the movies.  He also
asked about the X-Men movie.  Stan Lee said that Marvel hasn't had any
control in the past, and won't have any control over the FF movie, but
they will have control over all the movies in the future.  Among those
movies will be an X-Men movie from 20th Century Fox, a live-action Spidey
movie written and directed by James Cameron (sp?) (Terminator), and
possibly a Black Panther movie starring Wesley Snipes.

Lee also noted that comic prices today are the same relative to inflation
as the ten cent comics were.  He explained the reason why Banner is called
Bruce in the comic and David on TV (the network thought Bruce sounded like
a homosexual name).

Stan Lee said that he was very excited about a project in December with
the Spidey newspaper strip.  They are going to print the Spidey comic
book stories from January, February, and March of next year in the strip
starting in December.  (Cross-medium crossovers in the works?)

The last caller, for some reason, sounded like a RACer.  He was from
Terra-Hotte (sp?) Indiana, and mentioned that he had heard some suggestions
for X-Men movie casting that sounded a lot like the ones bounced around
in rac.xbooks a while back.  If it was a RACer, I'd be interested to know
who it was.

Anyway, he asked whether a Lee-Kirby teamup was likely in the future.  Lee
said probably not since Kirby was retired or semi-retired.

/------------ Eagle ------------\ Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
|   [A--b--y] at [GVG47.gvg.tek.com]   | I took the one less traveled by,
|     Soon to be @stanford      | And that has made all the difference.
| I am not affiliated with GVG. |                 -- Robert Frost