The Real Stan Lee

In 1977, he introduced Spider-Man® as a syndicated newspaper strip that went on to become the most successful of all syndicated adventure strips, appearing in more than 500 newspapers worldwide, making it the longest running of all Super Hero strips and each year, X-Men® sells more than 13 million copies. Without question, Stan 'the Man' Lee has exerted more influence over the comic book industry than anyone in history and successfully established himself as the creator of the modern day Superhero, creating or co-creating 90 percent of Marvel's® most recognized characters, which have been successfully licensed and marketed since 1965. In Europe alone, Stan Lee's name appears on over 35 million comics annually and more than 2 billion of his comic books have been published in 75 countries and in 25 languages. In 1981 Stan Lee transformed his Spider-Man® and Hulk® creations into Saturday morning and syndicated television cartoons and in 1986, when Marvel ®Comics and Marvel® Productions were acquired by New World Entertainment, Stan had the opportunity to become more deeply involved in the creation and development of filmed projects for both the big and small screen, supervising such diverse animated series as X-Men®, Spider-Man® and The Hulk®. To date, Stan's characters have populated over 24 separate television series, all of which continue in syndication around the world, even movies based on Marvel® characters have all become mega hits at the box office.