Stan Lee recently did a Q&A session with Chris Hardwick (you might remember him as the co-host of Singled Out back in the 1990s). The podcast of it is available at Hardwick’s website The Nerdist. The whole talk is a really great listen. I knew Stan Lee has been around for several years — playing a major role shaping the comic book business and repeatedly reinventing it and revamping it — but I did not realize he’s clocking in at 87 YEARS OLD.
And he’s still as lucid, “with it” and mindful of technology and the future as ever, coming off sounding like the wise genius grandfather we all wish we could have. He reminds me of Betty White, but with more than just the one trick of an elderly person saying vulgar things. Be sure to check out around 29:40 when Hardwick gets him talking about the iPad and how it could change comics:
Well, nothing hurts anything. Everything changes things. I think there’ll always be comics, just the way there’ll always be books, there’ll always be movies, there’ll always be television. I remember when TV first came out. Everybody said “Well, that’s the end of books. Nobody is ever going to read a book. They’re going to just stay looking at their TV screen.” There’s still a book business. There will still … Whether this is good or bad I don’t know, but there will always be comics. They may not be as big as they were or they may someday be bigger than they were. You know, a lot of these movies that are based on comics make people who enjoyed the movie want to go and read the comic book series. So it works both ways. One hand washes the other. And I love technology. I don’t understand it. I’m no good at working anything, but I love the idea of all these new things. And all that they do is keep people interested in all the new ways of looking at a story or being involved in a story. And with video games, they’re part of the story. So it’s a fascinating age we live in, it really is.
It’s sort of pep talky and vague (I get the impression his lips have to stay sealed on many of his projects), but nonetheless refreshing to hear a guy with roots in old media so excited about where his creations are going. Most 87-year-olds I’ve talked to fear and loathe the Internet.
