You've created loads of comic-book characters that have been turned into action figures, but how strange was it recently to see an action figure in your own image?

Lee: Well, I still can't believe it. But they didn't make me look enough like Brad Pitt. No, I had met somebody from Hasbro at a convention and he made the suggestion about doing that, and I thought he was joking. I said, "Sure, I think that would be great." The next thing I knew, they had the figure and they introduced it at some comic-book convention, and I was up there and made a speech and held it up, and I gave a few to some prize winners. I couldn't believe it was happening. The funniest part about it is I'm wearing a jacket, and when you take it off I've got a Spider-Man costume underneath.Do you see much difference between a good comic book and a good movie or television show based on a comic book?

Lee: Wow. Well, a good comic book, like any form of literature, should have characters you care about and a story that holds your interest. One thing that helps a story hold your interest is it should be replete with surprises and the characterization should always be interesting and realistic. Even if you're doing superheroes, the characterizations should be believable and realistic. And I don't think there's any difference between a good comic book and a good movie or TV show, because they're both for the purpose of entertaining. If a good movie or TV show can hold your interest and entertain you and, when you leave the theater, make you say, "Wow, I enjoyed that," that's what you hope a reader will say who's read a good comic book or a good novel or hears a good opera or sees a good stage show or a ballet. They're different media, but it's all the same. We're in the business of entertaining, and we have to entertain the reader, the viewer or the audience.Did you have much official input in the making of the Iron Man film?

Lee: No, none at all. It was written and it was directed and it was produced without any help from me, which is probably why it will be a masterpiece. I don't at all butt into the making of the movies because, luckily, Marvel has the best writers, the best directors, the best actors, and there's just nothing else I can contribute. What I love to do is just go to see the movie after it's made and sit there with an ordinary, average audience and just enjoy it the way the rest of the audience does.You make a cameo appearance in each of the movies based on your comic books, and in Iron Man, not to give too much away, you're seen in the company of several lovely ladies. How much fun did you have shooting that bit?

Lee: It was wonderful. I'll tell you a funny thing about it. In every movie, when you do a scene you do a few takes. Well, I was standing with my arms around these three lovely blondes, which was not an unpleasant task, and in order to look a little more like a Hugh Hefner type I had a pipe in my mouth. Robert Downey was supposed to come up behind me and tap me on my shoulder, and I'm supposed to turn my head around. Well, the four of us, the girls and myself, were standing so close together that when I was first tapped on the shoulder and I turned my head around, the pipe hit the girl on my right in her cheek and the pipe fell out of my mouth. That was kind of funny. I imagine that will be in the outtakes. But it was great. I got to be in a scene with Robert Downey. It was a great experience.

And how about your cameo in The Incredible Hulk?

Lee: I just did that. It isn't funny, but it's very significant and meaningful. It's sort of the fulcrum. The whole movie is based on it. My only problem is I had no dialogue. So I suggested to Louis, the director—I can't tell you why or how—but I said, "Suppose I just say 'Wow' at one point." Grudgingly, he said OK. So when I did my little bit I went "Wow!" And then he said, "No, no, not 'Wow!' Just go 'Wow.'" So even there I had to cut my role a little bit. I couldn't put as much emotion in it as I wanted to. Listen, when I say these stupid things, you'd better write, "He said with a laugh."You have a slew of new projects in the works. Let's talk through some of them. What can you tell us about the anime television series Hero Man, which you'll be doing with Studio Bones?

Lee: Here I am doing a project with a Japanese animation company. I have created a new character called Hero Man, who is a robot, and there's a whole cast of characters, including boys and girls and heroes and villains and incidental characters. It's a whole new way of working. I give them the basic story and they write the script in their own style, which is a little bit different from the way we would write one. Then they send me the storyboards and we go over them. It's really a joy to work on. I'm having a great time. And the Japanese, they really are so sincere and they care so much, and they're such skilled and fine artists. It's a learning experience for me, and I imagine for them, too.Then there's the Karakuridoji Ultimo project, right?

Lee: Yes, Ultimo. We have Hero Man and Ultimo and another one, and I sometimes tend to confuse them. But I am working with a very fine Japanese artist on Ultimo, and his name is Hiroyuki Takei. I am so really flattered to be working with him and to get equal billing with him, because he's about the best there is. The things he's done have really been so successful. I can't wait until this thing is finished, because I think it's going to be great.It was announced a couple of years ago that you were entering into a deal with the Walt Disney Company, but it was just revealed that you'll be developing three films for them: Nick Ratchet, Blaze and Tigress. What can you say about those titles?

Lee: They're all being written. As a matter of fact, the Blaze script just came in today from the writer, and the minute I hang up I'm going to start reading it. I'm quite involved in those projects. They're all based on my original stories, and I'll be serving as one of the executive producers. There will be much more involvement than I have with the Marvel movies, because this is my own company, POW! Entertainment, that is producing along with Disney.There are still of a few of your Marvel characters who've not yet made the leap to the big screen. Which ones would you most personally like to see make that transition?

Lee: They're all coming. Thor is in the works. Captain America is on the way. I did not create Captain America, but I sort of brought him back to life after a while and wrote so many of them. There is going to be an Ant Man movie. They're contemplating a Dr. Strange movie. I'm sure there's going to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. movie, and if they feel like it there could be a Sgt. Fury movie. Now, who am I leaving out? There will be a Silver Surfer movie, I'm sure. So I don't think there's anybody missing.You're known for uttering and writing the phrase "Excelsior, true believers!" Once and for all, what the heck does that actually mean?

Lee: Well, it has [at least] two meanings if you look up "Excelsior" in the dictionary. It's sort of that material that you put in a package so that fragile glassware won't shake when you mail something. It's like a sawdust kind of material. But that's not what it means to me. There's a second meaning, and you have to have a big, almost unabridged dictionary to have this listed as the second meaning. It's an old English expression which means upward and onward to great glory, and, believe it or not, that is the motto of the great seal of the state of New York. The funny thing is people are always sending me stuff. Somebody sent me an antique seltzer bottle and it was called Excelsior, and somebody just sent me a wine from overseas, and it's a red wine, a cabernet called Excelsior. The word is a beautiful word, and the nice thing about it is it's the one word that the competition never copied from me, because they probably didn't know what it meant and couldn't spell it.You are 85 years old now. Does your wife ever ask you to slow down and retire, or does she realize that it's the fact that you're so busy that's keeping you vital, focused and maybe even keeping you alive?

Lee: It may be. No, no, she never says that. She enjoys what I'm doing, plus it keeps me out of her hair. If I was sitting around the house all of the time, I'd probably drive her crazy.