Comic-book marvel Stan Lee, still at it (1/3ページ)

At 85, Marvel superhero creator Stan Lee is hardly spending his senior years waxing nostalgic about how he created Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four and two heroes hitting the big screen this summer: "Iron Man" (burning up theaters now) and "The Incredible Hulk" (opening June 13).

"Virtually every major character that I created at Marvel is being turned into movies," Lee says in his POW! Entertainment offices. "When I go to the theater to see these, I'm able to just sit there and enjoy the movies without thinking, "Hey, I created that.' "

Adding to his arsenal of old favorites, Lee is dreaming up new characters every day. He has turned his likeness into a Japanese anime hero for a graphic novel, signed a deal to create a line of comics for Virgin mogul Richard Branson and is developing animated series around Ringo Starr and Hugh Hefner. ("Hef's Super Bunnies" finds the Playboy founder doing double duty as a secret agent.)

He also is producing a documentary about his own super life, and a few months ago, during a weekend at home, Lee managed to write a book of amusing captions to photos of politicians. "Stan Lee Presents Election Daze" (Filsinger Publishing, $9.95) is in stores now.

As part of a first-look deal with Disney, he is designing new superheroes specifically for the big screen. The first batch includes characters named Blaze, Nick Ratchet and Tigress. Hmm might the statue on his desk of a tiger roaming through a jungle be a Tigress model?