The Art Of Adapting Comics To The Screen!

From Stan Lee's Perspective:

(The following are excerpts from the program I attended on Friday July 27th at the SDCC / Comic Con International in San Diego, California. These are Stan Lee's comments only. The other guests will be blogged separately due to space limitations.)

From 10:30 a.m. -11:30 a.m. I attended the program, 'The Art of Adapting Comics to the Screen'. The program was well attended because the cinematic renaissance of comic book–based films is continuing into 2008 at least!

Moderator Jeff Goldsmith (senior editor, Creative Screenwriting magazine) hosted a panel that featured Stan Lee (Fantastic Four), Don Payne (co-writer, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer), Mark Fergus (co-writer, Iron Man), Kevin Feige (president of production, Marvel Studios), and Mark Verheiden (Teen Titans).

Jeff first asked about breaking into the industry:   Stan stated that his first published script was a 2 page text story in an early Captain America comic book. He plugged away at his writing for years, but realized that his publisher 'had no respect for the readers'! He stayed for several years but wanted to quit, so his wife Joan said do a story you want to do, what could the publisher do but fire him... and he wanted to quit anyway! So he did it his way, and that was the start of the 'Marvel Age of Comics'!

The upcoming Iron Man movie was brought up. Stan said that he when he created Tony Stark, he couldn't help but make him an unlikable character. Tony was a multi-millionaire who invented weapons for the U.S. Government. We were involved in the Vietnam war in 1962-63 at the start of the Iron Man strip and the anti-war effort was just getting started. (Stan kept referring to the Iron Man feature starting in the Korean War during the program instead of the Vietnam War, but we'll forgive him for that. Stan always says his memory isn't the greatest!)  

Regarding work hours, Stan stated that he had an hour commute from Long Island to Manhattan each day. So he asked Martin Goodman if he could stay at home one day to write each week.  That ended up being on Wednesdays.  Well, that wasn't enough when Stan started coming up with even more superheroes, so he asked for two days off, and went in to the office on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday. Joan couldn't believe that Martin would go for it, but Stan then went in and asked for three days to stay home and came to the office on Tuesday and Thursdays!!  I had never read that anywhere and Stan laughingly recounted the story.

Stan interjected in Jeff's questioning of Kevin Feige, (president of production, Marvel Studios), by saying that Kevin was one of the nicest guys in the business. A lot of producers can't get along with the screenwriters, but Kevin didn't have that problem according to Stan. Kevin said that he wasn't always an executive, and had worked up the ranks to his current position.

Stan was asked about the Spider-Man movie that reflected the story he wrote in Amazing Spider-Man #50, 'Spidey No More', where Spidey threw his costume into a trash can. Stan said he wondered if a superhero ever had one of those days where he questioned 'what am I doing this for?' and that led to that storyline.

The subject came up of the upcoming Iron Man movie. Stan stated he admired the writer who made Tony Stark alcoholic... (funny thing is that Robert Downey Jr is playing Tony Stark).

On the recent Fantastic Four Movie: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Stan stated that 'Jack Kirby created him' admist many attendees clapping for that statement. When Stan received the art pages from Jack, he asked out loud about who was this 'naked guy on a flying surfboard' as he had not outlined such a character!  Stan took the Silver Surfer and imbued a sense of nobility in him (and for the longest time would not let other writers use him in their stories!)

The above were the most important parts of the program that Stan was involved in, or comments that I caught from sitting in the front row of the program.  The program was SRO (Standing Room Only) by the time it was over, as it was one of the few that Stan attended and attracted a large crowd for the small room.