I’ve been saying this, a lot in the last month or so, but no matter how frustrating running EM is, it’s also very rewarding and surreal. Earlier this week I sat down with the great Morgan Freeman, and a couple of weeks ago I participated in a conference call with Who Wants to Be A Superhero Andy Scheer and one of my idols – Stan “The Man” Lee and the Producer of I shouldn’t have to tell you who the great man is. He is the Godfather of Super Heroes, while one of the “founding” members of Marvel Comics he created many of that company’s iconic characters including Spiderman, The Hulk, Fantastic Four, Captain America (I think) Iron Man, Daredevil and many more!
Participating in the conference call were our friends from Media Blvd, Monsters and Critics, The TV Holic, Twitchfilm, and DVD Verdict. I’m just giving a Shout Out, if you haven’t been check out their sites. For the sake of this call, I’m only using the questions that I asked. I may post the second part with everyone else’s questions in the next few days. Be sure to check out Who Wants To Be A Superhero on Sci-Fi Channel, Thursday Nights at 9 PM EST.
What qualities do you think make up that everyday hero?
Stan Lee: Well, let’s see. I would guess, as we have mentioned on the show, quality such as loyalty, devotion to one’s duty and self-sacrifice, dependability, courage, you know, the type of things you would imagine that a hero should possess, and the test that we have in the show while we try to make them colorful and perhaps even a little bit humorous but these tests are created in order to find out which of the contestants has those qualities in the greatest abundance. We’d like to think they all have those qualities or we wouldn’t have chosen them to begin with but now we have to find out which one has been the most.
Andy Scheer: And the trigger thing is testing them in a way where, you know, it’s – in ways that bring it out rather than just, you know, it’s not like a multiple choice question, you know, we have to sort of be clever because those are qualities that are displayed and not just – it have to be displayed genuinely rather than just acts it.
Did you do your cameo role Iron Man yet?
Stan Lee: The role – you asked about if I had a cameo in Iron Man yet? All I can say is it is probably the greatest one I’ve had so far and the funniest and don’t you dare miss it. I’m not allowed to say what it is but it’s very surprising and I’ve loved it.
Why do think comic books are skewing older?
Stan Lee: I think comic books themselves are getting more literate. And, you know, we now have people who are screenwriters and television writers and novelists well know who are writing for the comics, for some reason, they love doing it and some of the art work in the comics, I mean it rivals anything you’ll see hanging on the walls of museums, they’re illustrations more than drawings and all the people are discovering this and they’re turning on to it.
Comics are really just starting to be sold in bookstores now, you know, graphic novels and – I just hope we don’t eventually lose the kids, I hope they’ll always be comics for kids also.
But one of the things that will keep the kids he says trying to segue back to the show is I think shows like ours because since a lot of people think of it as a family type show, the kids watch it with their parents or their older sisters and brothers and I think that gives them a fondness for costume characters, and where do they find them, but in comic books. How was that?
Do you think the prices of comic books are affected?
Stan Lee: Oh, I don’t know. I’ve been away from it so long. I’m not even sure what comic books cost now. But comparatively, they’ve always been one of the cheapest forms of entertainment, except for TV which is free.
Except for a show, I should have said “Except for a show like Who Wants to Be a Superhero that you can watch for nothing.”
That’s why I’ve always love you, you are such a Pitchman! (I actually said, Whore, but this is a family article 😉
Stan Lee:My wife said I’m just a flim-flam man.
Can I steal Excelsior for my sign off in our newsletter?
Oh sure. You know, the usual copyright is (symbol) after it and the usual (seal). After the show, I’ll send you the address, but sure, feel free.
Since the show have no scripts, how do you walk to finalize before (you see it) to be a reality show?
Stan Lee:Uh-oh.
Andy Scheer:Well, I can tell you that it’s not scripted; I mean you have to remember, it’s like any reality show — you plan and you figure out adventures for you cast members.
But then what happens, who knows, you know, and then you have to react to that but, you know, think about it, you know, we’re never putting words in our contestants’ mouths, yeah, we have them get caught, you know, by a gorgeous villainist named Bee Sting, we don’t know how they’re going to react to that, we don’t know how they’re going to react in the wind tunnel or with Mr. Long or with the carjacking and the lost puppy who we do think we – you know, he did find the home or his way back to his home.
But, really, ultimately, it’s not about ever asking our casts to act, it’s mostly to react to the things and the gotcha’s and the adventures that we, you know, spent all that time creating.
Stan Lee:As a matter of fact, it’s very much like the way it was when I used to write stories.
I have a general idea in my mind of what the story was and I start writing it but I never knew from page – I never knew what the next page was going to be until I started writing it because I always try to put myself in the position of the reader who is in suspense and wondering what’s coming next or if I could feel the same way, then ultimately, the reader would relate to the story.
And that’s the way it is really with the show. We had the general idea of what we want to accomplish but everything works out by itself and we’re as surprised by the developments as the viewer might be and that keeps us on edge all the time too and I think it keeps the excitement going for all of us.
Do either of you follow today’s comic book adventures?
Stan Lee:If I do, today’s comic…
Stan Lee:You know, I’ve been so busy with the show that I just haven’t been reading comic books lately. In fact, I haven’t been reading comics for a while because there is no point to it, I’m busy doing the other things I’m doing so I don’t even know what’s happening.
The one thing Marvel civil war series, I was aware of that, I thought it was very clever. But beyond that, I’m really not into the average, you know, the regular comic books anymore.
Andy Scheer:For me, I keep up on, you know, basically TV and film side, I have to say my comic book reading has wane, you know, I still love it and occasionally pick up the comics, I’m a huge Frank Miller fan all over the Dark Night stuff as it was coming out, you know, for the first time. But you just get busy, you know, so…
Stan Lee:I think the last comic I wrote was the one about the feedback who won our last series and the prize – one of the prizes is a comic book, so I wrote that form, and I guess I’ll be writing the comic book to the winner of this new series. So, I’m not totally out of the comics but that’s about it.
Andy Scheer:I have to correct myself. That is the last comic book I read, it was the – Who Wants to Be a Superhero and the winner is Feedback comic, 40 pages of comic genius.