It's no secret that Marvel's "Chairman Emeritus," the co-creator of Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, Batroc the Leaper, and countless others, Stan "the Man" Lee, is one of my heroes.

Back in the 60s, Stan Lee created a magical world within the pages of Marvel's 12 cent comicbooks that was the perfect escape from my at-times scary existence as a kid trapped in the Bronx. My dream was to grow up and live in the near-mythical Manhattan, the real-life home of imaginary beings such as Dr. Strange and the Avengers, and to work at mighty Marvel Comics with Stan and the Bullpen Gang. And guess what? I did it!

Back in '72, the summer before I started attending Manhattan's High School of Art and Design, I simply sent a postcard, with one of my "lousy full-color sketches" of the Hulk scrawled on it, to then-Marvel-Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas offering to be a Marvel slave. My timing was perfect.

Marvel was rapidly expanding from the dozen or so titles a month they were restricted to publishing under an old distribution arrangement, to publishing as many comics as they could possibly produce under an all-new distribution deal with the Curtis Circulation Company. As a result, Marvel was spending a lot of money on messengers to deliver their comics to the Comics Code Authority for approval. Prior to their expansion, in those pre-FedEx, pre-digital days, Marvel would routinely mail the actual original pages of artwork, via "Special Delivery," to the Code, who would then ship it on to the printer in Sparta, Illinois. But the increase in production meant books were falling behind schedule, and in order to meet scheduled publication dates, Marvel switched to messengers. Stan's right-hand man, Sol Brodsky, noticed this rising new expense and figured it would save the company money to hire a full-time messenger at minimum wage. When Sol saw my offer to be a slave, the idea was very appealing to him. But it was Roy Thomas who insisted that they "pay the kid." Yep, I was hired!

At age 15, I was suddenly living my dream, working at Marvel Comics! Mostly my job was bringing the original art to the CCA's downtown office, which was presided over by Code Administrator Leonard Darvin. Even if I was just a "gofer," as in "go for coffee" or "go bring these pages to the Code," I got my big flat foot into Marvel's front door!

Despite the 625 Madison Ave. address listed in their comics, Marvel was secretly located at 635 Madison Ave., right above the Nation Lampoon editorial offices. Parent company Magazine Management was over at 625, along with the mailroom, the accounting department, other administrative departments, as well as the "Men's Magazines" division. The very first person I met at Marvel when I showed up for my interview was Steve Gerber, who was just starting at Marvel as an associate editor. He shared a tiny room with cover colorist George Roussos that had a little window that looked out into the small reception area. On my very first day working in the fabled Marvel Bullpen, Amazing Spider-Man artist Jazzy Johnny Romita gave me the guided tour.

"What's your name, kid?" he asked.

"James." I replied ever so meekly.

"Okay, Jim," he responded, and I've remained "Jim" ever since. "Let me show you around."

He introduced me to such staffers as Holly Resnicoff, Mary MacFarrin, Linda Lessman, Nancy Murphy, Stu Schwartzburg, and Bullpenners such as Mirthful Marie Severin, Happy Herb Trimpe, Titanic Tony Mortellaro, Rascally Roy Thomas, Jolly Solly Brodsky, Jumbo John Verpoorten, Fearless Frank Giacoia, and the Man himself, Smilin' Stan Lee. As far as I was concerned, 635 Madison Avenue was the address of Heaven.

Flash-forward twenty-seven years, after spending twenty years at Marvel, and moving up from a gofer to editing such top titles as the Uncanny X-Men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and so many more, I had moved on from Marvel to become Editor-in-Chief at Topps Comics, and after the Big Boom and then Bust, that ended Topps Comics, I was wondering what I was going to do next in comics, when one Friday afternoon, I got a call from Stan Lee. He wanted me to be a writer/editor at his new dot.com called Stan Lee Media. He also wanted me to start Monday.

As a life-long New Yorker, the thought of "loading up the truck and moving to Beverly Hills," was not something I ever seriously contemplated. I love living in Manhattan. But Stan's one of my heroes, how could I turn down the opportunity to work for him once again? Well, I couldn't, and after getting the ever-impatient Stan to give me a week to get my affairs in order to make the Big Move, I was on my way to Hollywood.

During my job interview, Stan enjoyed asking me how old I was, insisting that Stan Lee Media was a "young company, filled with young people, with young ideas." Stan, aware of rampant ageism in Hollywood was simply amusing himself -- he was then in his late seventies and I was in my mid-forties.

It was like being that fifteen year-old kid from the Bronx all over again. SLM senior writer Steve Gerber, the very same Steve Gerber I met on my first day at Marvel, was there to welcome me after my first week. I even wound up sharing an office with CAA's Len Darvin's great nephew and SLM Director of Research, Brady Darvin. There was also a bullpen with great comics artists such as Armando Gil, Dusty Abel, Russ Heath, Ruben Martinez, Dave Johnson, Luis Dominguez, Shawn McManus, and many, many more. It was great!

Now, I should point out, when I first heard about the formation of Stan Lee Media I was convinced it was some kind of sleazy scheme to exploit Stan, concocted by greedy get-rich quick Internet entrepreneurs. Without knowing I'd ever be working there, I encouraged my various West Coast friends to get in on it, while the getting was good. So, when I decided to work there, it was with two goals in mind. To do the best I could up until when they stopped paying me (it wasn't hard to see what was coming, even from 3,000 miles away), and, more importantly to me personally, to not disappoint Stan in any way.

Stan Lee Media's basic idea was to present all-new Stan Lee created super-heroes on the Net in animated "Webisodes." SLM was a little too far ahead of their time, in that most people didn't have high-speed Internet access at that time. The thought of waiting a couple of hours to download a three-minute cartoon was a little scary. Well, the story of the Rise and Fall of Stan Lee Media is a good one, but that's a tale for another time. Instead, let's focus on how I became Stan Lee's Evil Clone.

In addition to the super-hero webisodes, there was plenty of other content on the site, which is mostly what I was assigned to create -- everything from trivia quizzes, games, gags, and a fan club called S.C.U.Z.Z.L.E. One of the features was an animated CGI version of Stan called "Stan 2.0," a three-dimensional caricature of Stan that users could control with their computer. It was cute, but after the thrill of spinning the co-creator of Spider-Man around, and forcing him to bump his head a few times wore off, there wasn't much more to it.

I came up with an "Ask Stan 2.0" feature that was kinda like turning Stan into a Magic 8 Ball. Users could ask Stan any question they wanted, and they'd hear various random pre-corded responses from Stan. Again, it was cute, but there wasn't much to it either.

I did, however, notice that a personality was developing for Stan 2.0 - he was a lot like Stan, of course, but he was jealous that he wasn't THE Stan. Convinced that he was the new improved version of Stan, he couldn't understand why Stan 1.0 just didn't go away. Building on that, I decided because he was so potentially dangerous, that SLM should truss him up like Dr. Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, and lock him inside a padded cell in the SLM vault (we actually did have a giant vault)! I also named him "Stan's Evil Clone," just so folks wouldn't confuse him with the genuine article. Again, this was conceived as a one-shot gag for the web site. The first one was scripted by Stan, designed by Shawn McManus, and animated, with Stan providing the Clone's voice.

The funny thing about Stan Lee is that he's always aware of when there's a microphone near him. Even though he was supposed to be an "Evil" clone, Stan recorded the voice in his usual friendly and charming, albeit bombastic, manner. It was incongruous to have an evil clone sound so ... nice. I didn't think much more about any of it, until SLM's new Executive Vice-President of Development asked me to write a weekly rant for the Evil Clone.

Later, at a production meeting, they realized that Stan would be traveling around way too much to handle a weekly voice-acting role. They discussed trying to find a sound-alike voice actor for the gig, when someone mentioned that I did a wicked impression of Stan. I always knew I'd get in trouble for that one day.

Next thing I knew, I was in SLM's recording studio, reading one of my dopey Evil Clone rants, auditioning for Tony Pastor Jr., who was Stan's voice director on many of the animated Marvel series. The truth is, I don't really sound anything like Stan. Stan has a really great voice, one that's very deep and commanding. My voice is a bit higher but just as nasally. But I can do an impression of how he actually talks, especially when yelling at, say, one of his dopier writer/editors! Surprisingly, I passed the audition. I couldn't believe it. They were actually going to pay me to make fun of my boss!

So, for twenty-one weeks, I was Stan Lee's Evil Clone. Most of these silly rants were tied into something topical or relating to such SLM characters as the Accuser or the 7th Portal super-heroes. Stan never wanted me to be too nasty, or to actually insult anyone, especially celebrities. I'd like to see someone like Joan Rivers or Chris Rock pull that off. But I must admit, the ham in me loved being a voice actor, and I'd really like to try it again someday. In the meantime, if you'd like to check out one of these silly scenarios, just go to www.stanleereturns.org/evilclone.html and witness the oddest Stan Lee co-creation this side of Stripperella!

In the next Addicted to Comics, something far scarier than Stan's Evil Clone - the Backstreet Boys!

Addicted to Comics is © 2005 by Jim Salicrup. All rights reserved.