In conjunction with The Amazing Spider-Man’s release this week, legendary comic book writer Stan Lee speaks to Web of Stories about writing Peter Parker as a self-doubting, regular-guy hero “riddled with neuroses”:

My love affair with movies may have begun with, though not necessarily at, the Paramount Theater in my hometown in Virginia. It’s no accident that the Paramount shared its name with a Hollywood studio; in the early days of the movies, studios owned theaters throughout the country, a practice eventually stopped because of antitrust laws. The Paramount in my hometown was built in 1931, when theaters were palaces, or anyway designed to resemble palaces, so as to treat the little people, then in the grips of the Great Depression, to a fleeting sense of grandeur. The grandeur of the Paramount had dimmed by the time I first saw a movie there forty years later, though the marquee alone, with its hundreds of blinking bulbs, thrilled me as a child whenever I glimpsed it from the backseat of my parents’ car. It made me think of the nightclub marquees I’d seen in Elvis Presley movies on T.V., quick establishing shots that cut to Elvis performing onstage for girls who, driven wild by the music, spontaneously danced on tabletops and spent the night in jail after the inevitable brawl. There were no such clubs where I grew up, as far as I knew; the Paramount was as close as I could get. From the ticket booth, just below the marquee, a long, wide corridor with a slight incline led to the concession stand and, just beyond that, the theater, and to walk the length of the corridor, ascending step by step, was to have a growing sense of anticipation. The carpeting was dark red, almost burgundy. The only light came from tiered chandeliers with dangling glass beads, and, on either wall, there were gilded-framed murals of powdered-wigged, eighteenth-century aristocrats, shades of Gainsborough. In later years, before the Paramount went out of business (it’s since been restored and reopened), tickets were sold inside at the concession stand, where, when I was child, posters of movie stars were sold: Brigitte Bardot in black leather on a chopper, Raquel Welch in the fur bikini she wore as a cavewoman in One Million Years BC. Victoria Vetri, a Playboy Playmate of the Year, likewise appeared in a fur bikini as a cavewoman in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, the first movie I remember seeing at the Paramount; and Vetri, as well as Welch, stirred things in me that, as a Christian child, I wasn’t sure were right with God.

Please explain what just happened.

I just opened this Word file and started answering these questions.

What is your earliest memory?

Going to the toy store with my grandmother. We were poor so I couldn’t actually get anything, but man, I could play with the toys for hours. My granny was very patient with me.

If you weren’t a comic book artist what other profession would you choose?

If I wasn’t a comic book creator I would be a panhandler.  I don’t think I’m equipped to do anything else.

Describe a typical workday.

I wake up around seven o’clock and try to hit the gym. I get to my drawing table around 8:30 and work until about 6:00 or 7:00 — sometimes less, sometimes more.

Is there a time you wish you’d lied?

Well, there was that time they gave me two burgers in the drive-thru when I only ordered one, and I returned the extra burger. I should have kept it… it was delicious!

What would you say to yourself if you could go back in time and have a conversation with yourself at age thirteen?

Don’t worry.  You will have sex someday.

If you could have only one album to get you through a breakup, what would it be?

I’m 90’s R&B all the way. Definitely Jodeci.

What are three websites—other than your email—that you check on a daily basis?

ESPN, ComicBookResources and Twitter.

From what or whom do you derive your greatest inspiration?

All of the artists I loved in my youth: George Perez, John Byrne, Frank Miller, Art Adams and Marc Silvestri.

Name three books that have impacted your life.

Uncanny X-Men (the book that started me collecting comics).
New Mutants Annual #1 (one of the best comics of all time).
The Dark Knight.

If you could relive one moment over and over again, what would it be?

When I was asked to work on an X book in the 90’s and I turned it down.

How are you six degrees from Kevin Bacon?

Kevin Bacon is in X-Men First Class, directed by Mathew Vaughn. Mathew Vaughn directed Kick Ass, created by Mark Millar.  Mark worked on Youngblood with Rob Liefeld, and I was Rob Liefeld’s assistant.

What makes you feel most guilty?

Guilt is a useless emotion in my opinion, but I’m guessing if I kicked a puppy I’d feel very guilty! (For the record I have never kicked a puppy)

How do you incorporate the work of other artists into your own?

I try to break down why they do what they do and what about their work gets my juices flowing. Then I try to figure out if I can incorporate that into my work without ripping off their style.

Please explain the motivation/inspiration behind your new book, Blindside?

It was the lack of truly exciting comics… action-packed, balls to the wall comics like we used to have. I talk to fans at conventions all over the country and it seems a lot of them are looking for those types of books. So, I figured why not just take a chance and do one? It’s what I want to draw anyway. So far it has been awesome!

What is the best advice you’ve ever given to someone else?

Who gives a shit?!

List your favorite in the following categories:  Comedian, Musician, Author, Actor.

Kevin Hart, John Legend, Mark Millar, Dwayne Johnson.

If you had complete creative license and an unlimited budget, what would your next project be?

It would be Blindside. It’s my dream project! It’s the comic I always wanted to draw. Plus, I think people will really love the book once it comes out… so if I had an unlimited budget I would just keep doing it until I ran out of stories to tell.

What do you want to know?

Where can I find the perfect woman?! Hahaha…

What would you like your last words to be?

No regrets.

Please explain what will happen.

Blindside will hit the comic book market like gangbusters. It will be made into a movie and I will be über-successful… one can hope!

I will list some comics that I like and then write descriptions of them in the style of 9th grade AP American History definition lists.

Clumsy by Jeffrey Brown – It is about a person in his second relationship of his life with another person, a girl. The person is in his mid-20s. It shows many scenes from their relationship, not in order. In the last scene the person is happy. In the second-to-last it shows the person crying on the phone and then it shows the person crying alone sitting on his bed. I cried a little standing in the subway station when I finished reading this.

Any Easy Intimacy by Jeffrey Brown – It is about a relationship. The girl doesn’t want to see the guy as much as the guy wants to see the girl. But the girl doesn’t want to completely not see the guy either. The girl just wants to see the guy a certain amount, and since the guy wants to see more of the girl the girl has more power in this relationship and is able to decide when the guy will be able to see the girl. This makes it so the guy has to either accept this or not see the girl at all. The guy chooses to accept this. It has an ending that is not happy and is also not sad but is very emotional still to me. I think all relationships exist in a state of power struggle like I described, with the power moving around. That the power moves around allows the relationship to continue, I think. Sometimes people seem able to overcome the power struggle and become someone who loves everyone. I don’t know how that happens and how those kinds of people feel. Probably they have just prolonged their moments of ‘acceptance.’ Everyone has moments of ‘acceptance’ I think.

Spent by Joe Matt – This is about a person who masturbates around ten times a day. The person makes tapes where he edits out the men in the pornos. It is about Joe Matt. Joe Matt writes about himself. He is very brave to do something like this I think. I think I want to write like this. Some people may feel alienated by Joe Matt’s porno tapes but some people also will like it, and those people who like it now know it, and so can contact Joe Matt and be his friend. And those people who would feel alienated by this kind of thing will feel alienated and not talk to Joe Matt which will prevent future pain and suffering that would potentially be more painful than just being alienated immediately.

The Poor Bastard by Joe Matt – This is about a person doing things. The person ends a relationship and then tries to have other relationships but it is hard. Reading this I felt that Joe Matt worked very hard. I like people who can work very hard, I think. A person has to be motivated to work very hard and has to dislike being around humans to some degree. By ‘dislike’ I mean not that they hate people but that they are very sensitive about humans and feel worried and nervous a lot that they have hurt someone or that someone hates them. I think that’s usually how it is with people who like being alone. I think Junot Diaz took ten years to write his first novel because he likes talking to people and being around people, according to accounts I’ve read of him being very social at his readings. Why do some people praise writers who are very friendly and personable? If I meet Joy Williams or someone in real life and she is very quiet and nervous and afraid I would like her more not less.

The Playboy by Chester Brown – This is about a young child hiding Playboy magazines and tearing out one page to masturbate to it. The young child grows up and as an adult has problems keeping an erection maybe due to high standards of Playboy. This and Joe Matt show people masturbating face down, using a bed or a chair, whereas movies and other books and comics I have seen show people masturbating standing up. I usually masturbate like it’s shown by Chester Brown and Joe Matt.

Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine – This is four stories by Adrian Tomine. I like the endings of each story very much. I can remember each ending very well. They were all very moving. I cried at the end of the last story. It was not a sad story and it did not have a sad ending.

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes – This is about two girls. I like the ending. It moves quickly suddenly and feels emotional to me.

My New York Diary by Julie Doucet – This is about a girl moving to New York and living there then moving away. One scene shows a guy wanting to be with the girl but the girl does not want that. The guy calls one night and wants to come over. He asks a lot. The girl says okay but she is going to work while he is here. The guy says he is going to kill himself and he slits his wrists while watching the girl work. The guy cries and it’s sad. The girl keeps working for a while. She has no responsibility to help the guy and the guy’s emotions seem sincere and somehow uncontrollable, a situation that made me feel emotional. This is one of the few graphic novels I like where the main character is not depressed and would not describe themselves as ‘fucked.’

Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware – This is about a person who is very nervous around people. I felt really sad in a good way while reading this and looking at it.

Black Ghost Apple Factory by Jeremy Tinder – It is a lot of short stories. I think it felt beautiful to me and sad. It is also strange in a playful way like the author is playful.