Here we have a candid interview with our Generalissimo, the godfather of the funny papers, Mr. Excelsior himself, Stan Lee appearing in April’s issue of “Playboy” available now.

 Between 1961 and 1965, in one of pop culture’s most remarkable creative bursts, Stan Lee, working with freelance artists including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, created the key characters in what became known as the Marvel Revolution.  But this comic book writer who dreamed up Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four wasn’t always so sure of himself.

“Early in my career, before The Fantastic Four, I struggled.  I felt I was never going to get anywhere.  Even afterward, I was embarrassed to say I wrote comic books for a living.  I had a lot of shame about that,” says Lee, now 91-years-old and still working five days a week as the head of POW! Entertainment.  “Even when I made a good living, my dad didn’t think of me as a success.  Some of that rubbed off on me.  I was always looking at people who were doing better than I was and wishing I could do what they were doing—Steven Spielberg or a writer like Harlan Ellison, or even Hugh Hefner.  Part of me always felt I hadn’t quite made it yet.”

In a frank and funny April issue Playboy Interview with Contributing Editor David Hochman, the mind behind our greatest superheroes opens up about the genesis of his characters, feuding with artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and why he favors Mary Jane over Black Widow.

Following are a selection of quotes from Lee’s Interview (issue on newsstands and i.Playboy.com Friday, March 21, with the complete interview available here)

On what makes the superheroes he created more than 50 years ago still so popular today:  “The added appeal of so many of these characters is that they were extraordinary but ordinary at the same time.  That made them relatable.  Mr. Fantastic could be a real bore.  Spider-Man was like a lot of teenage boys—confused, troubled. The X-Men were magnificent misfits.  So you see, comic books to me are fairy tales for grown-ups.  Iron Man, the Avengers, Spider-Man and all the rest are still popular for the same reason “Jack and the Beanstalk” is still popular after a million years.  They’re good stories about characters that are like us but also larger than us.”

On his current role at Marvel:  “I have no standing at Marvel where I decide what projects get made or who gets hired, and certainly none at Disney, which now owns Marvel.  I’m a guy they hire as a writer or producer and also to go to conventions and do things like that.  Mostly I’m just a pretty face they keep for the public.”

On whether or not he owns rights to the characters he created:  “I never did.  I was always a Marvel employee, a writer for hire and, later, part of management.  My role at Marvel is strictly honorary.  Marvel always owned the rights to these characters.  If I owned them, I probably wouldn’t be talking to you now.”

On his net worth:  “My daughter was looking at the internet the other day and read that Stan Lee has an estimated $250 million.  I mean, that’s ridiculous!  I don’t have $200 million.  I don’t have $150 million.  I don’t have $100 million or anywhere near that.”

On if he feels cheated:  “You have to understand, growing up during the Depression, I saw my parents struggling to pay the rent.  I was happy enough to get a nice paycheck and be treated well.  I always got the highest rate; whatever Martin paid another writer, I got a least that much.  It was a very good job.  I was able to buy a house on Long Island.  I never dreamed I should have $100 million or $250 million or whatever that crazy number is.  All I know is I created a lot of characters and enjoyed the work I did.”

On the lingering controversy surrounding his work with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko:  “There was never a time when it just said ‘by Stan Lee.’  It was always ‘by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’ or ‘by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.’  I made sure their names were always as big as mine.  As far as what they were paid, I had nothing to do with that.  They were hired as freelance artists, and they worked as freelance artists.  At some point they apparently felt they should be getting more money.  Fine, it was up to them to talk to the publisher.  It had nothing to do with me.  I would have liked to have gotten more money too.  And twice, not once, I offered a job to Jack Kirby.  I said to him, ‘Jack, why don’t you work for Marvel with me?’  I was the art director at the time.  I said, ‘You be the art director.  I’ll just be the editor and head writer, and you’ll have that security.’ He wouldn’t do it.  He didn’t want a staff job.  With him, as with Ditko, I don’t see where they were unfairly treated.  Jack was a great guy and so is Steve.  I’m sorry anybody feels there’s any acrimony.  I loved them both.”

On Stan Lee Media:  “It is incredibly irritating, because people think it’s me.  I did have a company called Stan Lee Media, but it went belly-up.  The fellow running it is now in jail.  It was an unfortunate situation.  For some reason people have spent years and God knows how much money claiming I gave Marvel the rights to the characters.  Again, I never had the rights to the characters.  The whole thing is based on sand.  Unfortunately, I can’t get them to stop using my name.”

On whether or not he saved copies of the original Spider-Man comic books:  “I never collected them.  In those days we didn’t think of it.  We were in a small office.  After the book was printed, the printer would send the original pages of artwork and all the color proofs back to us.  We had no room for them.  We gave everything away.  Some kid would come up to deliver sandwiches form the drugstore and we’d say, ‘Hey, kid, on your way out, take these pages and throw them somewhere.’  If one of those guys had brains enough to save some stuff, he’d be a very lucky man right now.”

On whether or not he used drugs when creating his characters:  “People read into the fact that I called the character Mary Jane, but honestly, I had no idea it was a nickname for marijuana.  I never understood why people take drugs.  They’re habit forming and they can kill you.  I didn’t need anything to pep me up or make me feel more creative, and I didn’t need them to help me with women.”

On which of his characters he would like to take out on a date:  “To me, the sexiest of all was Mary Jane in Spider-Man.  I loved the idea.”

On locker room talk while working in the Marvel bullpen:  “Obviously we always talked about Mr. Fantastic and how great he would be for any woman, with the ability to stretch the way he could.  But that was about all.”

On rumors that he used to pick up women with Mick Jagger back in the day:  “Oh, it’s not true.  But I will say, a woman will go with any recognizable celebrity even if you’re the ugliest celebrity in the world.  That’s just the law of fame.”

On the secret to his 70 year marriage: “Marrying the right girl.”

On Ben Affleck as Batman:  “Ben ought to do a great job as Batman.  People say he’s too old.  Listen, from my perspective, he’s still a very young man.”

On Robert Downey Jr.as Iron Man:  “I didn’t know what to think when Robert Downey Jr. was announced as Iron Man.  I couldn’t picture him.  To me, Downey wasn’t a superhero; he was Chaplin.  But the instant I saw him I said, ‘He’s Iron Man.’ I think it’s the greatest bit of casting ever.”

On the actresses that impressed him the most in the Marvel movies:  “Jessica Alba was the girl in Fantastic Four, right?  She was terrific.  I really liked her.  Who was the girl in X-Men with the short hair, very pretty?  [Playboy: Halle Berry]  Lovely girl.  I spoke to her for a while and really enjoyed her performances.”

On the upcoming movie, Avengers:Age of Ultron:  “I have to be honest.  I don’t have any idea who the hell Ultron is.  He was a character developed after I stopped being involved in the Avengers story.  I was asking some guys in the office who Ultron is, but then my phone rang and I got busy and never found out.  Marvel introduced so many characters and strange situations, it’s hard to keep track of them all.”

On the Zombie craze:  “Zombies are puzzling to me.  They’re all the rage now, but I never understood them.  Think about it: If I were dead and could come back to life, I wouldn’t go around trying to kill people.  I’d be saying, ‘Wow! I’m the luckiest guy in the world.  Isn’t this terrific?  Hello, you wonderful person.  Let’s go out and have fun.’”