I met Stan Lee once. (And I tell this story all the time, so if you’ve heard it before, feel free to move along.)

After Marvel Comics bought Malibu Comics, a big dinner was orchestrated at Chinois, a fancy restaurant in Santa Monica. All the big Marvel New York executives – all now long gone – were there, and so was Stan Lee. Malibu was represented by Scott Rosenberg, Dave Olbrich, Chris Ulm and myself.

Stan came over and introduced himself to me and then said, “I always forget, who bought who? I need to know if I have to kiss your ass or you have to kiss mine!” I could not have loved him more.

Since he left active duty at Marvel Comics and became their elder statesman, a media go-to guy, movie cameo expert and starter of other companies, he’s tried to duplicate his prior success at running Marvel. I think he likes to keep busy, has a ton of ideas floating around in his head, and has the ability to find outlets for them, and no trouble finding people who want to work with him. We should all live such a charmed life.

Now Stan’s creating another comic book universe, this time teaming up his own POW! Entertainment with Ross Richie’s Boom! Studios, for a sort of one-two POW! Boom! punch. One of the upcoming books, Stan Lee’s The Traveler, is based on a concept by Stan and it’ll be written by Mark Waid (aka Boom!‘s Chief Creative Officer) and illustrated by Chad Hardin, an artist with some Amazing Spider-Man cred. Regardless of the success or lack thereof of Stan’s past ventures, I’m in for the first issue and probably several more.

I don’t even care what the story is about. I don’t need to know anything about it in advance of shelling out my cash. Lee works best when he has great collaborators who can take his ideas and run with them and I trust Waid to run with them very well. I’m enough of a fan to read a comic based on Waid’s Costco list, so I’ll certainly pick this one up to see how well he plays with Stan.

There are 7 cover variants for the first issue and I’d need an iPhone app to figure them all out, but they’re being done by Scott Clark, Chad Hardin and Joe Benitez, and there’s a special 1-in-300 Stan Lee signed variant cover with all new cover art by Paul Rivoche (Mr. X).

Stan Lee’s The Traveler #1 will ship in November.

[Artwork: One of the many covers for Stan Lee’s The Traveler #1]