Creator of Spider-Man and Avengers heads up new slate of books and games for youngsters.

With his all-new Kids Universe entertainment imprint, Stan Lee is looking out for today’s generation — that is, when the comic-book icon’s not engrossed in playing his app game featuring pirates and little fuzzballs.

“The whole games thing was a bad idea to do because we’ve got Stan now not working in his office and playing all day long,” jokes 1821 Comics’ Terry Dougas, who’s partnering with Lee’s POW! Entertainment for Stan Lee Kids Universe.

Launching today, the imprint aims to create family-friendly books, games and characters on a variety of platforms for young children ages 1 to 10.

“There really is no group of books for kids who are very young and have the excitement, the color, the originality that kids are really looking for and will hold and grab them,” says Lee, the longtime Marvel Comics editor and co-creator of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men and the Avengers.

Stan Lee’s Kid’s Universe projects will be available starting on Monday, beginning with Dani Jones’ Monsters vs. Kittens. The children’s tome featuring a variety of cute cats and creatures will be available in e-book, hardcover and softcover editions, with a game to follow.

Also, the A Story Before Bed version features Lee himself reading the book that kids can view on their iPads, or mom and dad can record it themselves if they’re away from home and their children want to enjoy it before bedtime, Dougas says. “We try in every way to help parents be closer with their kids.”

Part of the Kids Universe mandate is to support young artists and storytellers from around the world like Jones.

“We want to open the door where if a 10-year-old kid comes up with a great story and sends it to us, we will publish it,” Dougas says.

Lee and Dougas are also trying to hit the Angry Birds crowd with Goobeez: Pirate Adventure, a game for smartphones and tablets available Monday where players swipe their finger back and forth to get little characters to jump off a pirate ship and onto land.

“We’re building cute stuff that we want to give to our kids, and then give it to the rest of the kids,” Dougas says.

That’s been the modus operandi for Lee for decades, he adds. “Even when I was writing comics, I just wrote the kind of comics I would like to read. Now Terry and I are doing the kind of books and games that we would like to read and play. I find that’s a good formula.”

Lee’s already figured out that Goobeez is habit-forming. “There’s also a little humor to it also, like everything we do,” he says, adding that he’s “not as good as I’d like to be. I don’t have enough time to practice, but I swear I’m going to get better.”

If anyone deserves to lose himself in a game, it’s Lee, 90. He’s responsible for some of pop culture’s most indelible superheroes, but doing stuff for kids has also been a hallmark of his long career. Before Thor and Iron Man came along, Lee used to write for Paul Terry cartoons such as Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle.

“Now it’s almost the same thing,” he says. “It’s just the characters are different and the platforms are different. It all boils down to simple, understandable fun stories for young people.”

Lee aims to stay on top of and utilize new technology as Kids Universe spawns more projects this year and in the future, with new characters like the canine police of The Fuzz Posse and Reggie the Veggie Crocodile as well as books such as Jones’ Once Upon a Time featuring a pig and his animal pals.

Anything that Kids Universes publishes will combine the essential elements of education and entertainment, Lee says.

“Whatever he or she has read or played with, we want that youngster to leave happy and entertained but also perhaps a little bit smarter and a little bit more educated than when they started.”

Link to article

The post USA TODAY appeared first on Stan Lee's Kids Universe.

Image Credit: Stan Lee’s Kid’s Universe

At age 90, having brought to life some of the most enduring characters in pop culture history, you’d think maybe Stan Lee would be ready to ease into a nice quiet retirement—but that’s just not how Lee rolls. The tireless comic-book legend who spawned such iconic Marvel superheroes as Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and Thor has now launched a new entertainment imprint called Stan Lee’s Kids Universe. The company plans to roll out a series of books, games, e-books, and other offerings aimed at young children ages 1 to 10, beginning with a book called Monsters Vs. Kittens and a mobile game for iOS called Goobeez: Pirate Adventure. We asked Lee and one of his partners, 1821 Comics co-founder Terry Dougas, to explain the new venture.

EW: Where did the idea to create Stan Lee’s Kids Universe originally come from?
Lee: From the fertile minds of Terry Dougas and Stan Lee! We got together one day and said, “The world needs a new line of literature for young people.”

But there are countless books aimed at young kids out there already—not to mention games. So why jump into that arena?
Dougas: We’ve been collaborating with Stan for a while now. We had done [the 2011 graphic novel] Romeo and Juliet: The War together, which became a New York Times bestseller, and while we were working on that we said, “Why don’t we start a new label with Stan’s name and creative mind that’s focused towards young kids?” This is like a mini-mini-Disney type of company where you can do books, games, and all types of stuff for children. There’s a void there. There’s Disney, Nickelodeon, Hasbro, but there’s not that many companies that are completely targeted at kids. It’s a massive, massive market. We’re not saying we’re going to become Disney immediately—
Lee: What do you mean, we’re not saying that? Just give us time!

When people hear the name Stan Lee, they instantly think of superheroes, but this isn’t about creating superhero characters for young kids, right? 
Lee: Well, we might have a superhero or two. The whole world is our oyster here. We can do anything, as long as it’s good for young children.
Dougas: Stan has been coming up with all kinds of new characters, but this is a company that also wants to support young talent, like Dani Jones, who wrote and illustrated our first book out, Monsters Vs. Kittens. The book has been getting a great response. It’s got a great message for kids and it’s really quirky and beautiful and different. We’ll have some characters come out that are created by Stan—we already have a bunch of those in different stages of development. But we’re also focused on asking kids around the world: What do they like? What characters do they want to see? We want to publish a 9-year-old kid’s story that he wrote because that kid feels that there’s nothing like that story out there. The doors are open for full collaboration with everyone out there that has some talent.
Lee: Monsters Vs. Kittens is one of the cutest books you’ve ever seen for very young children. There can’t be two things more different than a monster and a kitten, but this will put a smile on the face of any youngster. The monsters are as cute and lovable as the kittens. It’s an easy read. The illustrations are entrancing. And any kid, when he finishes that book, will have a smile on his face and will feel good about himself, about monsters, and about kittens.

Monsters Vs. Kittens sounds like a movie title. You guys should pitch it to the studios.
Lee: The beautiful thing is that it’s so original. Where else do you get a book featuring monsters and kittens? What we’re trying to do is fill a need: clever books for young kids that are different than what we usually get.
Dougas: And we want to do multi-platform releases, so this one is available in soft cover, hard cover, as an interactive book, and we’re prepping a game. We also put it on astorybeforebed.com. That’s a web site where—let’s say there’s a soldier in Afghanistan who has a little boy here. On that site, he can actually look at the book on-line, record his voice reading it, and send that file to his kid, so that the kid can see his father reading him Monsters Vs. Kittens before he goes to bed.

EW: And you just launched your first mobile game, Goobeez: Pirate Adventure. What’s the game like?
Dougas: We wanted to start with something simple but fun and addictive for everyone. It’s basically a side-swiping game where you need to save the Goobeez from the pirate ship and get them onto dry land. It has really cute characters and fun noises. As we go on, there are going to be more complicated games.
Lee: I don’t really turn on to these things normally. But when Terry showed this game to me, I couldn’t stop playing with it. This is the cleverest little game I’ve ever seen.
Dougas: We’re having problems here at Stan Lee’s Kids’ Universe because Stan is addicted. We need help!

Link to Article

The post ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY appeared first on Stan Lee's Kids Universe.

Just two weeks after celebrating his 90th birthday, comics icon Stan Lee shows no signs of slowing down.

For his latest venture in a decades-long career that includes co-creating Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, Lee will launch a new family-friendly multimedia imprint, Stan Lee’s Kids Universe, on Feb. 2 at an event in Los Angeles.

A joint venture between 1821 Comics and Lee’s company POW Entertainment, the imprint will publish print and digital formats, including graphic novels, picture books, e-books and games tailored to children.

Aiming at a younger audience than the usual fanboy demographic, the imprint “was created to provide children with big imaginations an entirely new universe to explore, with the aim of telling stories that they haven’t read before yet provide educational value as well,” Lee said in a prepared statement.

Lee and 1821, who previously collaborated on the futuristic graphic novel “Romeo and Juliet: The War,” first announced Kids Universe at New York Comic Con in 2011.

The first properties, including the multiplatform book “Monsters vs. Kittens” by Dani Jones, are scheduled to be available by Feb. 4.

The private launch event will feature a book reading by Lee, giveaways of signed books, arts and crafts and more.

– Oliver Gettell

Link to Article

The post LOS ANGELES TIMES appeared first on Stan Lee's Kids Universe.

The comics legend was in Century City to show off the debut title of his imprint Stan Lee’s Kids Universe.

 

 

Brian Erzen

He might be 90 years old, is getting over a flu and has canceled several comics convention appearances, but comics legend Stan Lee still proved he could still draw a crowd Saturday for the book launch of Monsters vs. Kittens, the debut tome from his family-friendly imprint, Stan Lee’s Kids Universe.

The event, held at Giggles ‘N Hugs in Century City, attracted a diverse group ranging from Make-A-Wish Foundation families to hipsters and Hollywood moms with their kids.

Kittens is joint venture between Lee’s POW Entertainment and 1821 Comics, run by Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis and Terry Dougas – an odd combination if there ever was one. But the pair have had success in publishing before, with the best-selling graphic novel Romeo & Juliet: The War.

With the new imprint, which will encompass books, e-books and apps, Lee said he and Dougas ”were looking in book stores and on the Internet, and we noticed that there’s really nothing that great, we thought, for very young children — children who are just starting to read. So we thought we could try to produce some reading matter for them and introduce them to the joy of reading.”

Lee holds the title of creative director for the imprint and had a great deal of input on the book, which was written and illustrated by Dani Jones.

At the event, still nursing a cough, Lee read the very simple book to the crowd of attending kids, but every few sentences he displayed his trademark charm with one-liners that had their parents chuckling out loud.

It’s hard to say what drives Lee — the co-creator of Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, Iron Man, Daredevil, Avengers, and other iconic Marvel characters — to keep pursuing ventures that deal with storytelling and imagination long after his peers put down their pens.

On one hand, he jokes that “greed” keeps him going, but then he follows that up with this: “Most people say, ‘I can’t wait to retire because then I can do the things I want to do.’ But I’m doing what I want to do, so why retire?”

He adds: “I never really thought I’d live to be 90.”

Link to Article

The post HOLLYWOOD REPORTER appeared first on Stan Lee's Kids Universe.

The post ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT appeared first on Stan Lee's Kids Universe.

Stan Lee Launches New Digital-Oriented Imprint ‘Kid’s Universe’

Comic book legend Stan Lee proved once again that even at his venerable age of 90, he’s at the forefront of digital culture. On Saturday, he launched his new imprint, Kid’s Universe, which wants to be digital-oriented as the current times require — other than traditional books, it will offer ebooks, and apps.

The imprint is a joint venture between Lee’s POW! Entertainment and 1821 Comics’ Terry Dougas. The two “were looking in book stores and on the Internet, and we noticed that there’s really nothing that great, we thought, for very young children — children who are just starting to read. So we thought we could try to produce some reading matter for them and introduce them to the joy of reading,”

The first book of the series Monsters and Kittens, was also launched on Saturday, and made available on Monday. The book features kid-friendly characters and will be available also as en e-book along with with a video game.

Lee, who is famous for creating some comic book’s history best superheroes like Spider-Man or the X-Men, is the creative director for the book, although Dani Jones is the one who illustrated and wrote it.

Lee and Dougas are also launching Goobeez: Pirate Adventure, a mobile game for smartphones and tablets.

“We’re building cute stuff that we want to give to our kids, and then give it to the rest of the kids,” Dougas told USA Today.

You can watch Lee reading the book out loud at the launch in the video above.

Link to Article

The post MASHABLE appeared first on Stan Lee's Kids Universe.

The post WIRE IMAGE appeared first on Stan Lee's Kids Universe.

Stan Lee introduces Kids Universe with books, games and characters for kids

By: Phyllis Thomas

(L-R) Terry Dougas and Stan Lee at Stan Lee’s Kids Universe Launch

Credits:

P. Thomas

Stan Lee and his creative partner Terry Dougas were on hand for the launch of Stan Lee’s Kids Universe. Kids Universe is a new multi-media children’s publishing company that focuses on children aged 1-10 years old.

The company will release material in all platforms including picture books, graphic novels, eBooks mobile games, mobile apps, interactive books, contests and a hands-on website for kids.

Stan Lee’s Kids Universe is a partnership between Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment and 1821 Comics.

The company’s first release is the children’s book “Monsters vs Kittens.” Released on Soft and Hard Cover, “Monsters vs Kittens,” is a fun playful picture book about the difference and similarities between two unlikely friends. It teaches young children not to judge someone by the way they may appear.

The book is also available on eBook mobile app game and the Stan Lee Video/Audio Read to Me digital book.

Stan Lee introduces Kids Universe

Also available is “Goobeez: Pirate Adventure” is a mobile game app for Apple.Released in Mobile App Game on iTunes, The Goobeez have been kidnapped from their native island home by the evil pirates and you must help them escape.

Check out the video on this page of Stan Lee reading the “Monsters vs Kittens” picture book to children at Giggles and Hugs in Century City for The Make A Wish Foundation.

Link to Article

The post EXAMINER appeared first on Stan Lee's Kids Universe.

Stan Lee Is The Grandfather We Never Had And Is Now Infiltrating The World Of Our Children

by Eve Vawter

The post MOMMYISH appeared first on Stan Lee's Kids Universe.

Stan Lee’s Kids Universe; Monsters Vs. Kittens

Stan Lee read a story to the kids at Giggles N’ Hugs in Century City on Saturday. There was no Iron Man or Thor in this story, just cuddly monsters and adorable kittens. The legendary comic book writer was debuting the first book from Stan Lee’s Kids Universe aimed at children 1 to 10 called Monsters Vs. Kittens.

It’s a sweet picture book about the differences between Monsters and Kittens and also the similarities. I thought my boys would be too old for the story, but my 7-year-old asked me to read it to him (he actually read it to me) that night after we got home. Here’s Stan Lee reading parts of the story.

Stan Lee’s partner in SLKU, Terry Dougas of 1821Comics, talked to the press during the event along with Actress Jaime Pressly. Here’s the interview where they talk about the book.

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post, but was invited to the event and received the book. All opinions are my own. 

Yvonne Condes is the Editor and co-Founder of MomsLA.com, a community of Top Mom Bloggers in Los Angeles and Southern California.

Link to Article

The post MOMS LA appeared first on Stan Lee's Kids Universe.