Stan Lee, the driving editorial force behind the creation of the Marvel Universe, has signed a joint venture agreement with leading children's entertainment company DIC Entertainment.  Lee will create a new programming stream, The Stan Lee Universe, which will be produced by DIC.  DIC has packaged numerous anime titles, including Sailor Moon, Saint Seiya, and Speed Racer, for the American market.  The first project from the Stan Lee/DIC joint venture is the animated series Stan Lee's The Secret of the Super Six, a superhero show with a strong humanitarian component.  Lee, who has had bit parts in several Marvel-based films and a major role on an episode of The Simpsons, will play a continuing character in The Secret of the Super Six.  He will voice the role of the reclusive cartoonist who befriends six superpowered aliens and helps them learn how to adjust to the trials and contradictions of life on earth.

 

Although the Super Six series will be geared towards younger viewers, Lee told the Hollywood Reporter, 'I often find that when I introduce philosophical elements I get fan mail from young readers about it.  I never have to write down to younger readers or dumb stories down, and nothing will be dumbed down (in The Secret of the Super Six).' The new series will be launched at the international TV trade show/marketplace MIPCOM this fall, which means that, if there is enough interest, viewers could be watching the first episodes of The Secret of the Super Six sometime in 2004.