Though he died back in 2018, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four co-creator Stan Lee remains one of the most recognizable figures in pop culture, and former Marvel exec Bob Sabouni joined Kartoon Studios to work with licensees to help his legacy live on.

Kartoon had been holding onto the Stan Lee license since 2020, but hadn’t dedicated anyone to overseeing it. That changed when Sabouni joined the company roughly five months ago as head of Stan Lee Consumer Products. Since then, the LA-based exec has been in stealth mode, quietly assembling new licensing partners for the Stan Lee IP. 

Earlier in his career, Sabouni worked with Lee as an EVP of marketing at Marvel from 2003 to 2015—a period that spans a rise from “just-out-of-bankruptcy through Avengers: Age of Ultron,” he says. 

So far, it’s been an easy job for Sabouni, a self-professed Lee superfan, to find partners who want to expand on the icon’s legacy. “Liceneeses were looking to be back in the Stan Lee business,” he says. Deals have been finalized with several new partners, including Topps (trading cards), Galkin (designer sunglasses) and Better Magnets (magnets and pins), and Sabouni also renewed an agreement with Madame Tussauds for a wax figure of Lee that stands in New York City. 

There’s a lot of potential in both licensing Lee’s likeness, as well as the trove of non-Marvel IPs he created, says Sabouni, who spoke to Kidscreen this week about other deals he’s working on and the need for new partners who have creative ideas that “celebrate [Lee’s] life and his love of storytelling.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Ryan Tuchow: What sort of response have you been getting from licensees when it comes to Stan Lee? 

Bob Sabouni: It’s been amazing. Licensees were looking to be back in the Stan Lee business. And from our perspective, we see licensing as the way to get Stan back in the world. That’s one of the ways we see Stan really [enduring] in the future.

We’ve had some really good partnerships with companies like Saturday Morning Cards [collectible cards] and Panini Publishing [limited-edition collectible cards], and some Marvel licensees have started to come to us, like Topps and Galkin for sunglasses—Stan was known for his sunglasses. 

Saturday Morning Cards product featuring Stan Lee.

We really try to find products and partners that understand and care about the legacy of Stan, and that aren’t just looking to slap logos on things. We want partners who get that this is about making something that has value to the consumer, to the fan, because Stan cared most about his fans.

RT: What categories and markets are you targeting? 

BS: We’ve chosen products that make sense for now. Collectibles, toys and apparel are categories that we’re really seeking right now. Those are all categories we absolutely see as the usual suspects and as low-hanging fruit. 

But then we’re also looking at other ways of going forward. Live events, museums and exhibits. Things that celebrate his life and his love of storytelling. We are definitely looking at ways of giving people things that allow them to engage with Stan, both on a historical and a current-day [level].

Stan Lee (left) with Bob Sabouni at the Great Wall of China. Image courtesy of Sabouni.

Stan is recognized everywhere. Our 30-million-strong social media following [for Stan] has got a very significant international component. Now, the breakdown is what you would kind of expect. Obviously Stan is global. But just like Marvel, there are certain markets that he’s really strong in. Brazil, Mexico, the UK, South Korea, a lot of the Asia Pacific countries. And then, you know, Europe, Italy and France. 

Wherever the Marvel and the comic book world is powerful, Stan is there. But even in a few places where Marvel is popular but not as big—like Japan and India, which are very heavy on local products—Stan actually outperforms Marvel.

RT: What sort of new partnerships are you looking at? 

BS: We’re really open to talking to partners, but we want interesting ideas. We want things that are fun, and we’ll even do things that are a little unexpected.

Bob Sabouni

Right now, we’re looking at a partner that does wine. I don’t know if it’s going to happen or not, but here’s what really excites me about a deal like that: We can take it and create an event around the launch that extends the storytelling element. 

We want people to understand who Stan was, and why he’s important. So what we’re going to do with that event, if that deal goes through, is a creators wine dinner. We get creators who loved Stan and maybe worked with him, and it’s going to be like he’s having dinner together with them. There’s going to be a table with paper on it, and [the creators] are going to be sketching the whole time, and talking about creativity and what Stan meant to the world. 

RT: Kartoon Studios also has licensing rights to Lee’s creations, other than his Marvel IPs. What are your plans for them? 

BS: Besides having all the rights to Stan and his trademark [expressions]—like “‘Nuff Said” and “Excelsior!”—we also have a cache of several hundreds of stories that Stan wrote post-Marvel. So that’s another rollout for us. It’s beyond just the licensing. We’re also going to be launching things from what we call the “Secret Vault of Stan Lee.”

And we’re seeing a tremendous number of creators who were inspired by Stan. Stan wanted you to care more about Peter Parker than Spider-Man. Stan wanted you to think Tony Stark was more interesting outside of the suit than in it, and a lot of creators were inspired by that. 

We’re seeing a lot of really high-end filmmakers, creators and performers coming to us wanting to work with us on [the non-Marvel stories Stan wrote]. So that is a whole other series of characters that are going to be coming out over the next year to two years. For our mid-term and long-term plans, it’s going to be Stan and these new characters that he created. 

Stan Lee’s wax figure from Madame Tussauds, which stands in New York.

RT: Are there plans to bring Stan Lee and his IPs onto new screens? 

BS: I would love to do stories in film and television. But I have become obsessed with vertical format, short-form content. It’s the hottest thing in the world, and it’s the easiest and quickest way to reach a younger audience. 

I have this vision of creating a Stan Lee vertical-format, short-form series in live action that we can launch on our own platform with 30 million followers that are engaged fans of Stan. That is one of the first initiatives that we’re really looking at. 

RT: What are you most excited about as you work to grow this business? 

BS: I’m really excited about how licensees are reacting. I’m really excited about the response we’re getting from other creators who want to come on board and work with this stuff that we have. And I’m really excited about the response we’re getting from the fans, who love seeing this stuff rolling out, and who understand that this is just another way to connect with Stan.

I try to go to bed every night with one question to myself: “Would Stan be proud of what I did for him today?” And, so far, I think the answer is yes.