Stan Lee embraces Twitter

Former Marvel president Stan Lee has compared his Twitter usage to writing his 'Stan's Soapbox' column in the 1960s.

The Spider-Man co-creator is a regular presence on the microblogging site, providing observations and commentary on the comic book industry.

In an interview with MTV, Lee explained how using the blogging tool makes him feel like he has gone back in time. "Somehow twittering is like writing my ['Stan's Soapbox' column]," he said.

"[I'm] able to write any thoughts that I had and put them down and maybe somebody is actually reading them. The only frustrating thing about it is keeping it to 140 letters, because I'm a very long-winded guy.

"The funny thing is, during the day I'm not even thinking about Twitter, but at night after I have dinner and before I start doing some writing, I take 15 minutes to try and think of something to tweet... or to twit... or whatever the hell the verb is," he continued.

"I try to think what happened during the day, and if nothing interesting happened during the day, I try to make something up. It doesn't matter as long as it's something hopefully amusing."

Despite a lack of response to fan comments, Lee has assured users that he does take their contributions on board. "I read the responses. The only thing that breaks my heart is that I can't respond to all of the respondents - there are too many of them," he added.

Lee is currently working on a television adaptation of Perry Moore's novel Hero.