Stan Lee has spent 50 years working in the comic publishing field.

Comic books are more violent today than they've ever been, Stan Lee says.

"But I think that you'll find that in everything today," said Lee, publisher of Marvel Comics. "I think you'll find that movies are more violent, television is more violent. . . . I think that the comics in a sense probably reflect the world around us."

That's been the major change Lee has seen in comics since he started working in the field more than 50 years ago.

What hasn't changed, he said during a recent telephone interview from his California office, is that comic books are still entertaining and educational.

"Comics are a great way to teach people things painlessly," Lee said. "We've used comic books for the government, for anti-drug campaigns and child abuse campaigns.

"Comics are about the only thing that young people will read without being forced to. The more they read comics, the more they learn to read, the more skillful . . . they get at reading.

"And once a young person becomes a good reader, nobody just stays with comics. You go on to read other things, too."

Lee ought to know. He's been involved with comics nearly his entire life, first as a reader and for the past 20 years as publisher of Marvel.

He created Spiderman and so many other superheroes that he can't even remember all of them. He's written war comics, romance comics, horror stories and Western stories, too.

"They (comics) are a wonderful way to entertain somebody because, basically, they are pictures and words. . . . Kids like movies and television. And comics are like that. You not only read the story, but you see it."

Lee started his career with Marvel by answering an ad for a job at a magazine.

"I didn't even know it was comic books," he said. "But I wanted to be a writer, so I thought I would try it."

He moved up the ladder, working as an assistant editor, art director and editor before becoming publisher.

Comics have been a great career for Lee, and he encourages kids who are talented writers and artists to submit their material to Marvel.

"I would tell somebody, if they have talent, study and become as good as you can be. You've gotta learn anatomy, you've gotta learn perspective, composition. And then when you think you're really good, draw a few sample pages of your own, and mail them into Marvel.

"If you're a good artist, we (Marvel) can use you, but you've got to be really good."

At comic book conventions, people take the opportunity to ask Lee's opinion of their artwork. Not all of it is good enough for Marvel.

"I'd say to myself, `Can't this person see how terrible it is?' . . . He has read the comic books, he knows what that artwork looks like.

"One of the important qualities you need as an artist is you've got to be able to tell when you draw something that's good or when you draw something that's bad."

Those who want to write for comic books have a more difficult time proving their skill.

"You can't tell whether a writer is good or not unless you read a whole script," Lee said. "And even then, you don't know how long it took him to do it, and would he be able to do another one well?

"The best way to get a job in comics is really to write something that you can sell professionally somewhere else. . . . And then you can contact the editor at Marvel and say, `This is who I am, and this is what I've done, and here are some things that I've written that have already been published.' "