Stan Lee on the Spider-Man Drug Story Too Hot for the Comics Code Authority [Video]

Comic book icon Stan Lee has shared many of his upcoming plans with us over the past week, including his current ventures with POW! Entertainment and his insights into the digital future of the comic book medium. In this installment of our three-part interview with the creator, however, Lee looks back at his past -- specifically, his role in the publication of the influential issues of "The Amazing Spider-Man" #96-98 that strayed from the Comics Code Authority in an effort to reach readers.

In our interview, Lee recalls how the Comics Code's inflexibility stood in the way of a story that spoke to the contemporary issue of drug abuse in the '70s, and how Marvel circumvented potential censorship on behalf of none other than the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services). It's a piece of comic book history many fans have read about, but this time it's told straight from the storyteller who lived it.