LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Three months after standing down as California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger is making a comeback as a cartoon superhero version of himself, the Governator.

The former champion bodybuilder turned Hollywood star — catchphrase “I’ll be Back” — has teamed up with Marvel comics veteran Stan Lee to create the character that will star in an animated TV show and comic book.

More details will be announced next week, but Schwarzenegger and Lee revealed the plans to Entertainment Weekly, which published details on its website this week.

“The Governator is very simple. It takes my entire career basically, if it is bodybuilding, if it is action movies, if it is the governorship,” the famously Austrian-accented 63-year-old told the magazine.

“It takes all those things and combines it into one. That guy is designed to fight crime, to fight natural disasters, this guy will be jumping into action,” he added in a video clip on the weekly’s website.

Arnie’s new persona will have a fleet of super-vehicles at his disposal in an Arnold Cave under his house and a wardrobe of ‘super suits’ to help him fly and perform other stunts.

Ranged against him will be super-villains, including an evil organisation called Gangsters Imposters Racketeers Liars & Irredeemable Ex-cons — or GIRLIE Men for short, after Arnie’s infamously politically incorrect phrase for wimps.

“I love the idea of a control centre below my house with a path so that boats and submarines can go right into the ocean,” Schwarzenegger told the weekly, in his first interview since leaving public life in January.

“In the cartoon, my house is much closer to the beach than where we live, but, you know, it’s a cartoon.”

The animated TV show and comic book won’t be out until next year, but Lee — co-creator of Spider Man and a raft of other comic superheros, revealed that it will be based on Schwarzenegger’s personal life.

“The Governator is going to be a great superhero, but he’ll also be Arnold Schwarzenegger,” he said.

“We’re using all the personal elements of Arnold’s life. We’re using his wife (Maria Shriver). We’re using his kids. We’re using the fact that he used to be governor.

“Only after he leaves the governor’s office, Arnold decides to become a crime fighter and builds a secret high-tech crime-fighting centre under his house in Brentwood,” he added.