Follow

    Jim Lee

    Person » Jim Lee is credited in 1382 issues.

    Jim Lee is a Korean-American artist and writer, who shot to fame with Marvel titles such as X-Men in the 90's. He created Wildstorm under Image Comics, which he later sold to DC Comics where he acted as Editorial Director. In 2010, he became Co-Publisher of DC Comics.

    Short summary describing this person.

    Jim Lee last edited by nananightwing13 on 01/09/22 09:57PM View full history

    Biography

    Jim Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea. His family moved to America when he was young and he grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Jim began drawing at an early age. His high school classmates predicted that he would pursue a career in the comic book industry, however, Jim instead enrolled at Princeton University where he majored in psychology. His original idea was to become a medical doctor like his father. During his time at Princeton, he decided to take an art class as one of his electives. Taking this class made him realize how much he loved to draw. Jim eventually graduated in 1986 with a degree in psychology, but passed on a medical career to pursue a career as a comic book artist. Jim received his first gig drawing the cover of Samurai Santa #1 from independent publisher Solson Publications.

    Career

    X-Men #1
    X-Men #1

    Jim Lee began his mainstream comics career working for Marvel on several projects including Punisher: War Journal and Alpha Flight. Lee eventually went on to revamp the X-Men under a new title after ascending to popularity drawing and writing Uncanny X-Men. During his work on Uncanny X-Men, he met inker Scott Williams. Scott would eventually become his inker of choice for many future projects. In 1991 Jim Lee and Chris Claremont launched a second series of X-Men comics, simply titled “ X-Men.” The scripts were co-written by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee, with Lee also doing the art. During his run on the X-Men, Lee helped co-create Gambit with Chris Claremont, and Omega Red with John Byrne. When X-Men #1 released, it came out with multiple variants that connected together to form a complete poster drawn by Lee. X-Men #1 sold over 8 million copies and still holds the record for best-selling comic of all-time. During their run on X-Men, Lee and Claremont had different ideas for the future direction of the title. This caused a power struggle that resulted in then X-Men editor Bob Harras stepping in. Harras sided with Jim Lee because of his popularity with the fans, and Claremont ended up leaving the book. Their rivalry didn't last though, and the two would team up again on different projects.

    In 1992, Jim Lee left Marvel Comics along with Todd McFarlane, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri and Rob Liefeld to form Image Comics. He founded Wildstorm Productions and launched a number of successful titles, among them WildC.A.T.S. and Gen13. Lee would eventually expand the Wildstorm universe with more titles and characters. Most of the Image books were criticized for their high use of violence, sexuality, and their preference for art over story. Despite these criticisms, Jim Lee’s Wildstorm titles maintained high sales.

    Lee later returned to Marvel in 1996 along with Rob Liefeld, to take part in the Heroes Reborn event. He wrote and illustrated Fantastic Four and Iron Man for a time, while Liefeld took on The Avengers and Captain America. With his run on both Iron Man and Fantastic Four, Jim Lee helped these two titles go to the top on the sales charts. After only six issues, Marvel attempted to renegotiate the terms of their deal with Lee and Liefeld, offering them a smaller amount of money for the projects. While Lee accepted the revised contract and continued his work on Fantastic Four and Iron Man, Liefeld rejected the new terms and his two titles were given to Lee. After that period he returned to Wildstorm and also became a comics author for the first time writing and penciling a 12 issue mini-series called Divine Right:The adventures of Max Faraday. This series lasted from 1997 to 1999, the eight first issues were published by Image, the remaining four were published by DC after Lee's Wildstorm productions joined them.

    In 1998, Jim Lee left Image Comics and sold his Wildstorm Productions company to DC Comics. Lee decided to retire from producing and writing to concentrate on his art. In 2003 he began a run on Batman with writer Jeph Loeb. The series was titled Batman Hush and it became a big success for DC. The following year, he started a run on Superman alongside writer Brian Azzarello titled For Tomorrow. In 2005 Lee began drawing a new series for Batman, attempting to retell the character's origin. It was written by Frank Miller and the series was called All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder. Lee has stated that he will not leave this Batman title until Frank Miller finishes his run on it, which is to date incomplete. Lee would eventually return to draw his first Wildstorm series, WildC.A.T.s in 2006 with writer Grant Morrison which is also to date, incomplete. He has sated that he plans on finishing both All Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder and WildC.A.T.S. as soon as the writers get the chance to complete the scripts. Further cementing his growing relationship with DC, Lee drew the covers for the Infinite Crisis series, and he also accepted the art director position for the DC Universe Online computer game.

    Justice League #1
    Justice League #1

    In 2010, Jim Lee was named Co-Publisher of DC Comics alongside Dan Didio (a post previously held by Paul Levitz) where, along with Geoff Johns, he spearheaded the 2011 DC Comics Relaunch in which 52+ books were launched with new first issues. The new costumes were at least in part designed by Lee. He drew the New 52 Justice League ongoing with Geoff Johns writing.

    A new Man of Steel ongoing title to be penciled by Jim Lee and written by Scott Snyder was recently announced. According to Lee, he was always a big fan of Superman. It will be released in 2013.

    No Caption Provided

    Awards

    Eagle Awards

    2004 Favorite Comics Artist: Pencils

    Harvey Awards

    1990 Best New Talent

    Inkpot Award

    1992

    Other Media

    2009 Daughtry "Leave This Town" (album booklet artwork)

    2011 DC Universe Online (Executive Creative Director)

    bibliography

    Marvel

    Ongoing

    Writer

    Penciller

    Cover

    Inker

    Annuals

    Penciller

    Min-Series

    Penciller

    Cover

    Events

    Penciller

    Cover

    One-Shots

    Penciller

    Cover

    D.C. Comics

    Ongoing

    Penciller

    Cover

    Min-Series

    Penciller

    Cover

    Events

    Penciller

    Cover

    One-Shots

    Penciller

    Cover

    Some Characters Created

    1. Acolytes
    2. Alex Fairchild
    3. Armando Guitez
    4. Backlash (Marc Slayton)
    5. Bantam
    6. Battalion
    7. Blitzen
    8. Birdy
    9. Brünhilde
    10. Henry Bendix
    11. Bliss
    12. Burnout
    13. Cannon
    14. Chrome
    15. Clayface (Williams)
    16. Condition Red
    17. Cosmonut
    18. Fabian Cortez
    19. Daemonites
    20. Dark Riders
    21. Deathblow
    22. Defile
    23. Diva
    24. Doktor Sivana
    25. Donna Gugina
    26. Dreamqueen
    27. Emma Graves
    28. Equus
    29. Evo
    30. Fahrenheit
    31. Caitlin Fairchild
    32. Maria Mendoza
    33. Trevor Fitzroy
    34. Freefall
    35. Frostbite
    36. Fuji
    37. Gambit
    38. David Graves
    39. Grifter
    40. Grunge
    41. Hack
    42. Harcourt
    43. Hellstrike
    44. Helspont
    45. Henry Bendix
    46. Hush
    47. Ivana Baiul
    48. Jade Dragon
    49. Jason Graves
    50. Jennifer Graves
    51. Jocko-Boy Vanzetti
    52. Jonathan Rudolph
    53. Jürgen Olsen
    54. Kaizen Gamorra
    55. Leatherwing
    56. Lord Emp
    57. John Lynch
    58. The Martian
    59. Maul
    60. Max Faraday
    61. Miles Craven
    62. Mister Majestic
    63. Mr. Orr
    64. David North
    65. Pandora
    66. Pike
    67. Providence
    68. Sarah Rainmaker
    69. Omega Red
    70. Savant
    71. Sin-Tzu
    72. Spartan
    73. Synergy
    74. Sublime
    75. Stormwatch
    76. Tankograd
    77. Threshold
    78. Tracy Trevor
    79. Underwaterman
    80. Union
    81. Void
    82. Voodoo
    83. Warblade
    84. Wildcats
    85. Winter
    86. Wraith
    87. Zealot
    sizepositionchange
    sizepositionchange
    positionchange
    positionchange
    positionchange
    bordersheaderpositiontable
    positionchange

    This edit will also create new pages on Comic Vine for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Comic Vine users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.