Jim Lee
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Born: 1964
Summary of Jim Lee
Jim Lee, a well-known American Korean comic book artist, writer, editor, and publisher, he is now the co-publisher of DC Entertainment. Lee is one of the most famous and recognised creators in American comics, widely known for his extremely detailed and dynamic creative style.
Lee has won a Harvey Award, an Inkpot Award, and three Wizard Fan Awards for his incredible work.
He began his career as an illustrator for Marvel Comics in 1987, illustrating a wide range of series such as Alpha Flight and The Punisher War Journal before becoming well-known for his work on The Uncanny X-Men. According to The Guinness World Records, X-Men #1, the 1991 spin-off series premiere that Lee drew and co-wrote with Chris Claremont, is the best-selling comic book of all time. His design approach was eventually adopted in the X-Men: The Animated Series. So it’s safe to say that he revolutionised the way artists draw comics, and animated shows.
Lee and a group of other artists founded ‘Image Comics’ in 1992 to publish their creator-owned publications, with Lee’s studio WildStorm Productions publishing series including WildC.A.T.s and Gen13.
Lee sold WildStorm to DC Comics in 1998, where he ran it as a DC imprint until 2010, while also illustrating successful titles set in DC’s main fictional universe, including as the year-long “Batman: Hush” and “Superman: For Tomorrow” storylines, and books such as Superman Unchained.
He has worked as a designer or creative director on various DC goods, including action figures, video games, and branded vehicles, in addition to drawing comics. Lee has produced record covers, and one of General Mills’ monster-themed cereals for its 2014 Halloween edition, in addition to comics.
Childhood 1864-1986
Jim Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, on August 11, 1964. He was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and had a “typical middle-class childhood” He was given a Korean name at birth, but when he became a naturalised American citizen at the age of 12, he selected the name Jim. Lee went to Chesterfield’s River Bend Elementary School and then to St. Louis Country Day School, where he designed play posters. Because of the fact that Lee had to learn English when he first arrived in the United States, he felt like an outcast.
As a result, Lee’s favourite characters were the X-Men, who were outsiders themselves, on the few times that his parents purchased him comic books. Lee claims that identifying with characters that were outsiders themselves, such as Spider-Man, or who were born into such backgrounds, such as Superman made him feel happy and comfortable. In his graduation yearbook, his classmates anticipated that he would start his own comic book firm. Despite this, Lee was set on following in his father’s footsteps into medicine, enrolling at Princeton University to study psychology with the goal of becoming a physician.
Jim Lee’s Medium?
For his pencil work, Lee is known to utilise F lead. Lee used a crowquill nib for the first time while inking his own drawings for The Punisher War Journal. Lee uses the drybrush technique to achieve greytone areas with an uneven texture when illustrating full page commissions or sketches, either by applying india ink to the paper and then rubbing it with a tissue, or by using a brush to fill in areas of black and then using the brush to effect drybrush effects after it is nearly depleted of ink. He uses a Pentel correction fluid pen to produce white highlights.
Jim Lee’s Rise to Fame
As Lee prepared to graduate in 1986, he enrolled in an art class that rekindled his love of drawing and led to his rediscovery of comics at a time when seminal works like Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen sparked a renaissance in the American comics industry. He chose to postpone applying to medical school after earning his psychology degree, and he won his parents’ hesitant approval by giving himself a year to succeed, promising that if he did not break into the comic book business in that time, he would go medical school. He sent out samples to a number of publications but had little luck.
Lee was determined that he wanted to exhibit his portfolio to editors in person after befriending St. Louis-area comics artists Don Secrease and Rick Burchett. This led Lee to visit a New York comics convention, where he met editor Archie Goodwin. Lee was recruited to Marvel Comics by Goodwin, where he earned his first assignment from editor Carl Potts, who engaged him to draw the mid-list series Alpha Flight before moving on to Punisher: War Journal in 1989. Artists such as Frank Miller, David Ross, Kevin Nowlan, and Whilce Portacio, as well as Japanese manga, influenced Lee’s work on the Punisher: War Journal.
Lee stood in for regular illustrator Marc Silvestri on Uncanny X-Men #248 in 1989, and then performed another guest appearance on issues 256–258 as part of the “Acts of Vengeance” storyline, before finally becoming the series’ ongoing artist with issue #267 after Silvestri’s departure. Lee met inker Scott Williams, who would become a long-time partner, during his time on Uncanny. Lee co-created the character Gambit with long-time X-Men writer Chris Claremont during his stint on the book.
Lee’s artwork rapidly developed a following among ardent fans, allowing him to take more creative control over the series. As both the artist and co-writer alongside Claremont, Lee helped begin a second X-Men series simply titled X-Men Volume 2 in 1991. According to a public announcement by Guinness World Records at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, X-Men Vol. 2 #1 is still the best-selling comic book of all time, with sales of over 8.1 million copies and almost $7 million.
The sales numbers were boosted in part by the issue’s inclusion of five different variations of covers, four of which feature different characters from the book that had a limited edition cover of that combined image, which was purchased in massive amounts by retailers anticipating fans and speculators who would buy multiple copies in order to obtain a co-signed copy. Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue, Psylocke, and Storm all wore new character costumes created by Lee for the series. Omega Red, the villain, was also developed by him.
BULLET POINTED (SUMMARISED)
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- Jim Lee, a well-known American Korean comic book artist, writer, editor, and publisher, he is now the co-publisher of DC Entertainment.
- Lee is one of the most famous and recognised creators in American comics, widely known for his extremely detailed and dynamic creative style.
- Lee has won a Harvey Award, an Inkpot Award, and three Wizard Fan Awards for his incredible work.
- He began his career as an illustrator for Marvel Comics in 1987, illustrating a wide range of series such as Alpha Flight and The Punisher War Journal before becoming well-known for his work on The Uncanny X-Men.
- According to The Guinness World Records, X-Men #1, the 1991 spin-off series premiere that Lee drew and co-wrote with Chris Claremont, is the best-selling comic book of all time.
- His design approach was eventually adopted in the X-Men: The Animated Series.
- So it’s safe to say that he revolutionised the way artists draw comics, and animated shows.
- Lee and a group of other artists founded ‘Image Comics’ in 1992 to publish their creator-owned publications, with Lee’s studio WildStorm Productions publishing series including WildC.A.T.s and Gen13.
- Lee sold WildStorm to DC Comics in 1998, where he ran it as a DC imprint until 2010, while also illustrating successful titles set in DC’s main fictional universe, including as the year-long “Batman: Hush” and “Superman: For Tomorrow” storylines, and books such as Superman Unchained.
- He has worked as a designer or creative director on various DC goods, including action figures, video games, and branded vehicles, in addition to drawing comics.
- Lee has produced record covers, and one of General Mills’ monster-themed cereals for its 2014 Halloween edition, in addition to comics.
Information Citations
En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.
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