Jim Lee

Jim Lee
Lee at a December 2019 signing for DC Comics: The Art of Jim Lee, Volume 1, at Midtown Comics in Manhattan
Born	(1964-08-11) August 11, 1964 (age 59) Seoul, South Korea
Nationality	Korean American
Area(s)	Writer, Artist, Publisher
Notable works	All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder Batman: Hush Fantastic Four vol. 2 The Punisher War Journal Superman: For Tomorrow Superman Unchained Justice League vol. 2 Uncanny X-Men WildC.A.T.s X-Men vol. 2
Awards	Harvey Award, 1990 Inkpot Award, 1992 Wizard Fan Award, 1996, 2002, 2003

Jim Lee (Korean: 이용철; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean-American comic-book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. As of 2023, he is the President, Publisher, and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics. In recognition of his work, Lee has received a Harvey Award, Inkpot Award and three Wizard Fan Awards.

Lee got his start in the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and The Punisher War Journal before becoming widely popular through his work on The Uncanny X-Men. On that book, Lee worked with writer Chris Claremont, with whom he co-created the character Gambit. That led to a 1991 spinoff series on which Lee and Claremont were the initial creative team. The debut issue, X-Men #1, which Lee penciled and co-wrote with Claremont, became the best-selling comic book of all time, according to Guinness World Records. Lee's style was later used for the designs of the X-Men: The Animated Series.^[1]

In 1992, Lee and several other artists founded the publishing company, Image Comics, to publish their creator-owned comics. Lee published titles such as WildC.A.T.s and Gen¹³ through his studio, WildStorm Productions.

In 1998, wanting to spend less time as a publisher and more time illustrating, Lee sold WildStorm to DC Comics, and ran WildStorm as a DC imprint until 2010. During this period, he also illustrated successful titles set in DC's main fictional universe, such as the year-long storylines "Batman: Hush" and "Superman: For Tomorrow"), books (including Superman Unchained), and the New 52 run of Justice League.

On February 18, 2010, it was announced that DC Comics had appointed Lee and Dan DiDio as its co-publishers (replacing Paul Levitz). In June 2018, Lee was also appointed the company's chief creative officer, replacing Geoff Johns. In February 2020, when DiDio left the company, Lee became its sole publisher.

Aside from illustrating comics, he has done work as a designer or creative director on other DC products, such as action figures, video games, branded automobiles and backpacks. Outside the comics industry, Lee has designed album covers, as well as the packaging of one of General Mills' monster-themed cereal boxes for its 2014 Halloween collection. His private convention sketches command high prices ranging up to thousands of dollars.