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| Comic book Renessaince man: Jim Lee Image Source: DC Comics.com |
Few in the comic book industry have enjoyed the level of success that has been attained by the legendary Jim Lee. Lee began his journey to comic book superstardom with successful runs penciling Marvel Comics' Alpha Flight (1983) and Punisher War Journal (1988). These seminal art stints allowed Lee to land his breakout job as the penciler of Uncanny X-Men (1963). Lee's art was so in demand that he was chosen, along with iconic X-scribe, Chris Clairmont, to launch a second monthly title for the ultra-popular mutant team, which was the adjectiveless X-Men (1991). Due in large part to Lee's art (plus five interlocking covers and a rampant speculator market) X-Men #1 sold 8.1 million copies, earning a Guinness World Record in the process.
Feeling as though he was not properly compensated for his contribution to Marvel's bottom line (and make no mistake, he was not), Lee joined a band of other like-minded Marvel artists to form Image Comics. Lee's initial Image contributions were WildC.A.T.S.: Covert Action Teams (1992), Stormwatch (1993), Deathblow (1993), and Gen13 (1994). Lee and his Image compatriots were more in-demand than ever, so much so that Lee was wooed back to Marvel to launch a new volume of Fantastic Four (1996).
Lee would eventually separate his Image properties from the rest of the Image line by forming the WildStorm Universe. In addition to revamping his WildCATS and Stormwatch titles, Lee recruited A-list talents such as writer Warren Ellis and artist Bryan Hitch to create the new comics sensation known as the Authority, a super-hero team that adopted a "by any means necessary" approach to super-heroics. By 1999, the managerial responsibilities at WildStorm kept Lee from creating comics so he sold the WildStorm line to DC Comic. While DC initially published the WildStorm line separately from the main DC titles, in 2007, following the events of Infinite Crisis (2005) and 52 (2006), the WildStorm Universe officially joined the DC Multiverse as its Earth-50. After the multiverse-altering events of Flashpoint (2011), the WildStorm Universe was merged with the prime DC Universe and segments of the Vertigo line to form the New 52's Earth-0. But in 2017, Lee and DC once again enlisted Warren Ellis to write and curate a new parallel universe line of comics based on Lee's WildStorm Universe anchored by the new title, The Wild Storm (2017).
Lee currently serves as Co-Publisher and Cheif Creative Officer of DC Comics and still provides art for special DC projects. In recent years, Lee also has taken to Twitter and Twitch to live-stream sketching sessions for fans. Posted below is one of these sessions from 2017 featuring Lee sketching and inking the likenesses of Marvel Comic's Doctor Doom and the Punisher, followed by our very own Deathstroke the Terminator. The video itself runs over two-and-a-half hours and is well worth viewing it in its entirety just to watch a true master in action. But if you are only interested in watching Lee bring Deathstroke to life, advance the video to the 1:44:20 mark. Enjoy!
