Jim Lee, South Korean-American author and illustrator
Jim Lee (Korean 이용철; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean American comic-book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. He is currently the 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.
He entered the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and The Punisher War Journal, before gaining popularity on The Uncanny X-Men. X-Men #1, the 1991 spin-off series premiere that Lee penciled and co-wrote with Chris Claremont, remains the best-selling comic book of all time, according to Guinness World Records. His style was later used for the designs of X-Men: The Animated Series.In the year 1992, Lee and several other artists formed their own publishing company, Image Comics, to publish their creator-owned titles, with Lee publishing titles such as WildC.A.T.s and Gen¹³ through his studio WildStorm Productions.
Finding that the role of publisher reduced the amount of time he was able to devote to illustration, Lee sold WildStorm in 1998 to DC Comics, where he continued to run it as a DC imprint until 2010, as well as illustrating successful titles set in DC's main fictional universe, such as the year-long "Batman: Hush" and "Superman: For Tomorrow" storylines, and books including Superman Unchained and the New 52 run of Justice League. On February 18, 2010, Lee was announced as the new Co-Publisher of DC Comics with Dan DiDio, both replacing Paul Levitz. Upon DiDio's departure from the company in February 2020, Lee became the sole Publisher of DC Comics. Since June 2018, he has also been the Chief Creative Officer (CCO) of DC Comics, replacing Geoff Johns.
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 of the comics industry, Lee has also designed album covers, and one of General Mills' monster-themed cereals for its 2014 Halloween edition.