Jim Lee, who has been acting as publisher and chief creative officer at DC 2018, has been named President of the storied comics publisher. Lee, who made a name for himself at DC’s cross-town rival Marvel in the early ’90s, was a founding member of Image Comics, a publisher founded by seven former Marvel and DC artists in 1992. At Image, each of the founders had their own publishing imprint, with Lee’s being Wildstorm, a brand that he brought to DC in 1998. He has been working with DC since, both as one of the best-selling artists of his generation and as an editor and executive.
The announcement was made today by Pam Lifford, President of Global Brands, Franchises, and Experiences at Warner Bros. Discovery, to whom Lee will continue to report. Lee will continue in his primary duties as Publisher at DC Comics, and also leads creative efforts to integrate DC’s publishing portfolio of characters and stories across all media, supporting Warner Bros. Discovery’s family of brands and studios.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Lee joined DC in 1998 and has overseen many of the company’s highly successful publishing programs, including the recent record-breaking Rebirth line of comics and The New 52 initiative that relaunched the entire line of monthly superhero comic books. As part of the revamp, Lee designed and reimagined the new, more contemporary costumes for some of the DC universe’s most iconic characters, including Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.
Under Lee’s leadership, DC also successfully launched same-day digital comics, which was seen as revolutionary when it happened in 2011. The company has more recently rolled out DC Universe Infinite, a subscription service for digital comics which allows readers to pay a single, monthly rate and have access to decades of DC’s most popular titles.
Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea but moved with his family to St. Louis, Missouri, when he was young. He holds a BA in Psychology from Princeton University and started his professional career at Marvel Comics, where he drew X-Men #1, which continues to hold the all-time record for single-issue sales of a comic book.
In recent years, Lee has spent so much time managing the company that his sequential art has all but vanished from DC’s pages. Still, his variant covers remain hot commodities, and catalog titles like Batman: Hush and The New 52 Justice League reboot are some of DC’s best performers in trade paperback. Lee’s most recent artwork was on a t-shirt sold for charity at Zack Snyder’s “Full Circle” event, which was a screening of the filmmakers “Justice League Trilogy.”
