On the heels of the GINORMOUS news of gobsmacking importance that's ROCKING the comics world—the fact that art legend Jim Lee and editorial overlord Dan DiDio will be co-publishers of DC Comics—we here at Complex HQ have chosen to bless you with a gang of glorious images rendered by the dextrous Korean. We would post an homage to the brilliant Dan DiDio too but editing is an unsung but labor-intensive work that will sadly remain unsung for at least another day (sorry Dan!). Peep our exhaustive (and awesome) gallery, as well as a primer on Jim Lee...
For those unfamiliar with Jim Lee's contributions, here's a quick stat rundown of his storied career:
• Graduated from Princeton University with plans to attend medical school in 1986 but deferred to pursue illustration and to presumably break the hearts of his Asian parents.
• Hired at Marvel shortly thereafter to work on Alpha Flight and The Punisher: War Journal. He would then go on to fill in for Marc Silvestri on Uncanny X-Men which is about the time the shit hit the fan and his following grew to bonkers proportions.
• His tenure on X-Men set the still unbroken record for selling 8 million single-issue copies in ONE MONTH.
• In 1992, Lee started his own production company, WildStorm Productions, and co-founded Image Comics. Image would ultimately become the number-three North American comics publisher with their popular WildCats and Spawn titles.
• In 1998, Lee leaves Image, sells Wildstorm to DC but remained as Editorial Director until he got the sickest job ever this morning.
• Lee straight MURDERS DC titles such as the insanely good Batman: Hush, All Star Batman and Robin, and Superman: For Tomorrow.
• He also served as Executive Creative Director for the highly anticipated upcoming DC Universe Online multiplayer action game from Sony Online Entertainment.
Now with little regard to chronology or interests in segregating Marvel vs. Image vs. DC (because we love harmony, word to hot ambiguous ethnic chicks!), here's our salute to Jim Lee. Salud!
All Star Batman and Robin #1
CLICK NEXT TO SEE MORE CLASSIC JIM LEE WORK
john February 18th, 2010 at 06:49 PM
Uncanny X-Men #277 was the first comic I remember buying with my own money. I traced the shit out of that cover!
Erick February 18th, 2010 at 06:54 PM
two errors in an otherwise great homage to the legendary Jim Lee. The GEN13 cover is by J.Scott Campell I believe the Gambit cover is by one of the Kubert brothers. Either way, good job on honoring one of the finest of the modern era, Complex.
LA Nice February 18th, 2010 at 10:21 PM
WildC.A.Ts #1 was a great cover as well
riff raff February 19th, 2010 at 10:38 AM
I know you guys aren't really a comics based mag/website but you put together a good list. I could think of a few better images. One being is pull out image of the batcave in an issue of All Star Batman and Robin and also a scene from Hush with Nightwing and Batman in the Batcave. Yeah I'm a comic nerd! Good looking out though. I'd like to see more comic news integrated into the site.
Daniel February 19th, 2010 at 01:35 PM
That Captain America cover is also not Jim Lee--it's Rob Liefield.
Dale February 19th, 2010 at 05:06 PM
The Captain America cover was done by Jim Lee
Dan February 19th, 2010 at 07:47 PM
Dale - pretty sure that Captain America piece is a Rob Liefeld homage by Jim Lee -- look to his signature in the corner.