Jim Lee, the comics artist turned comics executive, has been promoted to President of DC Comics, a role he will reportedly combine with his current position as Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of the renowned comics brand.
Jim Lee's new role in DC Comics will see him "continue to lead the creative efforts to integrate DC’s publishing portfolio of characters and stories across all media, supporting the brands and studios of WBD." This is in addition to his primary role as Publisher, which sees him direct the brand’s creative teams.
According to Deadline, the former comics artist will continue to report to Pam Lifford, Warner Bros. Discovery’s President of Global Brands, Franchises, and Experiences.
Lee, born in Seoul, South Korea, studied for a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology at Princeton University before venturing into the comics industry. He began his career as an artist at Marvel Comics in 1987 where his work on the X-Men brand broke, and continues to hold, the all-time sales record for single-issue sales. However, in the early 1990s, he exited the company to form a new publisher, Image Comics, alongside a few fellow creators.
Lee joined DC Comics in 1998 after he sold his imprint under Image Comics named WildStorm Productions to DC. In the wake of the acquisition, Lee was handed an executive role and he has not looked back since then. Over the years, he has had a hand in several of DC’s success stories.
For one, he headed two of the company’s highly successful publishing programs Rebirth and The New 52. Under his watch, the Rebirth comics line broke numerous records in the comics publishing industry and The New 52 re-established a line of monthly superhero comic books. Lee helped redesign costumes, with a contemporary outlook, for the brand’s most iconic characters Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman.
Lee is also responsible for the expansion of DC Universe Infinite, the company’s digital subscription service, to international markets. Given the former artist’s impact, there is no doubt he is well-placed to lead the company into a new era where its characters and products are poised to get even more attention than ever before.
Given the recent changing of the guard at DC Studios, with James Gunn and Peter Safran coming on as co-CEOs, there is hardly a better time for Lee to take the helm of the company he has contributed so much to over the years.
In other DC-related news, Joker: Folie à Deux recently wrapped up filming which bodes well for its October 2024 release. Also, last month, James Gunn confirmed that Frank Grillo, David Harbour, Steve Agee, Zoe Chao, and Alan Tudyk, among others, will have voice acting roles in the studio’s upcoming animated venture Creature Commandos.
