Jim Shooter

Appearing 25, 26, 27, 28

Jim Shooter – a true legend in the comic book industry – has been a writer, artist, editor, and publisher for nearly fifty years! He is the former Editor-in-Chief for Marvel Comics and Valiant Comics. His writing credits include The Avengers, Secret Wars, Secret Wars II, Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Legion of Super-Heroes, Superboy, Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Star Brand, World’s Finest Comics, Harbinger, Magnus: Robot Fighter, Solar: Man of the Atom, and X-O Manowar. Jim Shooter has created or co-created dozens of characters, including Archer & Armstrong, The Beyonder, Chemical King, Controllers, Emerald Empress, The Fatal Five, Ferro Lad, Graviton, Henry Peter Gyrich, Jocasta, Karate Kid, Laurel Kent, Mordru, Nemesis Kid, Paladin, The Parasite, Persuader Princess Projectra, Rond Vidar, Shadow Lass, Star Brand, Sun-Eater, Symbiote, Tharok, U-Foes, Universo, Validus, and The Wanderers. He came up with the original story for The Transformers and helped oversee the launch of G.I. Joe in the 1980s, contributing many of the major ideas and themes for the story.

At the age of 14, Shooter began selling stories to DC Comics, writing for both Action Comics and Adventure Comics, beginning with Adventure Comics #346 (July 1966) as well as providing pencil breakdowns. Shooter and artist Curt Swan devised the first race between the Flash and Superman – two characters known for their super-speed powers – with “Superman’s Race With the Flash!” in Superman #199 (Aug. 1967). Shooter also wrote the first issue of DC’s first toy tie-in comic, Captain Action (Oct.-Nov. 1968).

Shooter joined the Marvel staff in 1976 as an assistant editor and writer. In 1978, he succeeded Archie Goodwin to become Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief. During this period, publisher Stan Lee relocated to Los Angeles to better oversee Marvel’s animation, television and film projects, leaving Shooter largely in charge of the creative decision-making at Marvel’s New York City headquarters. Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, successfully managed to keep the line of books on schedule (ending the widespread practice of missed deadlines), added new titles, and developed new talent. Marvel enjoyed some of its best successes during Shooter’s nine-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief, including Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s run on the Uncanny X-Men, Byrne’s work on the Fantastic Four, Frank Miller’s series of Daredevil stories, Walt Simonson’s crafting of Norse mythology with the Marvel Universe in Thor, and Roger Stern’s runs on both The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man.

Shooter was a major proponent of the direct market and, in 1981, authorized Dazzler #1 as the first direct sales-only ongoing series from a major publisher. Other Marvel titles – such as Marvel Fanfare and Ka-Zar – soon followed. The same year Shooter wrote Marvel Treasury Edition #28 which featured the second Superman and Spider-Man inter-company crossover.

Shooter institutionalized Marvel’s art return and creator royalty programs. Rates for creators tripled under his tenure and he instituted a bonus system. He oversaw the creation of the Epic imprint for creator-owned material in 1982 as well as the launch of Marvel’s New Universe in 1986. He introduced company-wide crossover events, with Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions and Secret Wars.

In 1984, Shooter and Marvel became the first to collect and reprint popular comics storylines as stand-alone trade paperbacks with X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga and Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle. The practice is now the foundation of comics publishing in North America. Under Jim Shooter, Marvel Comics had its best sales since the 1960s.

Following his departure from Marvel, Shooter and a group of investors founded a new company, Voyager Communications, in 1989. Voyager published comics under the Valiant Comics banner, entering the market with comics based on Nintendo and WWF-licensed characters. Two years later, Valiant entered the superhero market with a relaunch of the Gold Key Comics character, Magnus: Robot Fighter. Valiant stormed onto the market, selling more than 80 million books in its first five years. Its characters have seen print in numerous languages across the globe and have been featured in best-selling video games. With the new company enjoying great success in the direct market, Shooter was ousted in a corporate dispute, sparked when his partners – who were predominately venture capitalists – expressed their desire to sell the company. There was also a dispute about the number of titles Valiant should publish. Shooter felt that he could not control the quality of more than ten titles at a time, since he insisted on personally editing each title, while his partners believed that more titles would bring in additional profit. Following his departure from Valiant in 1992, Shooter founded Defiant Comics in 1993, and Broadway Comics in 1995.

Over the past few years, Shooter has lent his skills to writing The Legion of Super-Heroes for DC Comics (#37-49), and oversaw the Gold Key relaunch at Dark Horse Comics (Turok, Doctor Solar, Mighty Samson and Magnus: Robot Fighter).

Jim Shooter will be appearing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He will be located in Booth # 507.