James Shooter (born September 27, 1951)[2] is an American writer, editor and publisher for various comic books. He started professionally in the medium at the age of 14, and is known for his successful and controversial run as Marvel Comics' ninth editor-in-chief, and his work as editor in chief of Valiant Comics.
Early life
Jim Shooter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to parents Ken and Eleanor "Ellie" Shooter,[3][4] who are of Polish descent.[5] Shooter read comics as a child, though he stopped when he was about eight years old. His interest in the medium was rekindled in 1963, at the age of twelve, through the comics in the children's ward of a hospital where he stayed after undergoing minor surgery. He was impressed with the style of Marvel Comics, which had only begun publication two years earlier. Thinking that if he learned to write the types of stories that Marvel published, he would be an asset to DC Comics – whose books, Shooter felt, "needed the help" – Shooter spent about a year reading and studying comics from both companies.[6]
At age 13, in mid-1965, Shooter wrote and drew stories featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes, and sent them in to DC Comics. On February 10, 1966, he received a phone call from Mort Weisinger, who wanted to purchase the stories Shooter had sent, and commissioned Shooter to write Supergirl and Superman stories. Weisinger eventually offered Shooter a regular position on Legion, and wanted Shooter to come to New York to spend a couple of days in his office. Shooter, who was 14 and lived in Pittsburgh, had to wait until school was in recess, after which he went to New York with his mother,[6] spurred in part by the need to support his financially struggling parents.[7][8][9][10]
According to Shooter, his father earned very little as a steelworker,[11][12] and Shooter saw comic-book writing as a means of helping economically. Shooter reflected in a 2010 interview:
My family needed the money. I was doing this to save the house; my father had a beat-up old car and the engine died – this is before I started working for DC – and that first check bought a rebuilt engine for his car so he didn't have to walk to work anymore. I was doing this because I had to, working my way through high school to help keep my family alive.[6]
At 14, Shooter began selling stories to DC Comics, writing for both Action Comics and Adventure Comics, beginning with Adventure Comics No. 346 (July 1966),[13] and providing pencil breakdowns as well.[12] With considerable study of the writing style of DC Comics and of the recently rising Marvel Comics, Shooter created several characters for the Legion of Super-Heroes that benefited by him being one of the few writers at DC to understand the competitor's successful character-based narrative approach.[6] This included Legionnaires Karate Kid, Ferro Lad, and Princess Projectra, as well as the villainous group known as the Fatal Five. He also created the Superman villain the Parasite in Action Comics No. 340 (Aug. 1966).[14] Shooter and artist Curt Swan devised the first race between the Flash and Superman, two characters known for their super-speed powers, in "Superman's Race with the Flash!" in Superman No. 199 (Aug. 1967).[15] Shooter wrote the first issue of Captain Action (Oct.-Nov. 1968), which was DC's first toy tie-in.[16]
In 1969 Shooter was accepted into New York University, but after graduating from high school he successfully applied for a job at Marvel Comics. Unable to pursue both his studies and work for Marvel, he decided against going to New York University and quit working for DC as well.[17] While at Marvel he worked as an editor and occasional co-plotter, taking his residence at the YMCA, but after only three weeks his financial situation compelled him to give up the post and return home to Pittsburgh.[17]
After leaving Marvel, Shooter took up work in advertising concepts, writing, and illustration for several years, supporting himself through an assortment of menial jobs during periods when advertising work was unavailable. An interview for a Legion of Super-Heroes fanzine led to his again applying to both Marvel and DC. Though both companies offered him work, Shooter opted to return to DC because they had offered him more prestigious assignments: Superman and a chance to again write the Legion of Super-Heroes, now in their own book, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. However, his relationships with both Superman editor Julius Schwartz and Legion editor Murray Boltinoff were unpleasant, and Shooter claims that for varying reasons the two editors forced him to do a number of unnecessary rewrites. In December 1975, Marvel editor-in-chief Marv Wolfman called to offer him an editorial position.[17]
In the mid-1970s, Marvel Comics was undergoing a series of changes in the position of editor-in-chief. After Roy Thomas stepped down from the post to focus on writing, a succession of other editors, including Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, and Archie Goodwin, took the job during a relatively short span of time, only to find the task too daunting as Marvel continued to grow and add new titles and a larger staff to turn out material.[18] On January 2, 1976, Shooter joined the Marvel staff as an assistant editor and writer.[17]
With the quick turnover at the top, Shooter rapidly found himself rising in the ranks, and on the first working day of January 1978, he succeeded Archie Goodwin to become Marvel's ninth editor-in-chief.[19][20] 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. Although there were complaints among some that Shooter imposed a dictatorial style on the "Bullpen", he 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.[21] Shooter in his nine-year tenure as editor-in-chief oversaw Chris Claremont and John Byrne's run on the Uncanny X-Men,[22] Byrne's work on Fantastic Four,[23]Frank Miller's series of Daredevil stories,[24]Walt Simonson's crafting of Norse mythology with the Marvel Universe in Thor,[25] and Roger Stern's runs on both Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man.
In 1981, Shooter brought Marvel into the lucrative comic book specialty shop market with Dazzler #1.[26] Featuring a disco-themed heroine with ties to the X-Men (based upon an unmade film set to star Bo Derek),[27] the first issue of this series was sold only through specialty stores, bypassing the then-standard newsstand/spinner rack distribution route altogether, as recognition by Marvel of the growing comics shop sector. Subsequent issues of Dazzler, however, were sold through newsstand [returnable] accounts as well. Dazzler was the first direct sales-only ongoing series from a major publisher; other Marvel titles, such as Marvel Fanfare and Ka-Zar, soon followed.[21][28] Later that same year, Shooter wrote Marvel Treasury Edition No. 28 which featured the second Superman and Spider-Manintercompany crossover.[29] Additionally in 1981, Shooter was recognized as one of six "New Yorkers of the Year" by the New York chapter of the JayCees, for his "contributions toward revitalizing the comics industry and helping Marvel Comics achieve a new pinnacle of success."[3] Shooter also institutionalized creator royalties,[citation needed] starting the Epic imprint for creator-owned material in 1982; introduced company-wide crossover events, with Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions and Secret Wars;[30] and launched a new, albeit ultimately unsuccessful, line named New Universe, to commemorate Marvel's 25th anniversary, in 1986.[31]
Despite his success in revitalizing Marvel, Shooter angered and alienated a number of long-time Marvel creators by insisting on strong editorial control and strict adherence to deadlines.[18] Although he instituted an art-return program, and implemented a policy giving creators royalties when their books passed certain sales benchmarks or when characters they worked on were licensed as toys, Shooter occasionally found himself in well-publicized conflicts with some writers and artists. Creators such as Steve Gerber, Marv Wolfman,[32][33]Gene Colan,[33][34]John Byrne,[35] and Doug Moench left to work for DC (Encouraged by its new publisher, Jenette Kahn, aggressively taking advantage of the opportunity) or other companies.[32][36]
During Shooter's tenure, he enforced a policy forbidding the portrayal of gay characters in the Marvel universe.[37][38][39] According to John Byrne, he initially had to conceal Northstar's sexuality, since Shooter personally told him that portraying a gay character would not be allowed.[40][41] Marvel nonetheless published the first gay-themed story by a mainstream comics publisher during this time, written by Shooter himself; in it, two gay men attempt to rape Bruce Banner in the shower at the YMCA. The scene appeared in Rampaging Hulk magazine, #23.[39][42] Comics historian Frederick Luis Aldama says that Marvel under Shooter's tenure "was widely considered homophobic."[43]
Roy Thomas, who left Marvel following a contract dispute with Shooter, reflected in 2005 on Shooter's editorial policies:
When Jim Shooter took over, for better or worse he decided to rein things in – he wanted stories told the way he wanted them told. It's not a matter of whether Jim Shooter was right or wrong; it's a matter of a different approach. He was editor-in-chief and had a right to impose what he wanted to. I thought it was kind of dumb, but I don't think Jim was dumb. I think the approach was wrong, and I don't think it really helped anything.[44]
Shooter had been great for the first two or three years. He got the creative people treated with more respect, got us sent to conventions first-class with our ways paid, and we thought the world of him. Then his Secret Wars was a big hit, and after that he decided he knew everything and he started changing everybody's stuff.[45]
Shooter came along just when Marvel needed him — but he stayed too long. Having fixed just about everything that was wrong, he could not stop "fixing". Around the time I left to do Superman, I said that I thought Shooter and Dick Giordano should trade jobs — it was DC that needed fixing then -- and do so about every 5 years or so. Shooter had put Marvel into a place where all that was needed was a kindly father figure at the helm —- and that was not Shooter! ... Secret Wars ... was when the trouble really kicked into high gear.[46] We must never forget that SECRET WARS began as a toy promotion. ... Shooter turned it into a way to reshape the Marvel Universe in his image.[47]
Shooter was fired from Marvel on April 15, 1987.[48][49]
Shooter and his investors then founded a new company, Voyager Communications, which published comics under the Valiant Comics banner, entering the market in 1989 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. Another Gold Key character, Solar, Man of the Atom was also relaunched later in the same year. Shooter brought many of Marvel's creators to Valiant, including Bob Layton and Barry Windsor-Smith, as well as industry veterans such as Don Perlin. Valiant also established "knob row", in which creators were taught how to render the company's comics in the Valiant style.[50]
Occasionally over the years, Shooter was required to fill in as penciller on various books he wrote and/or oversaw as editor. During his period as Valiant's publisher, money and talent were often at a premium, and Shooter was sporadically forced to pencil a story. To conceal this fact, he drew under the pseudonym of Paul Creddick, which is the name of his brother-in-law.[51]
Defiant and Broadway Comics
After being ousted from Valiant in 1992,[52] Shooter and several of his co-workers went on to found Defiant Comics in early 1993.[53] Despite some initial success with the first title, the new company failed to secure an audience in the increasingly crowded direct sales market and went out of business after thirteen months of publishing.[54]
In 1995, Shooter founded Broadway Comics, which was an offshoot of Broadway Video,[55] the production company that produces Saturday Night Live, but this line ended after its parent sold the properties to Golden Books.[56] In 1998, he spoke of a planned self-publishing, Daring Comics, with a projected eight titles including Anomalies and Rathh of God, with artist Joe James scheduled to draw at least one.[57]
Shooter returned to Valiant, by now called Acclaim Comics, briefly in 1999 to write Unity 2000 (an attempt to combine and revitalize the older and newer Valiant Universes) but Acclaim went out of business after the completion of only three of the planned six issues.
In 2003, Jim Shooter joined custom comics company Illustrated Media as creative director and editor in chief.[58]
In 2005, former Marvel Comics letterer Denise Wohl approached Shooter to create Seven, a series based on the Kabbalah.[59] Writer Shooter created a team of seven characters, one from each continent, who are brought together in New York because they share a higher consciousness.[60] The project, which was to be self-published by Wohl, was announced at the 2007 New York Comic Con, to debut in July of that year, and was projected to "evolve into television and film projects, video games, blogs, interactive Q&A, animation, trading cards, apparel, accessories, [and] school supplies." Wohl was to donate a portion of her proceeds to the "Spirituality for Kids Foundation."[61] Only the first issue of the series has been published.[62]
In September 2007, DC Comics announced that Shooter would be the new writer of the Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 5 series, beginning with issue #37.[63] Shooter's return to the Legion, a little over 30 years from his previous run, was his first major published comic book work in years. Shooter co-created the new Legionnaire Gazelle with artist Francis Manapul while on the title. His run on the series ended with issue No. 49, one issue before the book was canceled.
Shooter was hired by Valiant Entertainment, a company that bought Valiant's intellectual property in a bankruptcy auction of Acclaim Entertainment, to write from the end of 2008 into the summer of 2009.[64]
In July 2009 Dark Horse Comics announced at San Diego Comic-Con that Shooter would oversee the publication of new series based on Gold Key Comics characters from the Silver Age of Comic Books, such as Turok, Doctor Solar, and Magnus: Robot Fighter, and write some of them as well.[65] Valiant sued Shooter over his moving to write the Gold Key characters for Dark Horse as they expected to get the rights and that he interfered with their ability to license the Key characters by indicating that he would write them for Dark Horse.[64] As of January 2010, Valiant had given up the lawsuit against Shooter.[66] He subsequently wrote the relaunched Magnus: Robotfighter, Turok and Dr. Solar series as well as Mighty Samson, another Gold Key character (that had not been picked up by Valiant Comics), for Dark Horse, beginning in 2010.
As of 2023, Shooter still works as consulting editor and freelance writer for custom comics company Illustrated Media.[67][68]
^Shooter, Jim (December 27, 2011). "Sex and Drugs – Part 2". JimShooter.com (official site). Retrieved December 27, 2012.
^ abShooter, Jim (March 11, 2011). "Regrets?". JimShooter.com (official site). Retrieved December 27, 2012. Deadlines. Had to sit there – the left end of the couch was my spot – sketch the pictures and write the words
^McAvennie, Michael (2010). "1960s". In Dolan, Hannah (ed.). DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 118. ISBN978-0-7566-6742-9. In his first-ever published story, fourteen-year-old Jim Shooter admitted four new members into the Legion of Super-Heroes ... Shooter's long, memorable tenure as one of the Legion's greatest writers was officially underway.
^McAvennie "1960s" in Dolan, p. 118: "With a story written by Jim Shooter and drawn by Al Plastino, the Parasite entered Superman's life."
^McAvennie "1960s" in Dolan, p. 124: "Since the dawn of comics' Silver Age, readers have asked 'Who's faster: Superman or the Flash?' Writer Jim Shooter and artist Curt Swan tried answering that question when the Man of Steel and the Fastest Man Alive agreed to the U.N.'s request to race each other for charity."
^Levitz, Paul (2010). 75 Years of DC Comics The Art of Modern Mythmaking. Taschen America. p. 420. ISBN978-3-8365-1981-6. Captain Action was DC's first toy tie-in title ... Editor Mort Weisinger ... brought in his young firebrand Jim Shooter to craft an identity and back story for the character.
^ abcdVaughn, J. C. (June 2009). "Jim Shooter's First Day at Marvel Comics". Back Issue! (34). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 14–19.
^Daniels, Les (1991). "The Marvel Universe (1978–1990)". Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics. Harry N. Abrams. p. 186. ISBN978-0-8109-3821-2. The controversial story ["The Dark Phoenix Saga"] created a sensation, and The X-Men became the comic book to watch.
^Daniels "The Marvel Universe (1978–1990)", p. 187: "In 1981 artist John Byrne left The X-Men to take on The Fantastic Four ... Byrne's approach worked, and it was a harbinger of things to come: throughout the 1980s popular artists turned themselves into writer-artists and dedicated themselves to reaffirming the appeal of Marvel's classic characters."
^Daniels "The Marvel Universe (1978–1990)", p. 188: "Few people have had more of an impact on the course that current comic books have taken than Frank Miller, who began drawing Daredevil in 1979, and took on the writing as well in 1981."
^Daniels "The Marvel Universe (1978–1990)", p. 196: "Walter Simonson, another major writer-artist came into his own at Marvel when he went to work on Thor in 1983 ... The stories that resulted exemplified Simonson's approach."
^DeFalco, Tom "1980s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 200: "Dazzler No. 1 sold 428,000 copies and proved that comic book stores were here to stay."
^DeFalco "1980s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 195: "Marvel made three of its monthly titles – Moon Knight, Micronauts, and Ka-Zar – 'direct only' and the company was soon creating new titles (for example, Marvel Fanfare ... that were reserved exclusively for comic book stores."
^Manning, Matthew K. "1980s" in Dolan, p. 194: "In an oversized treasury edition carrying a hefty $2.50 price tag, the Man of Steel paired for the second time with Marvel's iconic web-slinger ... The issue came together thanks to the script of writer Jim Shooter, a bit of plotting assistance by Marv Wolfman, the pencils of longtime Marvel luminary John Buscema, and a veritable fleet of inkers."
^DeFalco "1980s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 217: "The toy company Mattel produced action figures of Marvel's most popular characters ... Mattel just needed Marvel to come up with an editorial concept that would explain why all these characters had gathered together. The response of Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter was to publish the first company-wide crossover in the history of comics."
^DeFalco "1980s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 226: "The year 1986 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Marvel Universe ... [Jim Shooter] embarked on his most ambitious project: he would celebrate the birth of one universe by creating a brand new one."
"NYCC and Jim Shooter Interview" (Podcast). No. 22. Only The Valiant. February 18, 2009. Archived from the original on August 31, 2015. Retrieved August 31, 2015.{{cite podcast}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) of framing content around podcast.
Jim Shooter coverage and photo (as "James Schooter") in Cudlipp, Edythe (September 16, 1967). "Talent Unlimited". This Week. p. 6.
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