Leave Jim Lee Alone! The Jim Lee Art Commission Debate of 2024! How Much Should an Artist Charge?

Jim Lee's agent stirred up a hornet's nest of insanity this week, when he released a list of prices that the great artist Jim Lee charges for his commissioned work. Let's dig into it!

Jim Lee (Korean: 이용철; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean-American comic-book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. He is currently the president, publisher and chief creative officer of DC Comics. In recognition of his work, Lee has received a Harvey Award, an Inkpot Award and three Wizard Fan Awards.

Lee got his start in the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and The Punisher War Journal before becoming widely popular through his work on The Uncanny X-Men. On that book, Lee worked with writer Chris Claremont, with whom he co-created the character Gambit. That led to a 1991 spinoff series for which Lee and Claremont were the initial creative team. The debut issue, X-Men #1, which Lee penciled and co-wrote with Claremont, became the best-selling comic book of all time, according to Guinness World Records. Lee's style was later used for the designs of the X-Men: The Animated Series.

In 1992, Lee and several other artists formed a publishing company, Image Comics, to enable them to publish their own work; Lee published titles such as WildC.A.T.s and Gen13 through his studio, WildStorm Productions.

In 1998, wanting to spend less time as a publisher and more time illustrating, Lee sold WildStorm to DC Comicsand ran WildStorm as a DC imprint until 2010. During this period, he also illustrated successful titles set in DC's main fictional universe, such as the year-long storylines "Batman: Hush" and “Superman: For Tomorrow"), books (including Superman Unchained), and the New 52 run of Justice League.

On February 18, 2010, it was announced that DC Comics had appointed Lee and Dan DiDio as its co-publishers (replacing Paul Levitz). In June 2018, Lee was also appointed the company’s chief creative officer, replacing Geoff Johns. In February 2020, when DiDio left the company, Lee became its sole publisher.

Aside from illustrating comics, Lee has worked as a designer or creative director of DC Comics’ video games and merchandise, such as branded action figures, toy cars, and backpacks.

Outside the comics industry, Lee has designed album covers, as well as the packaging for one of General Mills' monster-themed cereals (part of its 2014 Halloween collection).

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