Jim Shooter

James Shooter (born September 27, 1951) 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.

Jim Shooter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to parents Ken and Eleanor "Ellie" Shooter, who are of Polish descent.

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.

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, spurred in part by the need to support his financially struggling parents.

According to Shooter, his father earned very little as a steelworker, and Shooter saw comic-book writing as a means of helping economically.

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), and providing pencil breakdowns as well.

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.

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).

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).

Shooter wrote the first issue of Captain Action (Oct.-Nov. 1968), which was DC's first toy tie-in.

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.

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.

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 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.

In December 1975, Marvel editor-in-chief Marv Wolfman called to offer him an editorial position.

On January 2, 1976, Shooter joined the Marvel staff as an assistant editor and writer.

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.

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), add new titles, and developed new talent.

Shooter in his nine-year tenure as editor-in-chief oversaw Chris Claremont and John Byrne's run on the Uncanny X-Men, Byrne's work on 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 Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man.

In 1981, Shooter brought Marvel into the lucrative comic book specialty shop market with Dazzler #1.

Featuring a disco-themed heroine with ties to the X-Men (based upon an unmade film set to star Bo Derek), 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.

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."