James Charles Shooter (September 27, 1951 – June 30, 2025) was an American writer, editor and publisher in the comics industry. Beginning his career writing for DC Comics at the age of 14, he had a successful but controversial run as editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics, and launched comics publishers Valiant, Defiant, and Broadway.
Early life
Jim Shooter was born on September 27, 1951, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to parents Ken and Eleanor "Ellie" Shooter,[2][3][4] who were 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, while he recovered in a hospital after undergoing minor surgery. He was impressed with the style of Marvel Comics, which had begun publication only 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, he felt, "needed the help" – Shooter spent about a year reading and studying comics from both companies.
Career
DC Comics
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 editor 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 living 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.[6][7][8][9]
Illness and death
Shooter was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2024, and died of the disease at his home in Nyack, New York, on June 30, 2025. He was 73.[69][70]
Awards and recognition
- 1979 Eagle Award for Best Continuing Story (with George Pérez, Sal Buscema and David Wenzel for The Avengers No. 167, 168, 170–177)[71]
- 1980 Inkpot Award[72]
- January 2012 Inkwell Awards Ambassador (January 2012 – present)[73]
- Jim Shooter is the subject of a volume of the University Press of Mississippi's Conversations with Comic Artists series, published in 2017.
Bibliography
As writer unless otherwise noted.
Acclaim Comics
- Unity 2000 #1–3 (#4–6 unpublished) (1999–2000)
- The Valiant Deaths of Jack Boniface #1–2 (flip-book with Shadowman vol. 3 #3–4) (1999)
American Mythology Productions
- Bedtime Stories for Impressionable Children #1 (2017)
Beyond Comics
- The Writer's Block #1 (2001)
Broadway Comics
External links
References
- Inkpot Award retrieved September 12, 2020^
- John Jackson Miller. Comics Industry Birthdays Comics Buyer's Guide, June 10, 2005, retrieved December 12, 2010^
- Shooter, Jim. "Bullpen Bulletins", Marvel comics cover-dated August 1982.^