South Korean immigrant Jae Lee moved to America with his parents in 1977, just 5 years after being born. Starting at Marvel Comics and getting his first big project on a story arc of Namor, The Sub-Mariner, Lee later went on to illustrate small arcs of Spider-man as well. Not too far into his career, he helped form Image Comics to help artists get a better deal for the characters they imagined and helped with a few comics before trying his hand at his own project, Hellshock. Although Hellshock didn’t come out as he wanted at first, he refined the product and released it in 1997 to continue into its final product in 2007. The earliest signs of Lee’s work with DC trace back to about 2000 when he started doing a slew of things for the comic company including but not limited to inking, penciling, and covers.
Comic fans are more than familiar with the works of Jae Lee in Batman, Superman, Batman/Superman, Uncanny X-men, and Spider-man. The Gallery from Jae Lee can be found on Jaeleeart.com and it is fascinating to see these larger-than-life examples of our favorite comic book heroes. Of course, we love seeing the comics in a lively and colorful representation, but in his gallery, we can find the raw examples of his pieces and possibly even some we aren’t used to seeing on the cover of comics. Jae Lee’s use of negative space highlights details admirably and the black and white theme adds a dark depth to all of the characters he draws up.
My personal favorite piece within the limited gallery on his website is a windowpane-looking affect both housing two different stories meeting together in the center on each end. Superman on one end and Batman on the other the sides depict happy children living admirable lives until their parents are tragically taken from them, causing them to take up the suit and begin to dedicate their lives to fighting evil. Such a powerful series of images detailing the shockingly similar and depressing backstories these two heroes have has been captured so well by Jae Lee in this instance that the message speaks volumes on the idea that no matter how amazing or strong one person may be, there was probably a series of situations that caused them to be that way.
If you found this deeper look into the comic artist Jae Lee’s work find his art website or follow him on Instagram at jaeleeart. Don’t forget to support your artistic friends and neighbors in their endeavors, and to keep creating yourself no matter what.
Jae Lee is an Eisner Award winning comic book artist.
Notable works
Stephen King’s Dark Tower
Inhumans
Batman/Superman
Spider-Man
Captain America
Before Watchmen: Ozymandias
Namor
Uncanny X-Men
X-Factor
The Sentry
Fantastic Four
Hellshock
WildC.A.T.S. Trilogy
Youngblood: Strikefile