Jim Shooter, a giant of the comics industry, died Monday after a fight with esophageal cancer at the age of 73. Probably most comic and Transformers fans do not know who he is but he was a highly influential part of 1980s comics and foundational to the creation of Transformers. Influence that continues to this day. Reactions from the industry to his death can be found here.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he rekindled an interest in comics as a young teenager. At the age of 13, he started submitted his writing and artwork for the Legion of Super-Heroes to DC, where at the ripe old age of 14 he received work from DC Comics to write stories for Supergirl, Superman and eventually Legion. This was the beginning of a very long career in comics. While still working as a teenager at DC he multiple characters including the Parasite and the first race between Flash and Superman.
In 1969 he started working for Marvel as an editor and occasional co-plotter. He left to work for work elsewhere before returning to DC and then moving to Marvel as an editor again in 1975. Other comics legends tried to replace Roy Thomas including Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, and Archie Goodwin but all found it was a job they didn't like (if a comic fan, you know this is a murder's row of comics legends). This led to him becoming Marvel Editor-In-Chief in January 1978.
During his tenure that lasted until 1987 he oversaw the renaissance of the X-Men under Chris Claremont, believed to be a failed corner of Marvel but quickly becoming the Marvel standard. His other influence including Frank Miller's Daredevil run, a refocus on Thor, Roger Stern's Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man run. He started company wide crossover events with Contest of Champions and Secret Wars (that will influence the next two Avengers movies) and helped shepherd such significant story lines as Dark Phoenix, Days of Future Past and more.
It was during this time in the early 1980s, after the success of G.I. Joe toy line, comic and cartoon launch, Hasbro came to Marvel looking to launch their new line based on a bunch of different toy properties that they had licensed from Japanese company Takara. The result was a six page treatment that laid out all the huge beats we know about Transformers with Cybertron, Autobots vs Deceptions, the Ark, Optimus Prime and more. Its worth a read for any Transformers fan. Once the treatment was accepted as the start of the Transformers saga, Shooter eventually turned the assignment over to Bob Budiansky who created most of the characters, mythology, and names that are still part of the franchise today.
Shooter continued in the comics industry, founding Valiant Comics (Ninjak, X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, and more). He then founded now defunct Defiant Comics and Broadway Comics. Some of his last work was writing characters for Dark Horse Comics in the early 2010s. If you are interested, you can read his version of the "Secret Origin of Transformers" Part 1 and Part 2. Suffice it to say Transformers as we know them would not exist without Jim Shooter. Nor would the X-Men movies, TV series and so much more. A true comic legend.
Condolences to his family and friends on their loss.
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