Operating for 25 years! Feature Guests, artists, MANY DEALERS with comic books (from .50 cent books, Golden Age, and Silver Age), and much more. Something for everyone!


JIM
SHOOTER




Hi I am Jim Shooter.


I do creative work. I create characters and write stories. I draw a little. Mostly, I just scribble ideas for people who draw a lot better.


From an early age, I loved comics. When I was twelve, I decided I wanted to be a comics creator. So, in addition to reading comics, I started trying to figure out why I liked some better than others. I studied both the good and the bad. I tried to analyze them and learn how to make comics that I would like.


It took a year till I thought I was ready to try. I created three stories, did rough-but-clear layouts for every panel, designed a cover for each issue and submitted them to DC Comics.


The editor at DC liked them. He especially liked that in those stories I created a dozen new characters. He bought them and published them. Here’s the first one published:





The stories I created and the dialogue I wrote were good enough to use, but at age 13, I wasn’t exactly a polished artist. The editor had accomplished, professional artists draw the stories, but they used my layouts and designs as the basis for the art.


After he bought those first ones, the editor began using me as a regular writer, layout artist and cover designer. I lived 400 miles away from New York, where DC was located, so all business was done over the phone or by mail. At first, the editor apparently thought I was a college student. When he discovered I was 14 (by that point), he said, “Put your mother on the phone.” My mother was onboard with the whole thing, so I worked my way through high school for DC.


Here’s another one of mine:



After high school, I branched out a little. I did advertising work for Lando/Bishopric, Inc. on the U.S. Steel account. Later, I did some work with Foote, Cone & Belding/Honig on the Levi’s account.



I became Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics in 1978. Marvel was dying and the rest of the comic book industry was dying worse. I got great people to work with me and we turned it around. Marvel soared. The whole industry turned around. If you build it, they will come.



I wrote and created not only for comics but also for animation, television, film, video games, and toys. I even got to design a Marvel float and the Spider-Man balloon for the Macy’s parade.



The best thing is that I got to work with all-time great creators, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, for instance. Stan Weston, Bernie Loomis, and Al Kahn for instance. Casablanca Record and Filmworks, Disney, TCFC, and the Hal Prince organization for instance. If you don’t know those names you don’t know comics, toys licensing, film, TV, and entertainment.


I listened to every word they said. I learned some of the Wisdom of the Ancients.


Never stop learning. After all this time, inside, I’m still that kid trying to figure things out.


Few things in life are as rewarding as creative work.


Be well.

Jim


Instagram.com/lvcc01



Lehigh
Valley
Comic
Convention



P.O. Box 24
Schnecksville, PA 18078