Jae Lee sets his sights on comic stardom—again After forgoing monthly work almost four years ago, Jae Lee feared fans might have forgotten all about him, but with his next project, he’s about to jog their memory. After forgoing monthly work almost four years ago, Jae Lee feared fans might have forgotten all about him, but with his next project, he’s about to jog their memory. Take a quick look back at some of his more recent projects and it’s not hard to remember why Lee’s one of the top artists in comics today. Consider his collaboration with New X-Men’s Grant Morrison on Fantastic Four 1234 or The Sentry with Origin’s Paul Jenkins.

Check out some of Jae's work here!

Combine them with work such as Marvel Knights’ Inhumans series (also with Jenkins) and his most-impressive résumé begins speaking for itself.

For those who can’t wait to see what Lee has planned for 2003, his appearance on HSN will give everyone a chance to own some of the artist’s best work to date. First up, is Lee’s phenomenal Spider-Man Versus Sinister Six acetate lithograph featuring Spider-Man’s classic villains, including Doc Ock and Sandman, taking on the Web-Head. It’s signed by Jae with Jose Villarrubia and the man who helped define Spider-Man, artist John Romita Sr. Also premiering on the show will be Jae’s X-Men: Death of Phoenix acetate lithograph signed by him.

"I’ve got some cool stuff coming out soon," Lee says from his Manhattan studio about his upcoming comic book projects set for 2003. "I’m currently working on two exclusive comics for Dynamic Forces. One of them is a Darkness special written by Paul Jenkins, and the other is a Fathom special. I’m also doing an arc of Captain America with John Ney Rieber."

According to Lee, he and Ney Rieber plan to reinterpret Cap’s classic origin and it’ll be a story that fans will talk about for years to come. "The story’s called ‘Ice,’" explains Lee. "It was originally going to be a mini-series but now I think it’ll be issues #12-16 of the regular Captain America series. We’re kind of retelling Cap’s Silver Age origin—how he got into the ice and what he was thinking about while he was in the ice and what happened afterwards."

Under the Marvel Knights banner, Captain America has seen Ney Rieber team with Planetary’s John Cassaday and an upcoming arc with Cla$$war’s Trevor Hairsine. The tweaking of Cap’s classic origin and following such hot artist like Cassaday has Lee a little worried, according to the penciler.

"Captain America was one of my favorite characters growing up," gushes Lee. "It’s kind of scary having such an iconic character. But it’s tough to follow someone like John Cassaday on this book. He’s amazing."

Lee reveals one of his few hobbies is playing video games and as an artist, games like "Resident Evil" and "Grand Theft Auto 3" sometimes take precedence over work. But that’s the beauty of being a comic book artist—you can make your own schedule as long as you turn in your pages on time.

"Every day there’s something different about this job. And I love going to conventions and meeting fans. There aren’t many jobs where you get to meet people who say, ‘Hey, I love your stuff.’ But I also hate the isolation of working alone in a studio everyday. I envy guys who have their studios set up with a bunch of other artists. But then how are these guys playing video games and foosball and getting anything done? I’d goof off all day. I’d never get anything done in a studio setting."

When it comes to collaborations, there’s one name on almost every artist’s mind and Lee says he’s no different. According to the artist, he’d do almost anything, even give up being paid, to work with Watchmen and V for Vendetta writer, Alan Moore. But Lee says he doesn’t just want to work on anything with Moore; he wants to pencil Twilight of the Superheroes, what was supposed to be Moore’s follow-up to Watchmen in 1987 before he had a falling out with DC Comics. Even darker than Kingdom Come, Twilight of the Superheroes showed the DC Universe of the future ruled by superheroes on the verge of war.

"I think everyone would say Alan Moore, so put me on the list," chuckles Lee. "I don’t think the ABC line stuff would be my cup of tea but my dream project would be to draw Twilight of the Superheroes, his unpublished DC project. I’d almost do that for free. But I’m sure almost every artist would say the same thing."

Lee says he also has another dream project that may be a little easier than getting Moore and DC to patch up their differences—a Batman story. According to Lee, the Dark Knight’s a long time favorite of his dating back to childhood. And with the ability to have the dark and gritty style Batman deserves, Lee’s perfect for a tale in Gotham City.

"Batman’s my favorite character," muses Lee. "The costume’s so good and the dark nature of the character is so cool. It’s almost hard to draw him not looking cool, where other characters you have to work at making look cool. He’s a dream."

But longtime fans of Lee’s artwork may remember he’s changed his style considerably since his first work on Marvel Comics Presents in 1990 with writer Scott Lobdell.

"When I first started, I was heavily influenced by John Byrne," admits Lee, who eventually teamed with Byrne on Namor the Sub-Mariner. "I tried to draw just like him. Then I went through my Bill Sienkiewicz and Dave McKean phase. Now I’m really into guys like Sean Phillips and Jean Paul Leon. I tend to like the more realistic artist out there now."

And Lee plans to be one of the artists who sets the standard for art in 2003, and although he’s tight lipped, he did say big things are on the horizon.

"I might be doing a monthly book next year," says Lee. "But it’s too early to talk about. Soon though, soon."

Well, if you can’t wait for Jae’s new book, remember to look for him and Dynamic Forces President and founder Nick Barrucci on the Home Shopping Network at 7a.m., 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 24. While there won’t be an announcement of a new book, as Lee puts it, "When Nick’s involved, I’m pretty sure things will get crazy."

WRITER’S BIO: Mike Cotton is a staff writer for Wizard: The Comics Magazine. For more on the "X-Men" sequel and all the comic book news fit to print, check out Wizard on sale every month at comic book specialty shops and newsstands everywhere.