I know a lot of you reading will have no idea who Jim Shooter is but if you are under about 60 years old he probably had a huge impact on your childhood even if you didn’t know.

Mr. Shooter was a comic book writer/creator and was the Editor in Chief of Marvel comics from 1978 to 1987. That is a big deal for not only comics but media in general. All of these marvel movies you see that have come out in the last 20 years? All of those are based on the most iconic stories from the histories of those IPs. Almost all written and created under Shooter’s eye. Major careers were started under his leadership of Marvel. He saved Marvel in that time. Not only that, he had a hand in the creation of the GI Joe and Transformers cartoons and character backgrounds.

I met Mr Shooter at a convention in 2019. He had a scrapbook and picture album with him at a table with photos and little things from his career. Amazing history that he let me flip through. He spent an hour talking to me and singed my Punisher Issue #1. The writer of the series, Mike Baron was also there ( Mike is a very far right , based guy BTW) and Baron and Shooter signed the book for me. A personal treasure. They personalized it, ruining its value for serious collectors but I don’t care. Shooter was NOT a case of ” never meet your heroes”.

A helluva nice guy and a legend who had an immeasurable impact on a Gen X fellow like myself. I don’t know if any 1 man was more influential in comics from the 1960s to the 2000s and by extension, most of the biggest IPs in media because of that. His impact can not be exaggerated. We are certainly diminished today.

Mr. Shooter had been quietly fighting cancer in his throat for some time and it took him yesterday. September 27, 1951 – June 30, 2025

P.S. Hopefully Marvel’s most legendary Editor will forgive my terrible writing and grammar in my tribute to him.