Popverse's top stories

• Justice Gang boss Maxwell Lord will appear in another DC Studios project soon, says Sean Gunn - but he can’t say which one
• The Marvel art that made Jim Lee a superstar is being collected in one massive book
• Magic: The Gathering is giving Liliana Vess the main-character treatment

In four years, Jim Lee went from an unknown to the biggest artist in American comics with Marvel's X-Men. After that, he got even bigger, but for many, his Marvel work is most ingrained in our minds: Alpha Flight, Punisher War Journal, Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four... heck, those X-Men trading cards alone! Lee recently called his Marvel era as a "dream," and now his Marvel era is being brought together in one book, titled Marvel Artist Archive: Jim Lee.

"Even though I worked at Marvel, I was working at home. I was in the art studio I shared with Whilce Portacio and my inker Scott Williams, and those early years - I say early years - I spent six years at Marvel, and the entire time I was there, it's like you were living out your dream," Lee said recently.

Marvel Artist Archive: Jim Lee will be a 300-page oversized (9" x 12") hardcover tome, published by Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide (PUG-W, for short) in partnership with Marvel Comics. This deal is no doubt due to PUG-W founder John Nee, who, low-key, has been one of the biggest power players in the modern superhero comics world, from being president of Jim Lee's WildStorm Productions in the '90s, a vice-president at DC in the '00s, and then being Marvel Comics' publisher from 2018 to 2021.

"I’ve had the great honor of working directly with Jim over the years, so I’ve experienced up close what a supreme level of talent he’s brought to the comics he’s worked on," Nee says. "So it’s a special thrill to be able to pay tribute to both the man himself and his amazing body of Marvel work in this special edition."

Marvel Artist Archive: Jim Lee will be written by former DC and Marvel editor Stuart Moore, who has gone on to write comic books and books about comics. Moore is said to be conducting interviews to go alongside the art showcase.

"Jim has been one of the finest, most accomplished, and versatile artists in the field for decades," says Moore. "With this book, people can see where it all began—and just how quickly he rose to superstar status."

Marvel Artist Archive: Jim Lee will be the first comprehensive collection of Lee's Marvel era work, and will be a great companion to the DC Comics: The Art of Jim Lee Vol. 1 previously released. This is the first in a series of deluxe art books by PUG-W and Marvel Comics, and although the next ones haven't been announced, the possibilities are the kind of thing you could spend all weekend thinking about (and I will!).

Marvel Artist Archive: Jim Lee will be taking pre-orders via Kickstarter launching July 14, and you can sign-up for the campaign right now.

The secret cross-country meeting Marvel did to try to win Jim Lee back from quitting for Image Comics.