Jim Lee's ICONS Art Book

When I was 9 years old, I noticed that kids would come to school with binders full of comic cards. I would watch them make deals with each other before, during, and after school; and I had to get in on the action. Usually, a kid would call dibs on his favorite comic character, and you knew you couldn't trade for certain cards in a kid's collection. All the kids liked Wolverine and Spiderman, but my favorite character (and still is today) was Gambit. It was easier for me to get what I wanted.

A year later, my school banned comic cards; and the kids moved onto comicbooks. So I ventured deeper into the comicbook store, and bought my first comicbook - X-Men #21. Gambit looked grittier than his usual suave appearance, so I became more curious about back issues that the animated cartoon was based off of. Next, I bought X-Men #8 with Bishop, Gambit, and Rogue on the cover, drawn by none other than Jim Lee himself. I was so impressed with art that I had to buy all of the other Jim Lee issues.

For the next few years, I bought X-Men, WildC.A.T.s, Stormwatch, and other comicbooks. Whatever Jim Lee was drawing at the time, I was reading it. But once I reached high school, I grew tired of collecting.

During my senior year of high school, I got serious about drawing, and referred to all my old comic books as supplement. Since then, I've been buying comicbooks here and there, trying to become a more versatile artist.

With the release of ICONS: The DC and Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee, I can die happy. This is a collected anthology of Jim Lee's work from 1992 to 2010, after drawing for Marvel Comics. The book contains many of Lee's pencil drawings and sketches; and it's divided by the various book titles that Lee had worked on. I only wished it had dived deeper into Lee's drawing process. Enjoy the images...