Jim Lee Shares His Old Rejection Letters From Marvel And DC

Before he became Co-Publisher of DC Comics -- before WildStorm,  Batman: Hush, Image Comics, and an immensely successful run on the X-Men -- Jim Lee was a kid from St. Louis who wanted to draw comics. He worked hard to break into the industry and, all things considered, you could say his efforts worked out okay for him. But like nearly any other aspiring young artist, Lee had his share of hurdles to climb, as evidenced by the old rejection letters from Marvel and DC that he recently posted on Instagram.

The postings were noticed by Marvel Comics: The Untold Story author Sean Howe, who published the ones from Marvel on his Tumblr. Lee, an avid comic reader throughout his childhood, went to college with designs on becoming a doctor, until he took an art class his senior year and decided he wanted to be a comic artist. That led to him sending in submissions to both DC and Marvel, which in turn led to more than one letter of rejection, and not all of them were kind:

Here's a more positive one, from revered DC Comics artist and editor Dick Giordano:

And there are more where that came from. So if you're an aspiring artist, and you've received a few of these, as hard as it may be to do so, we suggest you not get discouraged. Who knows? Maybe you'll be running DC someday.