“I fell asleep twice while I was driving”: Jim Lee of DC Comics is having a hard time at work

Seems like Jim Lee is having a hard time balancing his work life. The seasoned comic book artist delved into the enduring appeal of iconic characters like Wonder Woman, Batman, and the Joker during an onstage interview at Lucca Comics & Games. He explored how their captivating stories and relatable struggles continue to resonate with readers, while also reflecting on the personal sacrifices he made as he ascended to the pinnacle of the comic book industry.

What did Jim share about the characters?

“Many people can connect with a character like Batman, who is very rooted in tragedy and that is overcoming something horrific that happened to him as a child.” Lee shared, “Certainly, when you’re having a bad day a character like the Joker speaks very much to you. You know you’re expressing these themes through the stories and the characters you draw, [and then] people understand you consciously and subconsciously.”

Next when Andrea Rock asked him how challenging it it to make the characters fit in the time, Jim said that he has no such thinking of working like that. ”Maybe this is a weird example but when I lived in Italy for a year back in 2003." Lee clearly stated, “I was drawing Superman for the story Tomorrow, a character that is a symbol of America. Back then, the [Second] Gulf War was happening, and protests in the streets of Reggio Emilia were taking place.”

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Previously Jim Lee worked on Marvel comics for 6 years. There he worked on the X-Men franchise, and later left Marvel in 1991, along with Todd McFarlane and Marc Silvestri, to form Image Comics.

Jim Lee's hard work-life

At the radio show, Jim admitted that working with such big corporations is quite hectic. It's literally impossible to balance his work life as his job pushed him to the edge. While sharing his Lowest point, the CCO shared that he fell asleep twice while driving, “I used to do that for two weeks but I fell asleep twice while I was driving. I was very mortified and embarrassed, and I realised how bad that was. Then I read an article about the worst thing you can do to yourself and this wasn’t smoking, drinking or taking drugs, but lacking sleep.”