NEW YORK - Jim Shooter, a hard-driving giant of a comic-book editor who took the helm at Marvel at the tender age of 27, then spent nearly a decade revolutionising the way superhero stories are written, drawn and sold, died on June 30 in his home in Nyack, New York. He was 73.

His son Ben confirmed the death but did not specify a cause. Shooter was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2024.

Powerfully built, with a looming 2m frame, Shooter dominated the comic-book world for much of the 1980s, reinvigorating an art form that had been in decline by finding new markets and new readers.

Although he was not yet 30 when he took over at Marvel in 1978, he was already an industry veteran. He sold his first comic story to DC, Marvel’s rival, when he was just 14, and he worked for both companies while still a teenager.

As editor-in-chief at Marvel, he rationalised what had been a chaotic operation, instituting a coherent editing process and driving his staff to meet deadlines. He pushed into the growing comic-store market, targeting dedicated fans over the casual reader.

And he drove the company further into licensing opportunities, signing the sort of deals for toy and film adaptations that went on to make comics an enduring keystone of American popular culture.

“I honestly think he saved the comics industry,” Mr Harry Broertjes, a journalist who once worked with Shooter, said in an interview.

Shooter could be imperious, but he could also be generous, and he welcomed new talent to the Marvel fold.

Emerging voices such as Frank Miller and Walter Simonson flourished under his watch, bringing a new, more sophisticated sensibility to the genre. He increased pay rates for writers and artists and gave them more control over their creative output.

Marvel prospered in the 1980s. Not only did its sales and profits soar, but it also experienced a long run of landmark releases, among them Simonson’s work on Thor; Miller’s work with Klaus Janson on Daredevil; and Chris Claremont and ...