Jeph Loeb - Comics Career

Comics Career

Loeb is known for his extensive use of narration boxes as monologues to reveal the inner thoughts of characters, though the character interactions he writes are sparse in terms of dialogue.

Jeph Loeb's first comic work was Challengers of the Unknown vol. 2 #1 - #8 (March -October 1991), which was the first of many collaborations with Tim Sale. Their later collaborations included the "Year 1"-centered Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween Specials; Batman: The Long Halloween, a 13-issue limited series; and Batman: Dark Victory, a 14-issue limited series set in the first years of the hero's career. The Long Halloween was one of three noted comics that influenced the 2005 feature film Batman Begins, the others being Batman: The Man Who Falls and Batman: Year One. Other Loeb-Sale collaborations at DC include the Superman for All Seasons limited series and Catwoman: When in Rome.

Loeb became the writer of Superman with issue #151 (Dec. 1999). His tenure on the title, largely drawn by Ed McGuinness, included the "Emperor Joker" and "Our Worlds at War" crossovers. He left Superman with issue #183 (August 2002). At the end of 2002, Loeb teamed with artist Jim Lee to create the year-long story arc "Batman: Hush", which spawned three lines of toys, posters and calendars, and sat at the #1 spot for eleven of the twelve months it was in publication. The following year, Loeb and McGuinness launched Superman/Batman. Loeb's run on the title spawned a new ongoing Supergirl series, and an animated film adapted from Loeb's "Public Enemies" story arc.

Also in 2006, it was Loeb who chose his hometown of Stamford, Connecticut to be subject to superhero destruction in the opening issue of Marvel's crossover event, Civil War.

In 2007, Jeph wrote the miniseries Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America, which used the five stages of grief as a motif to explore reactions of various characters of the Marvel Universe to the loss of the assassinated Captain America. The first issue ranked #1 in sales for April 2007, and the fifth and final issue, dated July 4, 2007, was the "Funeral for Captain America", which was covered by the Associated Press and The Washington Post.

Since signing an exclusive contract with Marvel in September 2005, Loeb has launched both The Ultimates 3 with artist Joe Madureira and Hulk with artist Ed McGuinness, in which he introduced the Red Hulk. Loeb has also worked on the five-issue miniseries Ultimatum with artist David Finch.

Loeb shares his writing studio, The Empath Magic Tree House, with Geoff Johns and Allan Heinberg.