Bruce Lee has been portrayed in comics form in bothcomic books andsyndicated newspaperstrips.
Issue #28 of theMagazine Management black-and-white comics magazineThe Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (Sept. 1976) was an all-Bruce Lee special, including a 35-page comic-format biography written byMartin Sands, and drawn byJoe Staton andTony DeZuniga.
Al Davison produced a 32-pageone-shot titledBruce Lee: the Elusive Dragon, released by Warrior Publications in 1983.
| Bruce Lee | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Malibu Comics[1][2] |
| Publication date | 1994 |
| No. of issues | 6 |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Mike Baron |
| Artist | Val Mayerik |
| Collected editions | |
| Bruce Lee | ISBN 978-1852866136 |
Bruce Lee is a 1994 six-issuecomic book miniseries published byMalibu Comics and written byMike Baron and illustrated byVal Mayerik. It focused on a fictionalBruce Lee character striving his way through gangs and rivaldojo owners, while building a movie career. Malibu included aMortal Kombat short story in the first and fifth issues.[1]
Writer Mike Baron had previously written three issues of theGreen Hornet comic published byNOW Comics, about Lee'sKato in the 1966TV show. Val Mayerik had previously illustrated the second Kato limited series (also published by NOW). Baron states inspiration for the comic came from the 1970sMarvel Comics seriesShang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu.[3]
Titan Books collected the miniseries into a trade paperback, simply titledBruce Lee, in 1995. The publisherEdizioni Star Comics translated the series into Italian for its ongoing seriesMortal Kombat & Bruce Lee, published in 1995–1996.
In 2013,Bluewater Productions publishedTribute: Bruce Lee, a one-shot comic book biography written by Chris Canibano and illustrated by Joon Han.
In 2016,Magnetic Press published four issues ofBruce Lee: The Dragon Rises, co-written by Lee's daughterShannon Lee andJeff Kline, and illustrated by Brandon McKinney. The fictional story takes places in 2012 with Bruce Lee escaping from a science lab.[4]
In 2018, Magnetic Press/Darby Pop Publishing released the one-shotBruce Lee: The Walk Of The Dragon, also written by Shannon Lee.
| The Legend of Bruce Lee | |
|---|---|
| Author | Sharman DiVono |
| Illustrator(s) | Fran Matera Dick Kulpa |
| Current status/schedule | Daily and Sunday; concluded |
| Launch date | May 23, 1982 |
| End date | 1983 |
| Syndicate(s) | Los Angeles Times Syndicate |
| Genre | Martial arts adventure |
TheLos Angeles Times Syndicate launchedThe Legend of Bruce Leecomic strip, featuring fictional stories about the deceased actor andmartial artist, in May 1982.
The syndicate had originally approached veteran comic strip creatorsMilton Caniff andNoel Sickles about doing a Bruce Lee strip in 1978. The project never got off the ground, and five years later the syndicate tried again.[5]
Intended for "downscale, . . . very young audiences",The Legend of Bruce Lee was intended to "help boost newspaper circulation by attracting younger or less well-educated readers who don't normally read newspapers".[6] It was written by Sharman DiVono (who herself had martial arts training),[7] and illustrated byFran Matera[8] (with uncredited assists fromDick Kulpa).
The Legend of Bruce Lee only ran until late 1982 or early 1983.[5]
The strips were collected by Nostalgia World in 1983 in two 24-page magazine-sized issues.[9]
