Jim Shooter also started the Marvel Graphic Novel line.
http://www.comics.org/series/2658/covers/ Although I believe Eclipse's SABRE (by Moench/Gulacy) in 1978 was the first actual U.S. graphic novel, followed by some collections from Heavy Metal, before Marvel released Starlin's DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL in late 1981.
I was equally if not more blown away by the second Marvel graphic novel, ELRIC (by Roy Thomas and Craig Russell), in early 1982.
And likewise Starlin's painted DREADSTAR graphic novel later in 1982.
These three set a high benchmark. And there were other great graphic novels from Marvel after, but beyond that they were not as consistently good, and became more hit-and-miss.
Graphic novels were another nice innovation on Shooter's watch, that was contracted with creator ownership on any new characters created in their graphic novel stories.
(At that point many creators were flocking to Pacific and Eclipse to do creator-owned work. And I don't know the precise order, but Shooter may have presented creator rights through EPIC ILLUSTRATED and the Marvel Graphic Novels because he believed in creator rights, or just because he was was struggling to offer competitive royalties.)
