X-Men Illustrator Dies After Fighting Diabetes

spooydermot

X-Men Illustrator Dies After Fighting Diabetes
2006-11-28 21:08:20 GMT


The illustrator of X-Men comics died Sunday curled up in his favorite chair, wearing his Superman pajamas. Dave Cockrum, who drew many of the X-Men characters, was 65. He died after a long battle with diabetes. At his request, there will be no public service and his body will be cremated with his ashes spread over his property.
Megan Shannon - All Headline News Staff Writer

(AHN) - The illustrator of X-Men comics died Sunday curled up in his favorite chair, wearing his Superman pajamas.

Dave Cockrum, who drew many of the X-Men characters, was 65. He died after a long battle with diabetes. At his request, there will be no public service and his body will be cremated with his ashes spread over his property.

But just because there might not be a service, that will not stop people from saying nice things about the man who deeply loved his job.

Family friend Clifford Meth said Cockrum loved his job so much that he cried when he first saw the first X-Men film. He did not receive movie royalties but he was so happy to see his characters come to life.

"He cried because his characters were on screen and they were living," he said. "He had a genuine love for comics and for science fiction and for fantasy, and he lived in it. He loved his work."

Cockrum started out at DC Comics and then moved to Marvel in the 1970s. He was able to refurbish the X-Men comic after other artists failed to grip readers with stories of a group of mutants.

Cockrum designed and co-created X-Men heroes like Storm, Mystique, Nightcrawler and Colossus.

ztoical

Always been a huge Cockrum fan and its sad to hear about his passing. I think I'll be spending tonight curled up on the couch with my copy of "art of dave cockrum" and thinking of the artists who brought us the fuzzy elf.

Some nice comments and tributes to Dave over at the Nightscrawlers forum

Mr. K

Reading Giant Sized X-Men #1 always gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling. Sad to hear of his passing.

qwertplaywert

god that was a great comic we will miss you

what has he done in recent times?

I shall miss him. He was a fine artist who deserved greater acclaim.

qwertplaywert

ANYONE FOR my q?

the Shades

He hasn't really done anything, he found it really difficult to get regular or any work at Marvel and DC in the past few years and was generally treated very badly. He was notably upset when Joey Q referred to artists of his generation as fossils. He might have been involved in some independant or creator owned projects but I can't really remember. His illness stopped him working for a long time.

qwertplaywert

i like joe quarusa.......

ztoical

like shades mentioned he hasnt worked for the past few years [pretty much from 2002 onwards] due to his illness. He took a real bad turn in 2004 and a number of creators got together to raise money at the 2004 wizard world con and the same year "the uncanny dave cockrum...a tribute" art book was realeased [nice book if your a fan of his work]

As for marvel treating him badly, maybe Joe Q did but then he is a huge prick [and one of the reasons I've really gone off "mainstream" books]
In 2004 Marvel actually compensated him for his work in co-creating the uncanny X-Men. he was also asked to draw some pages for giant size xmen last year but he was taken ill again and never recovered.

qwertplaywert

how is joe q a big prick?

ztoical

qwertplaywert wrote:

how is joe q a big prick?

I was tempted to just type cus he is and leave it at that . I don't like his attitude to freelance artists, don't like his attitude to female creators and just listening to him talk about comics and the industry puts me off marvels books. its like talking to a used car salesman.

constitutionus

got astonishing xmen today and theres a full page given over to his memory in the book. dont know if its across all the marvel books but it seems fitting to have something in the X books

the Shades

The same tribute is in the pages of X-men, might just be in the x-books but I too thought it was a nice gesture.

de5p0i1er

Men like him did so much for the industry I'm sorry to see him gone.

Fysh

Just flicked through Nextwave #11 and the full page ad is in there as well, so I'd guess it's across all the books.