The creative and illustrative force behind DC: The New Frontier series, Darwyn Cooke passed away early Saturday morning on 14 May, 2016.
The news comes just one day after Darwyn’s wife, Marsha Cooke posted on the artist’s blog that he was receiving palliative care following a bout with aggressive lung cancer.
The unfortunate news of his demise was stated by his family in a statement on the artist’s blog saying- “We regret to inform you that Darwyn lost his battle with cancer early this morning.” It further mentioned, “He was filled with your love and surrounded by friends and family at his home in Florida… Please continue to respect our privacy as we go through this very difficult time.”
Born in 1962, Cooke published his first comics as a professional comic artist in 1985, but given the economic consequences, he kept it on a halt. Eventually, during 1990s he was roped in by Warner Bros. Animation for the role of a story board artist on Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series.
He was the talent behind the retro and chic look of DC’s superheroes, including a revamp of ‘Catwoman’ with Ed Brubaker. In 1999, he animated the main title design of Batman Beyond. Also, after the success of Batman: Ego, a graphic novel published in 2000 he took to more projects such as X-Force, Wolverine/Doop and Spider-Man’s Tangled Web for Marvel Comics and Just Imagine… for DC.
DC Comics paid a touching tribute to the late maestro through their blog. An extract from the statement read:
“An Eisner-award winning artist and accomplished writer, Darwyn has been a much-loved and respected member of the comics community. He lent his signature retro style to all corners of the DC Universe, from Jonah Hex to Before Watchmen to Vertigo Comic’s The Twilight Children and, of course, his master work, DC: The New Frontier. His bold, direct style, often compared to the works of Joe Kubert, Alex Toth and Jack Kirby, reflected his down to earth, no nonsense personality. Darwyn Cooke always claimed that he was a lucky man to have such a wonderful family, friends, and such a wonderful life. He lived that life with the same brilliance and fearlessness that so permeated his work. And for those of us who knew this one-of-a-kind and genuine soul, we were lucky as well.”
