The Comics Reporter founder/editor in chief Tom Spurgeon, died today at the age of 51. His death has been reported by friends and coworkers on Twitter; no cause of death is known yet.
Born in 1968, Spurgeon worked as the editor of The Comics Journal from 1994 to 1999. After leaving the journal, Spurgeon collaborated with his childhood friend Dan Wright to write Wildwood, a comic strip. He also wrote three comic book history books, the Stan Lee biography, Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book (with Jordan Raphael), the Fantagraphics history, Comics As Art: We Told You So (with Jacob Covey) and The John Romita Sr. tribute, The Romita Legacy.
Spurgeon was also an incredibly supportive elder statesmen for budding comics journalists of all stripes. He received an outpouring of love from the comics internet on Twitter.
