Darwyn Cooke, Famed Comic Book Artist, Passes Away at 53

Today the world is a little less colorful. Darwyn Cooke, one of the greatest comic book artists of our generation has passed from a battle with cancer at 1:30 a.m. this morning at the age of 53.

“We read all of your messages of support to him throughout the day yesterday. He was filled with your love and surrounded by friends and family at his home in Florida,” read a statement from Cooke’s blog. Just yesterday, a blog post was written by Cooke’s wife, Marsha , that announced Cooke was receiving “palliative care following a bout with aggressive cancer.”

Cooke had a style so unique and all his own, nobody’s artwork looked anything like his. In New Frontier , he reimagined the origin stories of everyone’s favorite DC comic book heroes. Written in 2004, it might be the most important milestone of Cooke’s career. It received multiple Eisner and Harvey words for the 1950’s superhero period piece. It was later adapted into a movie which featured the same stylized nuisances of the graphic novel .

Over the years, Cooke has written and drawn pretty much every type of comic book genre. From crime thrillers like Richard Stark’s Parker to superhero comics from both Marvel and DC, Cooke was a jack of all trades.

My favorite book of Cooke’s was Wolverine/ Doop that combined two mutants that had nothing to do with each other. Doop was a sentient green blob who spoke in a language nobody but Wolverine could understand. They both get drunk, ride on motorcycles and cause general mayhem all while trying to solve a mystery. I’ve reread that book multiple times and each time is better than the last.

Donations can be made to the Canadian Cancer Society and Hero Initiative . Here are some reactions people have had on Twitter: