The Mugen Fighters Guild - Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

Jmorphman

Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#1 May 15, 2016, 12:43:54 am

If you’re gonna reach for a star...
reach for the lowest one you can.

Legendary comic book writer/artist Darwyn Cooke passed away early this morning, following a long battle with cancer, at age 54.

"Iconic" is such an abused and overused term, thrown out at the drop of a hat, diminishing the word's power. But Cooke cannot be described any other way. He was a true icon, whose extraoridary career produced a wide variety of classic works. He was a true titan in the industry, and every single book he worked on demands the respect and attention of anyone interested in the medium.

He got his start doing storyboards on DC animated shows like Batman: The Animated Series, most famously drawing and designing the opening to Batman Beyond. His art style owes a clear debt to the designs of Bruce Timm, who co-created those series, but he refined it into his own thing, a gorgeous retro-inspired style of bold lines and crisp colors.

In 2001, along with co-writer Ed Brubaker, he dramatically revamped Catwoman in an acclaimed run that revitalized the character with a new cast and premise. He also gave her a striking new costume that has remained in place to the present day, a costume which has also erved as the primary inspiration to the costumes designed for every iteration of Catwoman since, from the Arkham game series to The Dark Knight Rises (of course, many of those costumes dramatically miss the point of the revamp and have Catwoman's top zipped way down low

His acclaimed series of graphic novels adapting Richard Stark's Parker novels won him three Eisners. Three Eisners is pretty damn impressive, sure, but there's another tidbit that reveals how astounding these adaptations were: in every single Parker adaption before Cooke's (of which there are many), Stark forced the creators to change the name of the title character to something else. But Cooke's adaptations were so incredible that he was allowed to keep the name of the Parker character the same!

But above all else, he is best known for his six issue series, The New Frontier, a dazzling period peace set at the dawn of the 60s, exploring the end of DC's Golden Age and the dawn of the Silver Age. It was thisboom that propelled Cooke into superstardom, and won him a three Eisner awards (Best Limited Series, Best Coloring, and Best Publication Design), three Harvey awards (Best Artist, Best Colorist, and Best Continuing or Limited Series), and a Shuster award (Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Cartoonist).

The New Frontier was later adapted into an Emmy-nominated direct-to-DVD animated movie, which Cooke consulted on for story and art direction.

Cooke's family has specified that donations can be made to the
Canadian Cancer Society and The Hero Initiative.

RIP

Gennos

Re: Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#2 May 15, 2016, 01:00:52 am

great artist. rest in peace.

https://mugenguild.com/forum/msg.2469816 said:

I'm going to let god handle you people ✞

The Boss

Re: Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#3 May 15, 2016, 01:03:14 am

After I win,You wanna get pizza?
I'm always ready for an adventure.

R.I.P

Masterhand128

Re: Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#4 May 15, 2016, 01:07:02 am

I´m a big fan of...THIS HAND?!

Yes, rest in peace.

Bea

Re: Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#5 May 15, 2016, 01:10:20 am

MUGEN Grandma

Dammit... 54 is way too young to go, specially for someone as talented as him.
Screw you, cancer.

Rest in peace, Cooke. Your style and art reached and inspired many people.

Princess Adora: "My friend saw She-Ra take her dress off in the shower. She said she has an 8 pack. She said She-Ra is shredded."

SF2NES is dead. Long live SF2NES.

XamΣeta

Re: Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#6 May 15, 2016, 01:11:00 am

IG @tanooki_ninja

Found out about this early this morning. What a huge loss for his family, friends and the world of comics.

I have most of the DC #37 variant covers that he did last year and a few other excellent books.

The man was an art powerhouse!

Graphic Ink: The DC Comics Art of Darwyn Cooke is an amazing book of most of his celebrated illustrations for those interested.

Also, Catwoman: Selina's Big Score is one of my favorite stories illustrated by him, and the trade paperback collected edition is gorgeous.

I really wanted to see more Green Lantern illustrated by this great man.

He will be missed. RIP

"We need other people in order to create the circumstances for the learning that we are here to generate" RIP Adam Yauch aka MCA
www.instagram.com/tanooki_ninja

Speedpreacher

Re: Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#7 May 15, 2016, 01:17:30 am

The story begins with who's gonna win

I am completely blown away by this news. RIP

Nevermind, there's nothing I can do
Bet your life there's something killing you
It's a shame we have to die, my dear
No one's getting out of here alive
This time
What a way to go, but have no fear
No one's getting out of here alive
This time
It's a shame we have to disappear
No one's getting out of here alive
This time, this time, this time

rhiggatwat

Re: Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#8 May 15, 2016, 02:06:33 am

Imagination is the 5th dimension

Just heard this, I am really sad. This just sucks. He was one of the most talented creators in comics, by far. He was an extremely nice person (I was lucky enough to briefly meet him years ago), and one of those rare talents that could do no wrong. Of course there is his amazingly beautiful New Frontier, but I would also highly recommend checking out his issue of SOLO, it's fantastic. Darwyn Cooke was Jack Kirby tier level talent. He will be greatly missed.

*Spoiler for more GORGEOUS Darwyn Cooke art (sorry, but I couldn't resist,I have always LOVED his art)*

Spoiler, click to toggle visibilty

Rest in peace, where all of the great ones go. There will never be another like you.

Last Edit: May 15, 2016, 09:57:03 am by rhiggatwat

DNZRX768

Re: Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#9 May 15, 2016, 02:10:43 pm

Hug Pikachus!

RIP.

Hug the Pikachus!

Hug A Pikachu Today!

Mechy

Re: Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#10 May 15, 2016, 02:31:13 pm

Dead and buried.

Fantastic artist. Rip.

"Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of a diseased mind."

"Okay, okay. So you put a Nazi on the Moon. Fuck you, Moon."

Insert Account Name

Re: Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#11 May 15, 2016, 02:59:49 pm

Sad that he's passed away for a great artist.
RIP.

Feel free to use my account:
Username: GTAguy
Password: imanigger

Basara Lapis

Re: Darwyn Cooke, legendary comic book icon, has died

#12 May 16, 2016, 07:20:19 pm

Take better care of the plants around u or become
the fertilizer that feeds them.The choice is yours

Nooooooo

one of my favourite creators passed away, damn it 2016!!

I just reported this in my personal FB hoping this could change, but I see nothing of that happened... again, damn 2016 u_u

Yeah, a lot of DC references posted here, but nobody noticed this: he was the one who revived Will Eisner's the Spirit for DC Comics, the main reason I idolized him (starting with the Eisner Winner Batman/The Spirit crossover)