DAVE COCKRUM PASSES AWAY

[Newtype]

According to several sources, legendary X-Men and comic book artist Dave Cockrum passed away in his sleep last night, his death a result of diabetes and its resultant complications. He was 63 years old.

 

Cockrum, a fixture of the American Comics scene in the ‘70s was born in Oregon to a father who was a lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force. As a result, Cockrum traveled frequently as a child, which allowed comic books to provide some semblance of stability from city to city.

 

Following his father into the military, Cockrum served in the Navy for six years following high school, and then entered comics and publishing, first at Warren Publishing, and then as an assistant inker to Murphy Anderson at DC Comics. It was during this period that Cockrum’s art became known with the Legion of Super-Heroes, helping them to move from their Silver Age roots into a more modern look.

 

While his Legion work is widely known to Legion fans, Cockrum will forever be known as the artist who, with Len Wein, and later with Chris Claremont, created the new X-Men, and redefined both the existing characters and revitalized the world of the mutants and the franchise for Marvel. Cockrum had two major stints as artist on Uncanny X-Men, from Giant-Size X-Men #1 in 1975 through 1977, and then from 1981-1983.

 

Though he had worked less and less in comics in recent years, Cockrum had never left the hearts of his fans, as they rallied around him when it was announced in 2004 that he was seriously ill due to complications from diabetes and pneumonia. A benefit book and action was held, while Marvel Comics announced that it would pay Cockrum retroactively for his work in design and co-creation of the new X-Men.

 

According to Clifford Meth, a family friend of Dave and his wife, Patty, there is no information about a funeral service at this time. According to his wishes, Cockrum will be cremated, and those wishing to send messages to Patty are asked to e-mail them to: magnetorampant@yahoo.com rather than calling.

[Ganny McVagflaps]

Can't say I know much of his work outside Uncanny, but man he helped make that book what it is today.

[The NZA]

Same here, i only know his work from Uncanny, and that he had a big hand on making what he is today...i know Len Wein got a small hand in the 90's X-Men animated, i wanna say Cockrum did too at one point but i could be wrong.

 

Rest in peace to a classic creator.

[Jables]

Yup. Guy was a helluva contributor no matter what. He DID do something else that was cool as heel though, can't recall what. Wizard did an article on him a year or two ago I'ma have to go check on tonight.

[MetalHeart]

http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2006/11/dave-cockrum.html

 

I wrote this two years ago, for a benefit book for Dave Cockrum:

 

 

For Dave Cockrum

 

"The golden age of comics is when you’re twelve. The silver age is around fourteen, fifteen – that nebulous zone when comics still matter, but so does rock music and so would girls if you could only get close enough to one to actually do anything more than blush and stutter. After that comes the slow fall from grace, and then all the ages run together in one dark gulf. Nothing quite makes the magic happen in the way it did, back then, when the summers lasted forever, and the girl next door still had a pug nose and pigtails (the safety-pin in her nose and her mohawk wouldn't arrive for several more years).

 

I never quite clicked on Superheroes (TM Marvel and DC and how weird is that?) as a kid. I liked them well enough, but they always seemed to be slightly problematic. They didn’t do the important stuff.

 

The important stuff, the way I saw it was that super powers would allow you to survive school more easily. If I were secretly the Fastest Man Alive I’d never be late for school ever again. If I were invulnerable (and I could spell it and I knew what it meant) I wouldn’t be miserable and frozen out on an arctic football field, out in some defensive position where I could do the least harm. Even Aquaman didn’t seem to have it too bad: the hellish compulsory swimming classes in the unheated open air pool left me convinced that I would be prime drowning fodder without his powers, even if I couldn’t telepathically communicate with any of the local sticklebacks.

 

I think that was why I loved the Legion of Super Heroes, back in my own personal golden age. There were lots of them. They lived in the future. And their powers seemed made for surviving school with. (There were school meals put in front of me that only Matter Eater Lad could comfortably have disposed of.) They had a clubhouse. They didn’t fight bank robbers, either. (Mostly they seemed to fight each other, even if they had been brainwashed by intergalactic evildoers. This also made sense to me. I had lived twelve years, and had come to the conclusion that bank robbers turned up more infrequently than they did in the comics.) And, most of all, for just a little while – oddly enough, while I was twelve – they had Dave Cockrum.

 

I kept waiting for a time sphere to turn up, and to be invited to join the Legion. I had no particular power, not that I’d noticed, but then, you never know, I might get lucky.

 

I ought to Google and find out what the first Legion story Dave drew was; on the other hand, I still know the first of his stories I read. It was called “Curse of the Blood Crystals”, and it was inked by Murphy Anderson. (I have always been a sucker for Murphy Anderson’s inking.)

 

And, almost immediately it seemed, Superboy’s comic had become The Legion’s, and Dave Cockrum was the Legion artist (Cary Bates was writing), and suddenly it was cool...

 

When Dave started drawing the new X-Men, I already felt proprietorial, in a way that only comics readers can feel about artists whose work they love. I owned Dave Cockrum, just as I owned Neal Adams and Berni Wrightson and Jack Kirby and Jim Aparo. He was one of mine, and he owned a small part of my soul.

 

I was made foolishly happy, many years on, during the early Sandman years, at a New York convention, to be told by Paty Cockrum that she and Dave liked what I did. And, somewhere inside me, a twelve year old exulted: if I couldn’t join the Legion, this was easily the next best thing, and, for a moment, I was back in the Golden Age... "

 

 

Neil Gaiman

March 5, 2004

 

 

...

Dave passed on today, from complications of diabetes.

 

http://www.nightscrawlers.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=6539

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2006_11_26.html#012477

[Stilly]

Here's a confirmation from the AP (and a pretty good article too):

 

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- Wearing Superman pajamas and covered with his Batman blanket, comic book illustrator Dave Cockrum died Sunday.

 

The 63-year-old overhauled the X-Men comic and helped popularize the relatively obscure Marvel Comics in the 1970s. He helped turn the title into a publishing sensation and major film franchise.

 

Cockrum died in his favorite chair at his home in Belton, South Carolina, after a long battle with diabetes and related complications, his wife Paty Cockrum said Tuesday.

 

At Cockrum's request, there will be no public services and his body will be cremated, according to Cox Funeral Home. His ashes will be spread on his property. A family friend said he will be cremated in a Green Lantern shirt.

 

At Marvel Comics, Cockrum and writer Len Wein were handed the X-Men. The comic had been created in 1963 as a group of young outcasts enrolled in an academy for mutants. The premise had failed to capture fans.

 

Cockrum and Wein added their own heroes to the comic and published "Giant-Size X-Men No. 1" in 1975. Many signature characters Cockrum designed and co-created -- such as Storm, Mystique, Nightcrawler and Colossus -- went on to become part of the "X-Men" films starring Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.

 

Cockrum received no movie royalties, said family friend Clifford Meth, who organized efforts to help Cockrum and his family during his protracted medical care.

 

"Dave saw the movie and he cried -- not because he was bitter," Meth said. "He cried because his characters were on screen and they were living."

 

Cockrum was born in Pendleton, Oregon, the son of an Air Force officer. He set aside his interest in art while serving in Vietnam for the U.S. Navy.

 

He moved to New York after leaving the service and got his big break in the early 1970s, drawing the Legion of Super-Heroes for DC Comics before moving to Marvel.

 

In January 2004, Cockrum moved to South Carolina after being hospitalized for bacterial pneumonia. As his diabetes progressed, his drawings became limited.

 

His last drawing was a sketch for a fan, who attended a small comic book convention in Greenville, Paty Cockrum said.

 

Meth said Cockrum will be remembered as "a comic incarnate."

 

"He had a genuine love for comics and for science fiction and for fantasy, and he lived in it," Meth said. "He loved his work."

 

RIP

[Lycaon]

This man sounded awesome.

[Jumbie]

I too hope to one day die in Superman apparel

 

One of the things that appeals to me about this guy is that he's not gonna have a big to-do at his funral. Just a cremation in his GL shirt.

 

Next time there's a Hondo's Meet-up I think there should be a toast to Dave

[Lycaon]

I too hope to one day die in Superman apparel

 

One of the things that appeals to me about this guy is that he's not gonna have a big to-do at his funral. Just a cremation in his GL shirt.

 

Next time there's a Hondo's Meet-up I think there should be a toast to Dave

Seconded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... even if I probably won't be present for the next meet-up.

[The NZA]

dont feel bad, i dont know when jumbie will either. but i agree, here's to Dave.

[iamnotaspammer]

Buy some of Dave Cockrum's ashes.

 

Comes sealed in a poly-bag with original pencil sketches of Wolverine by Dave himself.

 

Just $299

 

Click here:www.marvelmarketingwhores.com

[archangel]

lmao!

 

Ok, no more crapshacking this guy. He's funny

[MusicManiac]

Dave Cockrum?

 

 

Would have loved to be a fly on the wall when this guy got made fun of in High School ...

[The NZA]

man, 2/3 of you mocking an x-men legend back to back is a bit much...this guy was great.

[Jumbie]

well, to be fair, when I first heard the name cockrum years ago, I almost laughed out loud.

 

also, that spam seemed to be making fun of comic marketers, not Dave.