posted
The following was sent to me by my friend & comics-hop owner, Fred Marcus: (all typos are his)
I haven't seen this yet on most of the news Web site but it sounds plausible:
Dave Cockrum Passes Away, Aged 63
Posted: Sunday, November 26 Posted By: Jason Brice Print This Item
In an announcement from Clifford Meth, a close family friend of the Cockrums, it has been revealed that Dave Cockrum passed away this morning. The statement reads as follows:
With a heavy heart, I regret to inform you that Dave Cockrum passed away this morning. After a long battle with diabetics and its varied complications, Dave died in his sleep early this morning.
Dave's many creations—including some of the X-Men's staple characters—brought tremendous joy to his legion of fans. For three decades, he was a beloved fixture at comics conventions across the country where he would sketch for a pittance and encourage would-be creators. Those of us who knew Dave personally will remember him as one of the sweetest, jovial, most generous individuals in the comics industry. I'll miss my friend very much.
There are no details of services at this time. Dave asked to be cremated, and his widow Paty is burdened with the news, so well-wishers are asked not to call. Email can be sent to magnetorampant@yahoo.com.
SBC wishes to extend sincere condolences to the family and friends of Dave Cockrum.
i haven't seen dave since 1978 when i got to know him and his wife paty when i put on the women in comics convention in center city. everything that is said about him is true. they were two of the nicest people i got to know in this industry and just an openly loving couple. i've always maintained that he never got the credit he deserved for creating a lot of the new x-men. if you saw the work he was doing on legion before he started the x-men you can see where the origins of the new xmen came from. that's just the way it goes in corporate america.
Registered: Aug 2003
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I figured Roy Thomas was probably feeling real down by the news that Jerry Bails passed away. NOW I feel down, too.
Dave was actually the very 1st comics pro I ever met! When I walked into the SONJA CON in Mt. Laurel, he was sitting behind the table just to the right of the entrance. I can still recall thumbing thru some of the art he had there, amazed at a MOKF cover he did, with all the art that was trimmed when it was printed visible on the bristol board.
A couple minutes later I met Dick Giordano-- somebody I wish I could have worked for.
I met Dave probably more times than any other pro. Seems like he was at quite a lot of conventions back in those days. he also turned up as a guest at Neal's store in Pennsauken on 3 different occasions, once with that cynical bastard Chris Claremont in tow (I like Chris, it's just he's such a downer compared to Dave). I also ran into the two of them together again at a show at the Holiday Innin West Philly (the same show where I met Peter Gillis and Don McGregor).
Last time I saw Dave was about 10 years ago at a horror con in Newark (what were those things called?). This was the one held in the humongous gymnasium of some college, where there was a lot of room for everyone and everything. That was the first time I met Ingrid Pitt. Dave seemed out of place there, but it was nice to run into him again.
A fan whose online alias is "Nightcrawler" has a gallery of Dave's work set up somewhere. It was cool to e-mail Dave copies of the 2 sketches I commissioned from him-- around 25 years back-- and have them added to the collection!
I loved his work. Over the last 15 years or so, it was maddening that so many no-talent hacks were finding work at "the big 2", yet nobody seemed to want to use HIS talents. I hopelessly look forward to the day when both companies (or, at least Marvel) get caught intheir own greed and go belly-up-- permanently. It couldn't happen to nicer guys.
Possibly my first "favorite" artist back when I was a wee wee lad.
I can vaguely recall S/LSH 202 (his final issue of the series) though I maintain S/LSH 205 was my first issue of the book because I recall it so well.
It was his work on AVENGERS and then X-MEN, then MS. MARVEL and a multitude of Marvel covers that I remember loving so well.
THE FUTURIANS graphic novel was a huge favorite, and I waited for the indy series to begin with bated breath. Issues # 1-3 did come and were AMAZING-- was this my earliest exposure to alternate comic universes, with their own versions of Superman, etc.?-- but then no other issues appeared again.
I wondered for years how the story ended, when one day I saw FUTURIANS # 0 on the shelf, a b&w issue that printed the material in FUTURIANS # 4. At last I knew how the story ended. I may have to get those out and reread them tonight.
And Legion fans should always be reminded of the contributions Dave Cockrum made for the 30th century.
Infectious Lass and Porcupine Pete are faves of mine, but I know one character who has a lot more fans-- Wildfire.
And Dave's costume designs are STILL being used on some characters today ('toon Lightning Lad, in a variation). Those 70s outfits and their importance (and longevity-- the starfield design, anyone?) cannot be stated enough.
For a man whose output was relatively small compared to many many other comics professionals, Cockrum's work sure left its mark on me.
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Lash, you and I are feeling the same right about now. Superboy #201 is my starting point. Infectious Lass' intro was what turned me on to the Legion. Dave's designs were way ahead of his time. I just hope that the powers that be at DC and Marvel finally give him the credit he deserves. I will treasure my Infectious Lass sketch that He did a few yrs ago more now. He will be sorely missed.
From: Tampa | Registered: Jul 2003
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I'm not really sure if I saw Dave's work in EERIE magazine first (I may have), but the work of his that first really caught my attention were 2 issues of THE AVENGERS he inked, one over John Buscema, the other over Bob Brown (Brown-Cockrum created the sexiest Scarlet Witch I'd seen up to that point). Then GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #2 came out... WOW!!!!! The "main" book was hit-and-miss on the art front at that point, but this thing just blew me away. It was a disappointment when Joe Giella inked the next one, though I got to be a fan of Giella's work elsewhere as the years went by (and back then, I had NO IDEA Joe had been my very 1st BATMAN artist-- in the newspaper!).
I may be alone in this, but I was REALLY disappointed when Dave left AVENGERS to do X-MEN. I just didn't care about those characters that much, and under Chris Claremont's writing, the book was so intense, and morose, and manic-depressive, I used to joke that, like SPACE: 1999, it seemed every character was on the verge of a nervous breakdown ALL the time. Eventually, it started to grow on me-- in spite of itself. But from the start, Dave was the ONLY reason I was buying that book!
Registered: Aug 2003
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Im so sad to hear this Dave Cockrum was my first and favorite Legion artist the first comic I ever read was SLSH #197,his designs for the Legion are still the best in my book.
Chameleon Boy Collosal Boy Dream Girl Element Lad Karate Kid Lightning Lad Phantom Girl Princess Projectra Shadow Lass Shrinking Violet Star Boy Timber Wolf Wildfire Tyr Infectious Lass Porcupine Pete Hunter Molecule Master Devil-Fish Legion Cruisers The Outsiders The Strangers
He did so much for the Legion in such a short time to bad he wasn't given more freedom when he was on the series,he was the reason I fell in love with comics/the Legion in the first place one look at Dave's art/designs and I was hooked,I'll always remember the love he put into his work. May God be with Paty Cockrum during this time of loss.
-------------------- I tried to rip their soul out.I tried to make them forget Superman. But they won't.
From: Kentucky | Registered: Oct 2005
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Honestly I think he turned around the Legion and X-Men making them both very popular. The Legion before Cockrum does nothing for me. Same with the X-Men. Atleast Marvel stuck with the changes and look at the X-franchise now. Wish DC looked hard at the Cockrum Legion for some influence.
This makes me sad cause it's the first of my childhood artists to pass away.
RIP Dave!
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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I knew Dave from my New Paltz days. He was a mainstay of October Country, the store where I worked, and even helped it bounce back after its disastrous late 80s fire.
He was never in the best of health when I knew him, but he was always the nicest guy you could ever ask to meet.
Rest well, Dave.
Blessings and prayers for Paty.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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Like prof, I have a special place for Giant-Size Avengers # 2 and I wish he had stayed on Avengers (imagine how George Perez circa 1975-76 would have looked with Cockrum inks.) But there's a Cockrum X-Men issue that's equally special to me: # 107, the first appearance of the Imperial Guard.
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This past year I finally plugged the last holes in my "early" AVENGERS collection thanks to the ESSENTIAL books. Vol.5 finally allowed me, after decades, to read the end of the Roy Thomas run, and the beginning of the Steve Englehart run. It struck me as funny... early on, Steve didn't seem quite sure what he was doing, story-wise. And even so, I found I liked HIS dialogue BETTER than Roy's. Wow.
But the big surprise was how many issues Dave inked. Man. He inked Buckler, Buscema, Tuska, and even Don Heck! At the time, Don was going through some really bad troubles, and his art suffered TERRIBLY (especially if you compare it with his 60's work). Dave did possibly the BEST inks on Don's pencils around that period, by a mile. Even though Don's work was nowehere near what it should have been, had Dave been inking him regularly, I don't think so many "fans" (yeah right) would have complained.
Ahh, imagine if Dave had done full art on GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #3-- and for that matter, the infamous #4 (Heck & Tartaglione-- oh, great, kick a guy while he's down by having his art inked by one of the worst HACKS in the business.)
It occurs to me that if Chris Claremont really wanted to do a manic-depressive suicide squad of a book, maybe they should have gotten Gil Kane to draw it. He's really good at drawing people on the edge of a nervous breakdown...
The last 2 Cockrum issues of X-MEN, I felt the book had finally turned around and begun to "find" itself. And then, JUST before the story was over, Dave was replaced. That HURT. All he had to do was ONE MORE issue, and it would have been a much more natural place to change artists. This way, it was like having a different director come in and shoot JUST the climax of a long movie. Ehh!
It was the Heck-Tartag AVENGERS issue that gave Perez the bravado to go into the editor's office and say, "I can do better than THIS!" --which resulted in him actually being given the chance to prove it. Too bad Vince Colletta murdered his first 2 issues. Sam Grainger was pretty decent, though, and in some ways, much better than Pablo Marcos. But yeah-- Perez-Cockrum-- that would have been cool.
In a COMIC BOOK ARTIST interview, it was revealed that Jim Starlin told Steve Englehart that he "couldn't read" THE AVENGERS-- because the art was so bad. At the time, writers were "de facto" editors, and apparently, Steve either didn't have the "pull" to get better artists regularly, or he's a lot more "forgiving" of different styles. (I understand he liked the guy who did 7 of the 8 issues of AVENGERS: CELESTIAL QUEST; whereas, I thought the Joe Staton fill-in issues was VASTLY superior to the rest of the mini-series. Think about that one!)
Registered: Aug 2003
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