Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Visionaries of Tomorrow Dave Cockrum R.I.P. :-(

http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/news/116456727499743.htm

Darn.

Oh my.

He'll certainly be missed.

I'm at a loss for words.

It's for me a realy sad day.
Dave live forever in every legion fan.

That hurts.

Damn Death!

I knew he was having some trouble with his diabetes. That's really sad.

Ah, damn.

R.I.P. Dave

Aww, what awful news. I'm very sorry to hear that. I have such fond memories of reading his issues in my uncle's basement while I was growing up.

What sad news.

He was a truly gifted talent that brought lots of joy to Legion fans. We will always remember him for bringing the Legion into the 70's and beyond, and making them seem so much more real.

While he went on to garner even more fame by re-imagining the X-Men, he will always be one of the premier Legion creators.

We owe him so much and he will be desperately missed.

What sad news. May he rest in peace.

What a shame, he'd struggled so long with his health. His Legion work is tops in my book, and I'm glad we all had a chance to interact with him across the various boards. He was one of a kind, for sure.

this is sad news.

Dave Cockrum seemed to love his work and interacting with his fans, and he will be missed not just by us but by his family.

A TRUE Legionnaire has fallen.....and Dave will be sorely missed not only by us loyal Legion fans, but by scores of comic fans whose lives he touched through his work. Rest in Peace Dave....LONG LIVE COCKRUM!!!!!

Didn't he say at one time that he'll create one more comic book character before he dies,has he done that already?

All too soon. We've really lost a friend.

I'm old enough to remember feeling this way when I heard that John Forte and Curt Swan passed. Now, every time I re-read one of his issues, it will be with that same sense of appreciation for bringing life to the Legion mixed with sadness that I feel with those gentlemen. Art grants immortality to its creators and, in return, gives to its viewers, when it is very good, a gift that transcends words.

Another part of so many of our childhoods is gone.

Requiescat in pace.

Devestating news. My full account of my massive appreciation for Dave is over on the thread in the Dr. Gym'll forum.

R.I.P. Mr. Cockrum

Oh no!!!

That's what I just said.

I hope he went peacefully, with his loved ones near and without much pain.

All I can say is I'm speechless. I knew Dave was in bad health, but it's still a shock. I had the pleasure of e-mail conversing with him, and he loved his fans. But his fans loved him as well. I can honestly say that one of our "Giants" has passed. I can only give my regards to his wife Paty, and keep her in my prayers.

That news makes a bad day worse. I knew he had been having a lot of health problems, but I hoped that he would turn around. I am glad he passed peacefully with his loved ones. It's hard not to be selfish and think about the great ideas Dave takes with him to his rest. I only hope Paty and his family and friends know how much Dave mattered to so many of us, and how much we mourn his death.

More even than an artist, Dave was a visionary. He took ideas and tropes from science fiction and popular culture and used them re-invigorate the super-hero comics medium. There is no doubt that Dave almost single-handedly saved the Legion from obscurity in the early 1970s. He made the group fun, creative and daring again, updating the look of the 30th century and unlocking the naive sexuality of the team. He did much the same for the X-Men after the "Boltinoff Massacre" over the original art for Legion #200. The Futurians told more story, introduced more characters and mind-blowing concepts in one graphic novel than most comics accomplish in a year of issues these days.

As with any visionary, Dave paved the way for others to fully realize the potential of his vision. Mike Grell, Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen, Chris Claremont and John Byrne, to name a few, owe Dave a tremendous debt for the success they achieved with Dave's concepts and creations.

The first time I encountered Dave's art was Legion #201, on the magazine rack of the local grocery store, in 1974. I was 7 years old, half-way through 1st grade, and had not been reading very long. I had seem some comic books and super-hero cartoons. Most were conventional and predictable, even the Marvel titles. But Superboy #201 was something else entirely. Superman silver-age sci-fi fused with Star Trek fused with rock&roll and psychedelia. I was hooked, and have been ever since.

Thank you Dave, and godspeed to you.

So sorry to hear this bad news. I loved Dave Cockrum's artwork, it was an inspiration to me. His art and his name will live on forever!

I'm just stunned.

I hate diabetes.

I too am very saddened by this news. Dave Cockrum was the artist on the first Legion comics I read. I hope the fact that I am still here and enthralled by the Legion over three decades later stands as a testament to the power of his visuals to capture the imagination and draw a person in. R.I.P. Mr. Cockrum.

He'll really be missed.

Rest well Dave.

damm shame

I already responded in the other thread. Very sad. Dave changed the legion for the better and is the reason for their popularity after he left.

I hope the current creative team takes hard look at what Dave did. Also I hope they bring in one of the Legion's most popular characters...Wildfire a Cockrum creation!

DX Oh man, I'm depressed now. It feels like the world is lesser without him; he will be missed.

At this moment, I just feel privileged that I was able to discover Dave's work on the Legion, then follow his work on the X-Men. I lost touch with his career after that (I followed characters more than creators), but there's no doubt that those four years or so, from 1973-77, left an indelible impression on me. His work on those two series shaped my desire to write comics.

I met Dave once, at a convention a few years back. This was after he'd started posting as "dark bamf" on the DC Message Boards, so I just walked up and introduced myself as "He Who Wanders." The name meant nothing to him -- understandable, as legions of posters vyed to exchange a word with him. I then told him, with fanboy sincerity, that his work had had a significant impact on my life. I suppose I was hoping he'd ask me to elaborate, but he didn't. He just said thank you. He'd heard it before, I'm sure. I then asked him to sign a few issues from his Legion run. He obliged, even signing the covers he didn't draw. My courage having deserted me then, I politely withdrew.

If my encounter with Dave wasn't all I hoped it would be, it's only because I wasn't sure what to hope for. At age nine, I had no idea I would ever get to meet the people who wrote and drew the stories that ignited my imagination. They lived in New York. I lived in Missouri. The distance between the two states was further than the distance between the 20th and 30th centuries to me.

Still, getting the chance to walk up to Dave and thank him for his work was like completing a pilgrimage: a way of giving back something, however meager, to one who had given me so much. I don't know if Dave ever truly understood the effect his Legion work had on fans. I don't know if one can ever know the effect one has on others. But I do know that the chance to say "thank you" in person is a precious gift.

So, thank you once again, Dave, for a body of work that, decades later, continues to inspire and influence others.

We did lose a friend today.

In just a short period of time, he brought popularity and new life to both the Legion and then the X-Men. His artistic vision really propelled the Legion into a more sci-fi type of future than previously depicted.

Rest in peace, Dave.

Dave Cockrum was a Legend ,He was my Jack Kirby ,His eye for designing costumes was second to none.Without Dave I would have never started reading comics in the first place,his art grabbed me at the tender age of 7 with SLSH #197 it was the first comic I ever read and one look at Dave's art was all it took I was in love,alot of comic creators have passed over the years but this one has truly hurt me the most.
Rest in Peace Dave and may God be with Paty Cockrum during this time of loss.

That's very sad. He made inmeasurable contributions to the medium.

I don't know what to say. Dave's Legion artwork meant so much to me. His revitalized Legion offered me an escape during an especially bleak period of my life. His run was way too short but it changed the Legion and me forever. I feel like I've lost a friend.

It's hard to know what to say. I never had the chance to meet Dave Cockrum personally, but his impact on the medium can't be ignored. Right now I feel most sad that the guy who revitalized, not one, but two comic-book concepts wasn't given the chance in later years to explore his talent further. Lone Wolf Legionnaire called him his Jack Kirby above. Dave could have had a career as prolific as Jack's, if only the big two had known what they had at the time. 20/20 hindsight and all that.
For now, my heart goes out to paty, who did so much to keep him going for so long, and to all of Dave's close friends, who, from everything I've ever heard, are presently mourning the loss of one of the friendliest and most giving creators this art form has ever seen.

Wow.

Oh wow.

Instant melancholy.

I never got to meet Dave either but I did ask Barry (several months ago) to convey our best wishes and our love and also tell him he's in our prayers when he got to chat with Dave himself.

It hurts when we lose one of our own. Dave Cockrum was indeed a Legionnaire and one of our best.
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Rest well Dave, Godspeed.
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I posted on the Gym'll thread, but Ill add here.

Dave was a kind soul, a good man and a true artist. I feel honored to have known him in the little sliver of life where our paths intersected.

202 was my first Legion comic. Dave Cockrum was the first creator whom I ever recognized by name. I am saddened by his death and the lost hope of ever seeing him work on another Legion project.

It was Mr. Cockrum's art that introduced me and got me hooked for good on the Legion (Superboy back-up story "Murder the Leader"). That alone made his work special to my life.

My condolences to the Cockrum family and friends. Good luck and best wishes to you, Dave, on your 'reboot'.

My prayers go out to Dave's family and friends. He has earned his place on Shanghalla.

To echo LWL...Dave was by far the best superhero costume designer ever without a doubt. Look at all his classic X-Men and Legion costumes.

I've spent the last few hours reading The Uncanny Dave Cockrum... A Tribute which was published by Aardwolf Publishing two years ago as a benefit book for Dave. It hits me how lucky we all are that Dave got to know just how much everyone cared about him while he was still alive, which is something that doesn't usually happen.

On a personal note, it seems strange to me that I'll never have reason to drop him a line again, asking him if it's okay to use his art in an upcoming publication, or if he's got something stored away that he'd like to share. When he sent me artwork for the Legion Companion, there were Post-It notes on some of the photocopies explaining what they were. I kept those Post-Its, because how does one throw away a Post-It note written by Dave Cockrum?

I never had the opportunity to get him to sign the book (something which I thought would always happen... eventually), but I'm glad for the experience that I did have with him, even if it was long distance and not face-to-face. He was as generous with his time as could be, and never stopped being the fan that started drawing comics in the first place. It's too bad that recent years were not kind to him, but in the end he knew that people loved him, and that he touched the lives of many. At least there's solace in that.

Can anyone post a photo of Dave here? I've never seen one.

http://ourworlds.topcities.com/blackhawk/bios/bio_cockrum.html

I also just found out that Dave's father passed away on November 11 - Dave's birthday - at the age of 95. What a month for the Cockrums.

Here\'s another picture of Dave from Heroes Con 2005.

Here's an entry by Neil Gaiman about Dave. It comes from the tribute book that Glen mentioned a few posts back.

Scroll down to the Nov. 26 entry.

Neil Gaiman blog

I never knew Neil Gaiman was a Legion fan, but he encapsulated some of what I've been thinking/feeling since yesterday.

An updated from Clifford Meth (didn't see this on the thread):

She (Paty Cockrum) requested that, in lieu of flowers, contributions are made to ACTOR , a cause/organization that she and Dave believed very strongly in.

And here's what Marv Wolfman had to say:

Marv Wolfman blog

Maybe there's a volume or two in The Dreaming Library of unwritten books featuring a collaboration between Marv and Dave on a Teen Titans team.

Imagine his designs for some of those characters... Sigh.

Thanks to LL for keeping us posted on this thread. Contributing to ACTOR is a great idea. Dave is sadly an example of how the creativity we all enjoy so much comes at a price, often to health, finances, or both. Maybe we could have a "Legionworld" challenge to raise money? More important than the actual dollars would be the broad participation of this wonderful community.

I've actually contacted Clifford Meth to ask him about doing a fund raiser in Dave's name for ACTOR. I have an idea but it would require the permission of Paty and I felt it best to ask him than her directly at this time.

The picture Glen posted was the Dave I knew. Scott's picture... he looks so thin, and he doesn't seem himself.

Beat me to it. I just sent an email to the obit author thanking him. He treated Dave and his work with respect.

Update: Here's the email the obit author sent back to me:

Great news, Scott. Keep us posted.

Here's CNN's take:
Dave\'s CNN Obituary

The Chicago Tribune and The Dayton Beach News-Journal .

It is great that so many from so many different walks of life are remembering Dave. Even though he received little, if no, credit for the movies at least his vision was passed on to many more generations.

And Marvel has posted their official reflection on his contribution to them.

Clifford has given me the permission to use a piece of art that Dave did. I'll work out some more details and wait for the sample I ordered to come in before I share it with everyone.

Just found this.

Shit .

I posted here elsewhere, but i will be happy to say that i loved his art, and am saddened at his passing.

I even heard about it today on the radio, ABC news i think it was. They mentioned his revitalizing the "X-men" franchise and "numerous others" i think it was. The outsider world most likely doesn't know of his stellar turn on the Legion and never will, but we here will.

Dave, you are missed already.

I've been all over the internet, reading what people have had to say about Dave's passing. The blogosphere is buzzing, with Google listing dozens of bloggers who have mentioned his death. The AP story is making the rounds, with papers sometimes tweaking it here and there to give the impression that it wasn't just lifted off the wire. The New York Times have a long obit online, and it is more ambitious than you'd think. It attempts to go into greater detail about his career, but makes a lot of errors in the process (like getting his birthday wrong).

Three things keep hitting me as recurring themes in all of the news items posted online:

1) They keep getting their facts wrong

2) They keep showing the cover of Giant-Size X-Men # 1, which Dave didn't really draw, unless you're talking about the original X-Men at the top of the cover

3) None of them show a picture of Dave

No. 1 above reminds me that the degree of accuracy in news reports is always sustantially less than 100%, and that I keep forgetting this fact until I come across an article about a topic about which I'm familiar. You think Dave's obit is the only one they're getting their facts wrong on? Think again. If this was journalism school, their grade would be a steady C-.

No. 2 makes me wish that they'd use Dave's art when talking about Dave.

No. 3 makes me wish that they'd spend ten seconds on Google to locate a photo of Dave and use it in their articles, copyright be damned.

I am happy that news of his passing is spreading far and wide, and that people are learning about his life and career. I just wish that they were getting the real deal, and not substandard reporting.

Well, "copyright be damned" can lead to "news outlet be damned" -- by lawyers, that is.

Otherwise, I agree with points one and two, Glen. It's discomfiting how careless "professional" reporters can be.

Damn.

wow just wow

DC's news about Dave's death, from DC Direct Channel newsletter :

The Times obit was particularly perplexing in that they called Murphy Anderson the man responsible for "the modern look of Superman, Batman, Flash and other characters at DC Comics." But at least they tried to describe what a penciller and inker do and they did include a couple of Dave's sketches.
I agree about the photo issue though. There's a great photo out there of Dave at the drawing board (edit: I'm an idiot; Glen linked to that pic on the last page). How hard would it have been to obtain permission to use it?

Edit: Times obit is here.

And here's yet another obit , this time from the UK Independent. This one makes more of his contribution to the Legion, though niggling details are still not quite correct.

I never met the man; the closest I came was buying a comic that he'd autographed. But I can still respect him, admire him... and miss him.

Very nice, Gary. And very appropriate. Dave always liked your smilies, and I bet he would have appreciated this, too.

nightcrawler-
that is so brilliant and moving and heartfelt. did you put that tribute together? bless you.
wildfire's empty costume is the perfect symbol for our loss of dave cockrum.

Thanks guys. All the images are Dave's cobbled together with some fill ins and manipulations.

Jim Shooter\'s comments on Dave\'s passing.

A selected highlight:

"Dave and I worked together a good bit while we were both at Marvel, and a few times after that. Dave was a great artist and an amazing creator. His work and his creations changed comics dramatically, irrevocably, forever. Let me emphasize that: he changed the paradigm. If you don't know that, it's because you don't know enough about what went on to know that, and because you never worked with him. He doesn't get nearly enough credit."

Wonderful and moving tribute, Gary.

Great job, Nightcrawler!
Very moving.