We lost some great creators this year, and while this is by no means an exhaustive list, these definitely hurt quite a bit. We won’t see their like again.
From:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_in_comics
January 5: Jack Bender, American comics artist (assisted on The Nutheads, continued Alley Oop), dies at age 91.
January 15: Lee Moder, American comic artist (co-creator of Stargirl), dies at age 53.
February 13: Leiji Matsumoto, Japanese animator and manga artist (Galaxy Express 999, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Queen Emeraldas, Queen Millennia), dies at age 85.
March 20: Michael Reaves, American animation scriptwriter, novelist and comic writer (worked on Teen Titans, Fusion), dies at age 72.
March 21: Joe Giella, American comic artist (assisted on Batman, Flash Gordon, The Phantom, continued Mary Worth), dies at age 94.
March 30: Steve Skeates, American comics writer (DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Charlton Comics, co-creator of Hawk and Dove, worked on Aquaman, wrote for the humor magazine Plop!) and artist (The Adventures of Stew Ben and Alec Gainey), dies at age 80.
April 7: Rachel Pollack, American comic book writer (Doom Patrol, New Gods), dies at age 77.
April 10: Al Jaffee, American cartoonist (Mad Fold-in pages, Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, Don’t You Hate…? and Hawks & Doves in Mad, Tall Tales, Debbie Deere, Jason, The Shpy, also worked for Trump and Humbug magazines), dies at age 102.
June 8: Ian McGinty, American comic book writer and artist (Adventure Time, Bee and PuppyCat), dies at age 38.
June 12: John Romita Sr., American comic book artist (worked on The Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil), dies at age 93.
August 19: Dan Green, American comic artist (worked on Spider-Man, Wolverine, Doctor Strange), dies at age 70.
October 9: Keith Giffen, American comic book artist and writer (Legion of Super-Heroes, Justice League, co-creator of Rocket Raccoon and Lobo), dies of a stroke at age 70.
October 25: Steve Erwin, American comic artist (Checkmate, Gunfire), dies at age 63.
November 8: Roger Kastel, American film poster artist and comic book cover artist (Doc Savage), dies at age 91.
December 9: Dærick Gröss Sr., American illustrator, writer, editor and art director (Batman, Captain Marvel, Excalibur, Domino), dies at age 76.
December 11: Ian Gibson, British comic book artist (The Ballad of Halo Jones, continued Robo-Hunter, Judge Dredd), dies at age 77.
Damn I didn’t realize Michael Reaves died this year! His book Darkworld Detective is actually surprisingly good, 3 stories about a planet in space where magic half works and a noir detective solving mysteries in it named Kamus of Kadizhar. John Shirly (of Eclipse Trilogy and The Crow movie fame, also writes for BOC) actually did a sequel called Kamus Of Kadizhar: The Black Hole of Carcosa containing one followup story with even more surrealism and way more explitives. Michael Reaves is also responsible for the best Batman cartoon that has ever been made, Batman: The Animated Series. I’m sad to hear we lost any of these people, but this one SUCKS.
And RIP Leiji Matsumoto, I haven’t watched everything yet but GE:999 is so good.
Ian McGinty man… yeah it sucks when someone who is 102 passes away, but McGinty was only 38, he had a whole LIFETIME of creativity ahead of him. :(
#comicsbrokeme indeed.
Shit, I have t-shirts older than that. Get off my lawn!
Shit, I have t-shirts older than that. Get off my lawn!
I’m a younger old guy, but I told a kid at work this on friday lol.
Yeah that sucks, I’ve known too many people died younger than that, too, Pfizer (Oxys) really did a number on our country. 38 is too young. Idk much about him or his story, I’ll have to read up on it when I get a sec, thanks for the link!
