Obituaries

Some hours ago I found out Sergio Toppi has passed away. Art as a whole, and not only comics or illustration, has lost one of its biggest masters and even more important, a kind, humble, and amazing human being with a heart of gold. Also this year, we’ve lost Jean Giraud (Moebius) and, very recently, Joe Kubert. Three giants I had the immense honor to meet, and that leave a hole that will be so, so difficult to fill.

We've lost another great one: news spread today that Italian art master Sergio Toppi had passed away at age 80. Toppi got his start in advertising (and his sketchy, geometric styleed the way for the familiar the mid-century advertising look) but contributed comics to such magazines as Linus, Corto Maltese, Un uomo un’avventura, and Il Giornalino in Italy and l’Histoire de France en bandes dessinées and La Découverte du Monde in France. Best known for single stories rather than series characters, in recent years he worked exclusively with the French publisher Editions Mosquito. Archaia is bringing out a US edition of his retelling of the Arabian Knights, Sharaz-De later this year. A selection is below.

Although it really wasn't logical to think that Joe Kubert would live forever, I think we can all be forgiven for thinking it might just happen. So his death yesterday at age 85 comes as a real blow. With one of the longest, most productive careers in American comics, he was a pillar of such energy and strength that as dynamic as his art was, the man himself seemed to surpass it.

Carlo Rambaldi, special effects wizard, has passed at the age of 86. Discover he achievements, from an era before computers.

Lotsa headlines from Google's finest news sources!

Say goodbye to nine of Marvel's titles! Marvel Now! ushers in a new world without the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, or... Rogue/Gambit.

The Los Angeles Times has reported on the passing of Ray Bradbury. He leaves behind 11 novels, over 400 novelettes and short stories, at least 45 collections, numerous dramatizations, and various work. Wikipedia has an incomplete bibliography, and the Grand Comics Database lists the various comics adaptations.

The Filipino comics world has lost another giant with the passing of Ernie Chan at age 71. Chan, originally known as Ernie Chua, was another one of that generation of artistswho could and did draw anything, but he got has start doing covers for DC before going to the mystery/barbarian genre which made such good use of the heavily illustrative Pinoy style. Chan also had a long run as a definitive inker for John Buscema on Conan. This is a page that Chan only inked but there's a lot of his embellishment in the image.

Tony DeZuniga, co-creator of Jonah Hex and The Black Orchid, has passed away at age 71. He suffered a stroke in April and had been battling a series of health problems since then. DeZuniga was a seminal figure in the "Filipino Invasion" of the '70s and '80s which saw artists like Nestor Redondo, Alex Nino, and Alfredo Alcala entering the US market. He helped introduce many of the artists to US editors and then served as an agent for several years. Like most of the artists in this wave, DeZuniga was an impeccable draftsman who could draw just about anything. He's best remembered for his contributions to the barbarians and Westerns of the day, but he also drew romance, adventure, superhero, horror....like we said, he could draw anything.

Over the weekend, Cory Marder passed away after a long illness. The wife of Beanworld creator Larry Marder, Cory was best known to a small group in the industry, but loved by everyone she touched. Charles Brownstein has a beautiful tribute here that says everything. My heart goes out to Larry on this irreplaceable loss.

Pop culture writer John Tebbel passed away yesterday. An occasional contributor to ComicMix and frequent commenter here and at other comics sites, John was probably most familiar to the comics world as the husband of Martha Thomases, herself a comics writer and DC's publicity manager for most of the '90s. He was also an expert on animation and you can find some of his articles on the subject scattered about the internet. He and Martha also co-founded Comedy Magazine.

Famed kitsch painter Thomas Kinkade, who claimed to be the most collected artist in the world, has died at the sadly young age of 54. Like anyone who was rich and famous, he had a controversial side: gallery owners accused him of unfair business practices and he was known to like a tot or two.