One of comics' great unsung heroes passed away on Sunday. Dave Cockrum had been unwell for many years, suffering from diabetes and related illnesses.
Dave’s first professional comics work was on Vampirella for Warren Publishing in 1971. Later that same year he did his first work for one of the big guns, working as inker on DC Comics' Superman title. He soon progressed to penciling a memorable run on Legion of Superheroes.
A couple of years later he moved to Marvel, once again starting out with an inking job, this time on The Avengers. But bigger things were just around the corner…
When Cockrum and Len Wein created the new X-Men in 1975 the team was hardly the top seller it is today. In fact it had been on hiatus for several months and for months prior to that had been surviving on reprints.
Giant Size X-Men 1 changed all that. Building on the mutant team created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963 they added new heroes who would become staples of the title for years to come. Several would even make the leap to celluloid in the three hugely successful X-Men movies.
Colossus, Storm, Mystique, and Phoenix are just a few who owe their look to Dave Cockrum. But his greatest creation must surely be Nighcrawler, a character he’d created years before and even offered to DC for their Legion of Superheroes.
Giant Size X-Men 1 reinvigorated the Uncanny X-Men title and Cockrum stayed with the team he helped create for the next couple of years, forming a creative partnership with Chris Claremont, who replaced Len Wein as writer on the book. By the time he left the groundwork had been laid for the huge success that followed.
Article comments
1 - manfred
he surely will be missed. One of the first X-men I read was penciled by him and he has been one of my idols since then.
It's a big loss...
2 - Nik
I always had a soft spot for his self-created series The Futurians, which had a lot of potential but never quite seemed to become a big success. He definitely was one of the most colorful and purely enjoyable comics artists from Marvel in the '70s and '80s.
3 - E.C. , Rochester, NY
Another great lost... Best to you wherever you are .. Nice man.
4 - Sudro Brown II
Quick correction: he and Paty (one "t") spent his final years in South Carolina.
5 - Joe Puma
Rest in peace Dave Cockrum.All I can say is he touched my life,at a time in my life in my teens and pre-teens when things were rough.It wasn't all bad though,and how great it was to grow up in the '70's and amongst other things being privilaged to enjoy the great comic books that Marvel and DC were putting out.As I'm seemingly constantly reminded by the passing of Mr.Cockrum and people close to me recently,our time on this planet is indeed short.At least we have our memories of things and times gone by,and I'll be searching for some old comics soon to honor Dave,and to remember how great he was.