X-Men Legend Dies

Dave Cockrum passed away this past Sunday at age 63. He had a long career in comics but was most famous for revamping the X-men and turning it into a success (the first time) in 1975 with Giant-Size X-men #1. He and writer, Len Wein, created Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and many others for Marvel. Of course, he never saw any royalties off of it, which might be why he was wearing Superman pajamas and a Batman blanket when he died.

No, he did get his start drawing Legion of Super Heroes for DC. And Marvel deserves some credit for trying to help him out with his medical bills recently. In 2004, when he was diagnosed with diabetes and pneumonia, he was nearly broke. Some of his friends in the industry helped him by contributing artwork to auctions for his benefit. In August, the Comics Journal reported that artist Neal Adams had "suggested the publisher might be willing to salve its corporate conscience by offering Cockrum the sort of bonus arrangement it had offered other creators" and that Marvel had come to some sort of undisclosed mutually beneficial agreement with Cockrum. Probably secret because they wanted to help out, but didn't want to open the door for all their other creators to come looking for their checks.

Cockrum hadn't produced comics in a number of years but was going to produce 8 pages for Giant Size X-Men #3 in 2005. Unfortunately, a recurrence of his health problems prevented it. His last drawing was a sketch he did for a fan at a small convention in Greenville, SC, where I was born and raised.

-Nick