Dave Cockrum R.I.P.

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

Clifford Meth, a friend of the family, released the following statement:

With a heavy heart, I regret to inform you that Dave Cockrum passed away this morning. After a long battle with diabetes and its varied complications, Dave died in his sleep early this morning.

Dave’s many creations—including some of the X-Men’s staple characters—brought tremendous joy to his legion of fans. For three decades, he was a beloved fixture at comics conventions across the country where he would sketch for a pittance and encourage would-be creators. Those of us who knew Dave personally will remember him as one of the sweetest, jovial, most generous individuals in the comics industry. I’ll miss my friend very much.

There are no details of services at this time. Dave asked to be cremated, and his widow Paty is burdened with the news, so well-wishers are asked not to call. Email can be sent to magnetorampant@yahoo.com.

58 comments on “Dave Cockrum R.I.P.”

  1. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to interview Dave Cockrum twice for “Destinies-The Voice of Science Fiction.” The first time was in 1985, when he was about to launch “The Futurians” as a series, and the second was in 1995, when he was planning to re-launch the series (which regrettably never came through, apart from a black and white one-shot). I plan to re-air those interviews on “Destinies'” year-end comics review show on December 29th as a tribute to Dave.
    The last time I saw Dave was at I-Con 20 in 2001. He was the Comics Guest of Honor for that year, and even then was in a wheelchair as a result of the complications of diabetes. In one of the few times I’ve ever bought art, I was thrilled to buy two signed prints from Dave at that convention: the covers of the Captain America and Avengers novels from the 1970s Marvel Novel Series, two beautiful paintings of his that were always among my favorites of his work.
    I always admired Dave’s sense of design, from his outstanding updates of the Legion costumes (I know he was especially proud of Lightning Lad’s costume, which more or less remains to this day, even on the animated series) to his later re-imagining of the Legion as the Imperial Guard. I wish he had been able to realize his dream of bringing “The Futurians” back, and I’m glad he was able to gain some measure of restitution for his creation of at least four of the all-new X-Men. My condolences to his family.

  2. When I worked for FantaCo in the early 1980s, we published a series of magazines abiout various Marvel characters. The first was the X-Men Chronicles, published by FantaCo in the early 1980s. As editor of the publication, I arranged with Dave (I’m thinking because Wendy Pini knew Paty) to have the cover drawn and sent up to us in Albany.
    Unfortunately, Dave got a little behind, and we REALLY needed the cover to send the book to the printers. So I took a train from Albany to NYC, to the Marvel offices, and met Dave. He gave me the painted cover – very lovely- the image here (http://i20.ebayimg.com/05/i/07/7f/5f/38_2.JPG) does not do it justice – but WHICH WAS STILL WET! He was very pleasant and apologetic. I carried the cover carefully on the subway back to the train station, then back up to Albany.

    My condolences.

  3. I am going to miss him. I just noticed his artwork on the front cover of the X-Men Kirby comics inserted into the X-Men 3 DVD. When I wrote a review for Amazon I mentioned that there wasn’t any stories with Dave’s art.

    When I heard about the problems Dave had with his health I was hoping that he would do the art chores on one more issue.

    It’s very hard for me to see him pass on. With John Buscema and Alex Toth no longer with us I have to wonder who is going to fill the void of great creators out there…….

  5. I was just in my closet, appened to look up at my two comics boxes, and I realized that the only ones I have bagged for the future are my X-booka, my Trek books, and of course my GI Joe books. A few of those X-books have been restapled so many times a few don’t even open anymore, especially ones with good Nightcrawler action, like Uncanny 159, where they fight Dracula.

    Thanks, Dave. You helped make my childhood a good one.

  6. ROG, I wonder if I ever ran into you when I was going to Albany Med Grad school around 1983-85?

    Loved Fantaco. Loved the Fantacons. They were probably the big thing that got me heavily into horror movies.

    They don’t make stores like that any more.

  8. Bill Mulligan – Probably yes. While it was the Hembeck books and John Caldwell’s Mug Shots that we first published, we did do Splatter Movies in 1981, even before the X-Men Chronicles that Dave’s cover graced. I was there at FantaCo from 1980-1988, and worked at FantaCo in 1979-1981, 1983 and 1988.

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