Category: Obituaries

UPDATE: Michael Davis victim of prank death hoax

UPDATE: Michael was hacked badly, with messages sent out to family and friends. He’s alive and well.

We are incredibly sad to report that Michael Davis, longtime columnist for ComicMix, committed suicide one day before his birthday.

We can list all his accomplishments in the comics field and go through his history and impact in the field, from his mentoring of numerous up and comers in the industry to his co-founding of Milestone Media and Motown Animation & Filmworks AND The Guardian Line AND The Black Panel at San Diego Comic-Con AND… but the best way to hope to understand and know Michael is through his words and his works.

There will be more to say later about him, but right now we’re too shocked to be coherent. Please, if you or someone you care about are considering self-harm or suicide, contact the Suicide Prevention Hotline.

We’re sorry we couldn’t have helped you more, Michael. Rest easy.


Mike Raub

Mike Raub: 1951-2019

Mike Raub, long-time comic fan, retailer, broadcaster and podcaster, passed away tonight after a long illness. He was 68.

Mike was the original podcaster here at ComicMix from 2006 to 2008, later creating Get The Point Radio, all while moonlighting from his day job as the director of AM programming for Cox Communication. If you listened to radio in the 2000s, you probably heard Mike on the dial on one station or another.

I first met Mike at the age of 15, at a meeting of the fledgling East Coast Comic Book Retailers Association, when he and his first wife Lori ran The Dream Factory in Connecticut, which he owned and operated from 1985 to 1994. He impressed me with his energy and passion in a field not exactly lacking in extroverts.

He was born in Marion, Ohio and turned into a hardcore comics fan at a very early age, writing letters and creating fanzines. He later studied radio broadcasting at Ohio State University.

We were very lucky that he combined his love of comics, pop culture, and broadcasting for us for so many years.

Our deepest condolences to his wife Kai, his children Matt, Max, Mark, Mickey, Mike, and Sammy, and to his hundreds of friends and thousands of listeners.

Stan Lee: 1922-2018

Stan “The Man” Lee has died at the age of 95, according to news reports.

If you need biographical information about his life and his achievements, we strongly recommend his autobiographies Excelsior!: The Amazing Life of Stan Lee and Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir, because no one could tell Stan’s story better than he could himself. (We presume if you read ComicMix, you already know how important he was to comics. ‘Nuff said.)

Our condolences to his family, friends, and fans.

 

 

Norm Breyfogle: 1960-2018

Norman Keith “Norm” Breyfogle, a comic artist known as one of the premier Batman artists of the 80s and 90s, with a wide and varied career ranging from Archie to Whisper, passed away Monday at the age of 58.

Over a thirty-year career, Norm worked for DC, Dark Horse, Marvel, Valiant, Malibu, First, Archie, Speakeasy, Markosia, Angel Gate Press, and (we’re proud to say) ComicMix. He co-created the Batman characters the Ventriloquist, Ratcatcher, Zsasz, and Jeremiah Arkham, Prime for Malibu’s Ultraverse and owned his own character Metaphysique.

On December 18, 2014, Norm Breyfogle had an ischemic cerebrovascular accident that cut off blood flow to part of his brain and reduced his control of the left side of his body, cutting Norm’s career tragically short. ComicMix put a benefit book together to help defray his ongoing expenses, The Whisper Campaign, which reprinted his first monthly job in comics, with new contributions from numerous pros that were also fans of Norm and his work.

Many people are leaving remembrances for Norm on the website of his funeral home.

Our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and fans.

 

The Today Show honors Marie Severin

Yesterday, Sunday TODAY’s Willie Geist remembered mirthful Marie Severin, who designed, sketched and colored covers for many of the most famous characters in the Marvel Universe, including Doctor Strange; The Incredible Hulk; Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner; Spider-Woman; and the parody series Not Brand Echh, and who died last week at age 89.

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Steve Ditko: 1927-2018

Stephen J. Ditko, one of the most iconoclastic comic creators of all time and creator or co-creator of Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, the Question, the Creeper, Shade the Changing Man, Hawk and Dove, Starman, Stalker, the Odd Man, Squirrel Girl, and his most personal creation Mr. A, has died at his home at the age of 90.

Famously reclusive (there are less than five known photographs of him) and fiercely independent, Ditko was found unresponsive in his apartment in New York City on June 29. Police said he had died within the previous two days. He was pronounced dead at age 90, with the cause of death initially deemed as a result of a myocardial infarction, brought on by arteriosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease.

There may be no better way to get a flavor of his impact on the field than the 2007 BBC documentary In Search Of Steve Ditko, hosted by Jonathan Ross:

Our condolences to his family, friends, and fans.

 

Harlan Ellison: 1934-2018

“For a brief time I was here, and for a brief time, I mattered.”

A legend has passed. Harlan Ellison, Grandmaster of the Science Fiction Writers of America and member of the SF Hall of Fame, died in his sleep overnight. He was 84 years old. His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays, and a wide range of journalism and criticism covering literature, film, television, print, and the life and times we live in.

In the next few days, you will hear many stories about Harlan. Listen carefully. Many of them are true. A proper retrospective is coming from us. We’re big fans of his work, and have interviewed Harlan in the past.

For me, he was one of two people to whom I dedicated my first published story: “To Harlan, who taught me that anyone who can write, should write.”

To get a sense of the man, here’s the trailer to the documentary Dreams With Sharp Teeth:

To get a sense of his writing, read his writing, dammit.

Our condolences to his wife, Susan, and his many friends and fans.

 

Cinamon Hadley, The Girl Who Was Death, Has Died

Cinamon Hadley, whose appearance inspired the look of Death in the Sandman comic series, passed away today according to Sandman co-creator Neil Gaiman.

The body-piercer and goth icon whose portrait was immortalized as the second eldest in a family of anthropomorphized forces called the Endless, Hadley was described as extremely tall, extraordinarily thin, with bone-white skin, impeccable make-up and thin, black hair.

According to Gaiman in The Sandman Companion, he imagined the character as looking like ‘60s singer Nico as she appeared on the cover of Chelsea Girl. But the comic’s artist, Mike Dringenberg, had other ideas, and thought of a good friend in Salt Lake City. Gaiman writes, “He sent me a drawing based on a woman he knew named Cinamon—the drawing that was later printed in Sandman 11—and I looked at it and had the immediate reaction of, ‘Wow. That’s really cool.’”

Cinamon was diagnosed with the advanced stages of small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the colon in 2017. After a brief remission, the cancer returned and spread.

Our condolences to her family, friends, and fans. We hope she’s well met by someone who looks a lot like her.

 

Marifran O’Neil, 1940 – 2017

Our friend Marifran O’Neil died yesterday morning.

A teacher in Brooklyn NY, Maryland, Illinois and her native St. Louis Missouri, Marifran was the wife of writer / editor and ComicMix columnist Denny O’Neil, whose column normally runs in this space at this time.

Born February 10, 1940, Marifran and Denny were childhood sweethearts who became separated by time and distance. They reconnected in the 1990s and were married in 2009; a true story of love and romance. I know first-hand; Denny and Marifran got back together when Denny and I were sharing an office at DC Comics at the time. Upon reuniting with Marifran, Denny immediately morphed into a man completely and hopelessly in love.

She had that impact not only on Denny but on all of us. A charming person and a wonderful conversationalist, I looked forward to seeing her at various comics conventions and social gatherings, including Martha Thomases’ legendary Hanukkah donut party, the annual salon of New York comics people. Marifran’s presence made each meeting an event.

Marifran had two daughters, Meg and Beth, who live and work in Portland and Nevada respectively.

Trying to avoid an overused meme is impossible: Marifran truly was a special and unique person, and we will miss her greatly.

Len Wein: 1948-2017

Len Wein, the Eisner Hall Of Fame comics writer best known for creating the New X-Men, Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler, Mockingbird, Swamp Thing, Human Target, Lucius Fox, and editor know for editing New Teen Titans, Batman, Flash, Who’s Who in the DC Universe, and Watchmen, died Saturday. He was 69.

Over his nearly fifty years in comics, he wrote thousands of comics stories and edited hundreds more for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW, and Disney Comics, where he served as Editor-In-Chief. He also wrote numerous animated episodes for Action Man, Avengers: United We Stand, ReBoot, ExoSquad, and Batman: The Animated Series, among many others.

I last saw Len at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International, where we both represented the pros for the fan-pro Trivia Challenge.

He is survived by his wife, Christine Valada. My heart goes out to her, all his friends (he had hundreds), all his fans (he had tens of thousands), and the people his work touched (millions).

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