Gone But Not Forgotten, 2023 Edition

37+ Comic People and Things That Said Goodbye in 2023

1. Al Jaffee (b. 1921)
In the dedication for his 1968 book Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, Al Jaffee wrote: “To myself, without whose inspired and tireless efforts this book would not have been possible.” Hard to argue with the man about that (and not because you just know he’ll have the perfect snappy answer to anything we might say). 

The numbers alone stagger the mind. Jaffee was a regular contributor to MAD magazine for 65 years, making him the longest-running contributor in the magazine’s history (if not the longest-running contributor in any magazine’s history); in the half-century between April 1964 and April 2013, only one issue of MAD was published without any new material by Jaffee. He started his career in 1942 and retired in 2020, at age 99, putting him in the Guinness Book of World Records as the cartoonist with the longest career. Why did he keep at it for so long? Talk about stupid questions. “Serious people my age are dead,” he once quipped.

Born in Savannah, GA, to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, Jaffee spent his childhood being shuttled back and forth between that country and the U.S. When he was in Lithuania with his mother, his father (who stayed behind in the U.S.) mailed him comic-strip clippings from American newspapers, and Jaffee would entertain the other kids in the shtetl by tracing panels from strips like Little Orphan Annie in the sand.

Lithuania in the 1930s was not the safest place for a Jewish family, and Jaffee and his brothers were sent back to the U.S. to live with their father in Queens, NY. Sadly, his mother stayed behind and was presumed perished among the hundreds of thousands of Lithuanian victims of the Nazi occupation. Whether out of grief or because of other reasons, Jaffee’s father grew increasingly erratic in the years following her death, missing his son’s graduation and tossing out all of Jaffee’s sketches and personal belongings when he joined the army.

Faced with all the tragedy and absurdity in his life, Jaffee had a choice in how to respond, and what he chose was humor (it probably helped that his classmates at the High School of Music & Art in the late 1930s included fellow future MAD men like Will Elder, Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, and Al Feldstein). Embarking on a career in comics in 1942, he started out as an artist for books like Marvel’s Joker Comics and Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal; after a stint in the army, he returned to Marvel to edit the company’s teen and humor books before moving on to MAD in 1955.

It was in issue #86, right between MAD’s take on Lawrence of Arabia and a parody ad for Lucky Strikes cigarettes, that Jaffee introduced the fold-in, a cleverly designed illustration that’s folded vertically to reveal a second hidden picture. Jaffee intended his first fold-in (a riff on the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton romance that was in the headlines at the time) to be a one-off, but it soon became a recurring feature on the inside back cover of the magazine. “The thing that I got a kick out of was… Jeopardy! showed a Fold-In and the contestants all came up with the word they were looking for, which was ‘fold-in,'” he said in 2010. “So I realized, I created an English language word.” 

Sometimes it wasn’t just dictionary writers that Jaffee inspired with his doodles. One of his recurring features involved elaborate drawings of silly inventions, like telescoping shoes for walking through puddles — the kinds of inventions that wouldn’t be too practical in the real world. And while it’s hard to say if his “Hip No-Drip Sipper” was a direct inspiration for the sippy cup, we do know the inventor of a smokeless ashtray cited Jaffee as inspiration in the patent file.

“I had two jobs all my life,” Jaffee said upon his retirement. “One of them was to make a living. The second one was to entertain. I hope to some extent that I succeeded.” Did he succeed in his goals? Now that’s a stupid question. Died April 10

2. John Romita Sr. (b. 1930)
If Steve Ditko gave Spider-Man heart, then John Romita gave him soul. “With Romita’s arrival, Amazing Spider-Man lost Ditko’s luminous eccentricity,” wrote Douglas Wolk in his book All of the Marvels, “but it suddenly looked glamorous and limber, like a former teen prodigy who’s gotten a flattering new wardrobe over the summer.” Not a mention a lot of new friends and playmates to fight with, like Kingpin, Rhino, Shocker, Captain Stacy… and the one and only Mary Jane Watson, who made her memorable debut after Lee and Ditko had set up a running gag about Peter always just missing the “nice girl” his Aunt May wanted him to meet. Face it, tiger — we all hit the jackpot when those two finally connected.

Born a Brooklyn boy, Romita started his career in comics in 1949 when he sold a story to the comic strip anthology Famous Funnies. That one didn’t get published, but a chance encounter with inker Lester Zakarin led Romita to provide uncredited artwork for a story published by Timely Comics, the forerunner to Marvel Comics, which led to his first meeting with editor-in-chief Stan Lee. By 1951, Romita was drafted into the army, but his assignment as a recruitment poster artist allowed him time to freelance, and he produced art for Marvel’s Captain America and Young Men before moving over to DC Comics and working extensively on that company’s line of romance books — experience that came in handy when he returned to Marvel in 1965.

By the time Ditko left Marvel in 1966, Amazing Spider-Man was one of its best-selling books, and to say that Romita’s art style was a departure from Ditko’s is an understatement. But Romita’s talent for depicting romance and soap opera antics in a story took the title to new heights, and it was his Spider-Man whose face became the definitive take for many fans. Romita illustrated or laid out the art for 56 issues and drew over 50 covers during his first run on the book, then returned for a second shorter run in 1973, though he continued to contribute covers and occasional inking through issue #166 and on special occasions, like the time he did inks for 1982’s Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 — a story for which his son, John Jr., provided the pencils.

Promoted to Marvel’s art director in the early 1970s, a title that was made official in 1973, Romita spent the following two decades overseeing the design and introduction of many of Marvel’s most popular properties including Wolverine, Luke Cage, and the Punisher. By 1977, he also took on the artistic duties for the Amazing Spider-Man newspaper strip, introducing the web-crawler and his friends to a whole new audience. 

 

Romita left Marvel in 1995 when the company, then in financial trouble, required him to personally fire employees. He continued to work in comics into his older years, occasionally turning up to pencil or ink important anniversary issues. He also made several appearances at conventions to accept well-earned accolades, like his induction into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame in 2020.

“John Romita Sr was friendly and welcoming to me from the very first time I went up to the Marvel offices for an informational tour, and never ceased being the legendary but approachable (and funny) colleague the entire time I knew and worked with him,” wrote former Spider-Man head editor Danny Fingeroth. “A great loss to us all.” Romita’s son, John Jr., was more succinct: “He is a legend in the art world, and it would be my honor to follow in his footsteps… He was the greatest man I ever met.” Died June 12

3. Keith Giffen (b. 1952)
Leave it to Keith Giffen to have the last laugh, literally: “I told them I was sick…” read a Facebook post on his page two days after his death. “Anything not to go to New York Comic Con/Thanx/Keith Giffen 1952-2023/Bwah ha ha ha ha.”

Ask anyone who ever worked with Giffen — or any fan familiar with any of his work over the course of his 50-year career in comics — and they’ll happily tell you their favorite Giffen moment. The introduction of Lobo (whom Giffen co-created with writer Roger Slifer) in a 1983 issue of Omega Men. The re-introduction of Lobo in his more recognizable (and more satirical) “main man” mode in issues of Justice League International. The first appearance of Rocket Raccoon. The first appearance of the Jaime Reyes version of Blue Beetle. “The Great Darkness Saga.” Ambush Bug. “BWAH-HA-HA-HA!!!” Invasion! Eclipso: The Darkness Within. “One punch! ONE PUNCH!” Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos, which re-invented one of Marvel’s old pre-superhero monsters (Groot) into the lovable Guardian we know today. That one book where the Easter Bunny hires Lobo to kill Santa. And almost all of it delivered with the trademark tongue-in-cheek wit that made Giffen one of the most popular writer/artists in the business. 

   

Born in Queens, NY, Giffen was a comic fan from a young age, and after an attempt at a formal art education he ended up teaching himself anatomy and perspective during his four years working as a hazardous materials handler at a pharmaceuticals firm. After a few false starts and some smaller assignments, in 1982 he teamed up with writer Paul Levitz on DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes, transforming the book from “future super-teens fight evil space circuses” to one with considerable depth and stakes, making it a surprise bestseller in the early ’80s. 

While Giffen could easily handle depth and stakes, he was even more at home with books that let him show his fun side. After inflicting the fourth wall-busting Ambush Bug on the world, he teamed up with fellow writer J.M. DeMatteis to create a new Justice League title that was often more superhero sitcom than anything else (an editorial decision he once said came out of the fact that a lot of DC’s “heavy hitters” weren’t made available for the book, and so the team working on it decided to go for broke and have fun with the lesser-known characters they could play with). The comic was an immediate hit, garnering awards and spawning spin-offs and imitations that followed Justice League’s lead by savoring the inherent silliness of superhero comics at a time when much of the industry was tilting towards a darker, grittier tone.

 

Not that Giffen was above getting dark and gritty. When he returned to the Legion of Super-Heroes in 1989 as both plotter and breakdown artist, he made it clear these weren’t the sunny super-powered youngsters of the past; these were the hardened survivors of a cataclysm tasked with the job of bringing back hope to a desolate world (a far cry from the “bwah-ha-ha” moments Giffen helped serve up in other places).

I’m only just now getting out of the 1980s and there’s so much more to talk about. The much underrated L.E.G.I.O.N. His Aquaman reboot. The Heckler. His run on Magnus: Robot Fighter for Valiant. Marvel’s Annihilation. His Reign of the Zodiac with artist Colleen Doran. DC’s 52 series that followed Infinite Crisis. The New 52 O.M.A.C. title that saw Giffen channel his inner Kirby. His own takes on Suicide Squad and Doom Patrol, as well as…

You know, we could be here all day just rattling off all the incredible stories Giffen left behind, and we’ll have no room left for the people who knew him best, or the ones he inspired to create their own great stories. So let’s give some of them the last word: Jim Lee (“Keith did it like no other in the modern age”), J.M. DeMatteis (“one of the most brilliantly creative humans I’ve ever known”), Dan Jurgens (“no one did it better than Keith”), Rob Liefeld (“one in a million”), Philip Hester (“the living embodiment of American comics”), Ted Kord (“BWAH HA HA HA!!!”)… all right, which one of you jokers let that last guy get in here? Don’t make me break out my one punch. Died October 9

4. Joe Giella (b. 1928)
As a child, Joe Giella ran around the streets of his Queens, NY, neighborhood with his pal Tony Bennett — who was a half-decent artist himself but ultimately found fame as one of America’s most beloved jazz and pop singers. One can only wonder how different the world would have been if Bennett and Giella had switched careers; while only his friends and family would know if Giella could have cut it crooning on a Vegas stage, it’s almost a guarantee Bennett would have found it hard to live up to the legacy Giella left behind.

Giella’s son, Frank, described his father as “probably one of the most prolific inkers in comic book history” and an artist who “might be one of the most-seen comic book artists in history.” For almost anyone else in the comics business that might have sounded like a wee bit of hyperbole, but for Giella it’s just plain fact. From the moment he walked into Stan Lee’s office in 1946 as an 18-year-old kid looking for work to the day he retired from his 25-year artist gig on the Mary Worth newspaper strip in 2016, Giella enjoyed a long career in comics that few others had ever achieved.

After a few years “doing a little touch-up work, a little background work, a little inking, redraw this, fix this head, do something with this panel” at Timely, Giella joined his pal Frank Giacoia at DC in 1949, inking stories featuring the Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary, and other characters under editor Julius Schwartz. Soon enough, Giella was enjoying a front row to history with a regularity that would have made Forrest Gump jealous.

There he was, inking some of the earliest Silver Age Flash stories. There he was again, inking the first Silver Age Green Lantern tale. And again, inking the first “new look” Batman for Detective Comics. And again, on the team that crafted the Justice League of America’s debut in The Brave and the Bold. And again, penciling and inking the Batman newspaper strip at the height of Bat-mania in the 1960s. And again, and again, and again…

Giella provided inks for thousands of stories well into the 1980s, but by then his inking skills led to him spending more of his time assisting friends on their comic strips: Dan Barry (Flash Gordon), Sy Barry (The Phantom), Frank Giacoia (Johnny Reb and Billy Yank, Sherlock Holmes), Murphy Anderson (Buck Rogers), Fred Kida (The Amazing Spider-Man).

When he took over the art chores for Mary Worth in 1991, one of the first things he did was to remove the wrinkles from Mary’s face and give her a more modern look — a move that caused the Los Angeles Times to ponder if she’d had a facelift. For his lifetime of work, he received the Comic-Con Inkpot Award in 1996, the Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, and the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award in 2018.

“Everything he drew, it was all with a gentle, clean line that produced likable people — the way Joe saw the world,” DC’s Paul Levitz wrote in tribute. “We should all take a note from this man’s book that he’s closed with such honor. It’s possible to make wonderful art, have a life full of love and friends, and do your work well for many decades. But most of us won’t manage to do it all, or do it as gracefully.” Died March 21

5. Joe Matt (b. 1963)
Born in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Joe Matt earned a degree in illustration from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1985. After school, he headed north to Toronto, where he lived and worked with friends and fellow artists for 15 years while developing Peepshow, a deeply confessional and self-deprecating autobiographical comic that delved into everything from childhood events to his fraught relationships and addictions to pornography and masturbation. First appearing in the late 1980s as one-page strips in anthologies like Snarf and Drawn & Quarterly, the first issue of Peepshow came out in 1992; all 14 issues were later collected into four volumes (Peepshow, The Poor Bastard, Fair Weather, and Spent).

Though not prolific as an artist, Matt has joined the ranks of artists like Robert Crumb, Justin Green, and Harvey Pekar with his achingly honest self-portraits, and he inspired a generation of artists to see the comic medium as a space for brutal self-reflection (and, on occasion, to give a shout-out to The Beguiling, the greatest comic shop in Toronto if not the world).

   

Outside of Peepshow, Matt supplemented his income by doing coloring work for Comico (Grendel, Johnny Quest, Fish Police) and projects like the 1993 Batman/Grendel mini-series, the latter earning him an Eisner Award nomination (in addition to the four he received over the years for his Peepshow works).

Moving to Los Angeles in 2003, he spent the last part of his life doing what he loved, cartooning and puttering around his neighborhood; he was found dead at his drawing board, apparently of a heart attack.

“Anyone who knew Joe knew that, yes, he was often as frustratingly stubborn and neurotic as he portrayed himself in those pages [of Peepshow]… but he was also charming, funny, insightful and loyal to the few friends he deemed worth the effort,” wrote Matt Wagner, his longtime friend and occasional collaborator. “I’ll dearly miss my old buddy and his unique outlook on the world… and how we began every phone call babbling in Donald Duck talk at each other. So long, broheim… the world’s just a bit more boring without you.” Died September 18

6. Steve Skeates (b. 1943)
Born in Rochester, NY, Skeates was one of the first of the second generation of comic writers who entered the field in the 1960s. Stan Lee hired him as an assistant editor in 1965, but his lack of proofreading experience led to him getting assigned other duties, like writing stories for Marvel’s Western titles. This seemed to have suited him just fine; soon enough, he was freelancing for Tower Comics (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Undersea Agent) and Charlton Comics, where he first worked with Steve Ditko. Together, the two introduced Hawk and Dove in a 1968 issue of DC’s Showcase before launching the dichotomous duo in their own series; when the partnership with Ditko ended, Skeates went on to write for such DC titles as Aquaman, Plastic Man, Plop!, House of Mystery, and House of Secrets, as well as titles published by Warren (Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella) and Gold Key (Underdog, The Twilight Zone). A return to Marvel in 1980 saw him pen Howard the Duck stories for Crazy magazine and scripts for Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham while also contributing to Marvel Productions cartoons like The Transformers, Jem, and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. Though he left the business in the late 1980s in part to take care of his ailing father, he continued to write fiction and non-fiction over the years, including a short-lived comic strip titled The Adventures of Stew Ben and Alec Gainey (referencing the towns of Steuben, NY, and Allegany, NY) that ran in his local upstate New York newspaper. Recognized during his lifetime with three Shazam Awards, including two for Best Humor Story, he also received the Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing in 2012. “His stories were usually very fresh and, even when it might not have been appropriate, very funny,” said fellow writer Mark Evanier. “His work always stood out from the pack. We could use more writers like that.” Died March 30

7. Ian McGinty (b. 1985)
Every death is a tragedy, but it can hit extra hard when it happens to someone who’s seen as being in the prime of their life. When Ian’s mother announced his death at age 38 on Facebook, she didn’t mention a cause of death, only saying “We lost our son, brother, and best friend […] We will always love you, Ian.” The sudden death of the writer and artist behind Welcome to Showside and Hello, My Name is Poop led to many of his colleagues (and others in the industry who never met him) expressing their grief online, with the discussion soon venturing into the difficulty of making a living in comics and how the pressures of the business might have played a role in McGinty’s death. His friend and fellow cartoonist Shadia Amin tweeted he had health issues that stemmed from being overworked and underpaid: “I cannot emphasize how much Ian was constantly working, trying to get pitches done, he even briefly worked in animation and I know he barely slept a lot of the time.” Soon enough, the hashtag #comicsbrokeme started trending as some in the comics field shared their own harrowing stories about crushing workloads and low pay while others called for action. Just how much of a factor McGinty’s workload affected his health may never be known, but the people who loved him can take some comfort in the fact that his death ignited a discussion in the industry that’s long overdue. His family asked that he be remembered with donations made in his name to the charity Hero Initiative, or that we all “offer a bit of encouragement to a young, creative person navigating a life in the arts.” Died June 8

8. Steve Erwin (b. 1960)
The pride of Oklahoma State University, Tulsa native Steve Erwin once credited Neal Adams’ Batman stories and Gene Colan’s and Tom Palmer’s work on Daredevil in the 1970s as having “won my heart in junior high to aspire to be a comic book artist.” Attending technical school to train as a commercial artist, it was always in the back of his head to break into comics. He got that chance in the mid-1980s at the height of that decade’s independent comics boom, working on Shatter and Grimjack for First Comics. With a knack for capturing celebrity likenesses (to the point where at least one editor gave him grief for inserting unauthorized celebrity shout-outs in his work), it was just a matter of time before he got his chance to work at one of the “Big Two” publishers, and that chance came when First Comics editor Mike Gold moved to DC in 1986 and brought a number of creators over with him. Erwin made his DC debut on Vigilante, working with writer Paul Kupperberg to close out that series; he and Kupperberg then teamed up again to create Checkmate!, a series about a chess-themed spy agency working in the shadows of the DC universe. His next high-profile assignment was Deathstroke the Terminator, the first ongoing series starring the popular mercenary from the pages of The New Teen Titans, as well as a number of projects that appeared in DC’s line of Star Trek books. By the early 2000s, Erwin worked on a number of historical graphic novels for kids and served as art director for a promotions company that designed kids’ meal toys and storyboarded commercials for clients like Taco Bell and Jack in the Box — but he never forgot the thrill of working with some of the biggest names in the comic business: “Seeing him [Deathstroke] show up on [the TV show] Arrow was exactly like the feeling you get when you see a friend appear in a high-profile event: ‘Hey, I know that guy!’” Died October 25

9. Chris Browne (b. 1952)
On February 8, Tsuiwen Browne-Boeras announced the news about her brother on social media: “With much sadness, I am here to announce my brother Christopher Browne passed away peacefully in Sioux Falls, SD, after a long-term illness. After our father passed away, he was the face of our family’s cartoon strip Hägar the Horrible.” Indeed, Chris grew up watching their father, Dik Browne, create the popular comic strips Hägar the Horrible and Hi and Lois; beginning in 1973, he started assisting his dad with art chores and ideas for gags for both strips, including co-authoring Hägar the Horrible’s Very Nearly Complete Viking Handbook in 1985. In 1988, when the elder Browne could no longer continue the strips, Chris took over the art for Hägar the Horrible while his brother Chance continued Hi and Lois. Before taking on Hägar the Horrible full-time, Chris was a regular contributor to National Lampoon and the Playboy Funnies pages, and through the years he found time to contribute to Heavy Metal, Esquire, The New Yorker, Dope Comix, and other publications. Chris also created two short-lived autobiographical comic strips: Chris Browne’s Comic Strip (1993-1994) and Raising Duncan (2000-2004). But he always came back to Hägar, and he shepherded the ornery Viking to his 50th anniversary, which Chris celebrated just a few days before he died. “I worked side by side with my father from the very beginning of Hagar,” he told the Washington Post in 2002. “When we lost Dad in 1989, I was devastated and the only thing that got me through was the love of my wife, Carroll, and the idea that I could stay in touch with my dad’s spirit by getting up every day and continuing his work on Hägar.” Died February 5

10. Dan Green (b. 1952)
A native of Detroit, Dan Green’s first comic credits appeared in a 1972 story titled “Adventure on Poloda” in DC’s Tarzan #213. He did both pencils and inks for that story, and would go on to perform both tasks for other DC titles like The Haunt of Horror and Star Spangled War Stories. “Dan was one of the fresh voices, well suited, I thought, to fantasy work,” said DC’s Paul Levitz. “His worlds looked lush and real, even if unreal events (and beings) filled them.” He made his Marvel debut with 1973’s Captain Marvel #28, inking Jim Starlin’s pencils — the beginning of a lengthy career at Marvel where he worked with Sal Buscema on The Defenders, John Byrne on Iron Fist (including the debut of the classic villain Sabretooth), and numerous artists on Uncanny X-Men for much of its run. He also worked on X-Factor, Wolverine, Thor, Doctor Strange, and a host of other Marvel titles. Speaking of the good doctor, he once cited his run as penciler on Doctor Strange as one of his proudest achievements, alongside his painted illustrations for the 1986 graphic novel Doctor Strange: Into Shamballa and the black and white illustrations he did for an edition of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven and Other Poems and Tales published by Bulfinch Editions in 2001. Among the friends and colleagues who expressed their sorrow at his passing was Rick Leonardi, who said on social media that Green was “one of the few inkers, perhaps the foremost in my experience, whose work was a true act of translation. He took my scuffling pencil marks and brought them with a care and gentleness into the magical world of ink, where they kept their meaning, but acquired a grace and elegance they never had in their original language.” Died August 19

11. John Floyd (b. 1962)
As a young boy, Floyd was encouraged by none other than Jack Kirby to pursue a career in art. After his studies at The Kubert School, he began his career as an assistant to Joe Sinnott inking backgrounds on Marvel’s Thor, then worked as an inker for Neal Adams at Continuity Comics in 1990. By the mid-1990s, he was inking such DC and Marvel titles as Green Lantern: Mosaic, Batman: Gotham Knights, Silver Surfer, Birds of Prey, and Conan the Adventurer; little wonder he was tapped by artist Barry Windsor-Smith to work in his studio as an inker and finisher on such comics as Rune, Eternal Warrior, Storyteller, Young Gods, and Archer & Armstrong. Outside of the comics industry, he is credited as a storyboard artist for the films Hellblazer III, Rambling Rose, Target Earth, and Bloodmoon, and as a production artist on Django Unchained (the comic adaptation of which he also had a hand in producing). When news of his death from pancreatic cancer began to circulate, fans, friends, and fellow alums of The Kubert School gave voice to their grief in social media. “John was one of my favorite people,” wrote Nannette Brophy Major. “We met as students at The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art, Inc., Class of 1986. I will always remember his quiet cool… a deep thinker with a sweet smile and caring spirit… a true gentle man. His passion for art, especially comics, was undeniable; so it came as no surprise to me the heights he reached in his chosen field… his calling.” Died July 10

12. Lee Moder (b. 1969)
Born in Pittsburgh, Moder studied art at that city’s La Roche University before entering the comic industry in the early 1990s with credits in DC’s L.E.G.IO.N. and Malibu’s Arrow. After runs on DC’s Wonder Woman and Legion of Super-Heroes, he teamed up with writer Geoff Johns in 1999 to create Courtney “Stargirl” Whitmore, the co-star of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. whose name, appearance, and personality were patterned after Johns’ 18-year-old sister who died in the 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800. When that series ended in 2000, Moder produced pages for Marvel, Top Cow, Dynamite, CrossGen, and other publishers; by the late 2000s, he and writer Ron Marz were teaming up on projects like 2008’s Dragon Prince, 2011’s Japanese vampire epic Shinku, and the 2014 digital comic strip The Mucker: The Adventures of Billy Byrne, based on the book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. “Lee wasn’t just someone I collaborated with; he was a friend, he was almost a part of my family,” Marz said in tribute. “He stayed at my house, he drew at my kitchen table with my kids. His work had such life and joy to it. Every project we did together was a blessing, but they’re only the tip of the iceberg. Lee had stacks of sketchbooks filled with original characters and concepts and designs, full story arcs. There are entire issues that he drew and then set aside because he wasn’t quite satisfied, but I can absolutely tell you they’re amazing. I hope the world gets to see all that stuff as part of Lee’s legacy.” Died January 15

13. Lou Mougin (b. 1954)
On his Amazon author page, Lou Mougin had this to say about himself: “Writer and historian of comics, new pulp, and anything I can get my hands on. Worked for Marvel, Heroic, Lucky, Eclipse, THE CREEPS, Pro Se, Claypool, InDellible, and others. Old but immature, Christian, trying to hang on.” His interest in comics started at age four when his mother bought him a copy of Dell’s Mouse Mousketeers to read during a stay in the hospital; from there, it was a short trip to the many wonders of the Silver Age, for which he had a front-row seat. Mougin contributed comic history articles to fan magazines like Amazing Heroes and The Comics Reader, and in the 1970s and 1980s he teamed up with George Olshevsky on a complete index of all the Marvel characters, and with Murray Ward on a similar project for DC characters. His indexing work led to a phone call with Marvel’s Mark Gruenwald, who tapped him to write stories for Avengers Spotlight and 1990’s Inhumans King-Size Special. More stories by other publishers starring Airboy, Elvira, and others followed… but while he no doubt enjoyed writing comics, pulp stories, and fan fiction about his favorite characters, his greatest legacy will likely be the many hours of effort he put into composing character and issue indexes that would go on to inform many of the online indexes (like the Grand Comics Database) that millions of fans use every day to research their favorite stories and characters. His final prose work, the Frankenstein-meets-dinosaurs epic Monster in the Lost World, was published by Pro Se Productions shortly after his death. Died December 31, 2022

14. Dina Norlund (b. 1995)
Born in Oslo, Norway, Dina Norlund studied industrial design at the FZD School of Design in Singapore. She worked from 2016 to 2018 as a concept artist for Britain’s video game art studio Atomhawk Design, and freelanced for other clients including LEGO, designing environments and sets for LEGO Friends, Star Wars, and LEGO City TV commercials. Afterwards, she founded her own company, Hushbird, in Newcastle upon Tyne. She released a picture book, Greylegs, and two comics, Sprout and Wild, via digital outlets, while her crowdfunded fantasy graphic novel The Snowcat Prince was acquired and published by Egmont across Scandinavia in 2021. Dina also ran a YouTube and Twitch channel, and sold custom tutorials and digital brushes to fans. At the time of her death, she had started an unfinished webcomic, Watergirl, and had two more books in the works, Tamtam the Pathfinder and Nettle & the Hush-Hush. “Dina was an incredibly talented artist and storyteller,” said Oni Press senior editor Grace Scheipeter after Norlund’s death from cancer at age 27. “She was such a joy and inspiration to work with, and her passing is a heartbreaking loss. I know her work will continue to inspire young artists, authors, and readers the same way it will inspire me for years to come.” Died February 22

15. Jason Pearson (b. 1970)
Pearson’s first professional comic work appeared in Innovation titles like Justice Machine and Hero Alliance, but it wasn’t long before his bursting-with-energy style popped up in DC titles like Starman, Justice League Quarterly, and Legion of Super-Heroes, the latter being his first regular penciling gig. He finished his Legion run in 1992, a heady time to be a young artist in the comic industry, and he juggled assignments from DC, Marvel, and Image Comics while pitching ideas for a series that would become known as Body Bags, the story of a father-and-daughter team of bounty hunters. “It was notable for the full embrace of the kinetic energy of Pearson’s work, as well as his fascination with over-the-top styling in all sorts of areas, including sex and gore,” wrote CBR.com’s Brian Cronin. Later, he would develop a reputation as a solid cover artist on such titles as Batman: Gotham Knights, Robin, Deadpool, and Amazing Spider-Man, but by 2012 he pulled back from mainstream comic work to focus more on commissions and personal projects, including a Kickstarter-funded Body Bags sequel that remained unfinished when he died. “The night I found out Jay had passed, I spent time talking to nearly all the original Gais and I find myself immensely grateful for that,” said Cully Hamner, referring to the Atlanta-based comic book artist collective Gaijin Studios that Pearson co-founded. “It made me realize that we’re still Gaijin Studios underneath it all and we always will be, Jason included. Wherever you are now, Jay, I hope it’s peaceful and hilarious, and filled with music and art. And I hope there are no spiders.” Died December 19, 2022; death announced January 16

16. Rachel Pollack (b. 1945)
In 1990, when Neil Gaiman wanted to include a tarot reading in a comic book he was writing, he turned to fantasy writer and tarot expert Rachel Pollack, author of Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot. The two had met when Gaiman, in his former role as a journalist, interviewed her for the British newspaper Today. When they stopped by a New Age bookstore in London to find a deck to use, he wasn’t prepared for what happened next. “What fascinated me,” Mr. Gaiman said in an interview, “was the point where they realized this was Rachel Pollack; I was in the shop with a rock star. I had not realized until that moment how important Rachel’s writing was.” Five years later, the two of them would join forces with artist Dave McKean to create Vertigo Tarot, a guidebook and a set of cards featuring many of DC Comics’ mystical characters. This was also around the same time that DC hired Pollack to write Doom Patrol, which by then had developed a reputation for being a title where anything was possible; Pollack, a transgender activist, rose to the occasion by introducing Kate Godwin AKA Coagula, the company’s first transgender hero. “Kate’s story remains — even 30 years later — among the deepest portrayals of the trans experience in mainstream superhero comics, fueled by Pollack’s own trans experience,” wrote Polygon’s Jessica Crets in 2022. “Kate was a trans character shown in a way that we’ve rarely seen since in Big Two superhero comics. She was an outsider who found family among other outsiders, something that for many trans people is still the norm.” Died April 7

17. David Sutherland (b. 1933)
Beano editor John Anderson didn’t mince words when asked by the BBC to say something about the passing of Beano artist David Sutherland. “No one will ever repeat what David achieved over 60 years,” he said. “He was one of a kind, a genuine legend. It is the end of an era.” Born in Invergordon in the Scottish Highlands five years before D.C. Thomson launched The Beano, Sutherland apprenticed at Rex Studios in Glasgow where he illustrated ads while taking night classes at the Glasgow School of Art. During the early 1950s, he worked on movie posters and became the only artist allowed to draw Disney characters in the UK; he joined The Beano after placing third in an art competition in 1959. He initially penciled adventure comics before moving on to the weekly magazine’s trademark comedy characters, taking over The Bash Street Kids in 1962 — which he would still be drawing 60 years later — and drawing more than 1,000 Dennis the Menace (the UK version) strips between 1970 and 1998; he also worked on the magazine’s sister title The Dandy in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His wife, Margaret, said her husband only put his pen down a month before his death when he took ill. “Drawing was his life; it made us forget the age he was,” she said. “He was getting older but we never noticed it. He just kept going and the editors remained happy with his work.” Died January 19

18. Ian Gibson (b. 1946)
Britain’s Ian Gibson had been battling cancer for a long time, and he knew his days were short when he sent a message out to his fans earlier this month saying “Goodbye, thanks for all the love.” Shortly after that, his son announced his death on social media: “He loved all of you so much, and he always spoke of how much you all meant to him, continuing to draw right up until he could no longer hold a pencil. Your kind words have helped us through this dark time, and now my father has gone to be with the many legends he helped create I know that he will live on, in all of our hearts and minds as the hero he was to so many.” Gibson made his 2000 AD debut in 1977, the title’s first year, with artwork for a Judge Dredd story with writer John Warner. He continued to draw the futuristic lawman, including episodes for the first Judge Dredd epic, “Robot Wars.” Soon after, when Warner came up with a new series called “Robo-Hunters,” Gibson put his own stamp on the strip, catapulting him into the pantheon of 2000 AD greats. “Gibson brought an anarchic and constantly surprising approach to storytelling on the series,” said 2000 AD publisher Rebellion in a tribute, “as brilliant at handling the high-stakes action sequences as he was at injecting humour, bringing charm to the laconic lead character and introducing a host of memorable supporting characters who caused chaos and kept readers riveted to each new story.” In 1984, he teamed up with Alan Moore to create “The Ballad of Halo Jones,” a series about a young woman facing betrayal, danger, and heartbreak in a future world. From Rebellion again: “Gibson never lost his ability to make the fantastical into something which felt relatable, exciting and real; his gift for humour marks him as one of 2000 AD’s most expressive and human artists.” Died December 11

19. Buichi Terasawa (b. 1955)
Hailing from Hokkaido, the northernmost island in Japan, in 1976 Takeichi “Buichi” Terasawa moved to Tokyo to study under renowned manga artist Osamu Tezuka. In 1977, he began drawing for Weekly Shōnen Jump, a popular Japanese manga magazine, and his major work, Cobra, began its serialized run there in 1978. The story about a lone-wolf space pirate flying through the universe was a massive hit and would later be adapted into an animated film and an anime series in 1982. His timing couldn’t have been better; his work made him a household name just as his particular brand of lurid, violent sci-fi set the stage for the early 1990s boom in adult anime. Teresawa continued to work steadily through the late 1990s when he learned he had a malignant brain tumor; he underwent several surgeries over the following years, with the diseased ultimately leaving him wheelchair-bound and paralyzed on the left side of his body. Fortunately, he drew with his right hand and continued to work while managing his intellectual properties, and he lived long enough to see the impact he and his fellow manga artists would have on not just their home country but the entire world. “In my first interview in France,” he once said, “both the director and the cameraman spoke Japanese. I was so surprised. I asked them how they spoke it so well. They said they learned Japanese from watching anime. It was anime that got them interested. They took Japanese classes so they could watch anime in Japanese. I thought that was fantastic.” Died September 8

20. Dærick Gröss Sr. (b. 1947)
Born in Kettering, OH, Dærick Gröss Sr. studied art and theater at the University of Cincinnati; it was there he met his future wife, Lolly, and planted the seeds for both a 54-year marriage and a lifelong career as an illustrator, instructor, and art director. After graduation, he worked for Cincinnati’s WCPO-TV as a set designer and on-air graphics artist, then joined the Cincinnati Post newspaper as a staff cartoonist. Eventually, his artistry spanned across many different media and genres, including stage playbills, magazine illustrations, caricatures, fantasy role-playing and card games, and general commercial illustration. Comic fans might recognize his artwork in such titles as Innovation’s Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, Tale of the Body Thief, Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic, and The Mummy; DC’s Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice; Image’s Bloodwulf; and Malibu’s Brian Lumley’s Necroscope, as well as his creator-owned series Murciélaga She-Bat for Studio G (which he founded in 1989) and Heroic, and the best-selling sex how-to book The Guide to Getting It On. “There has never been a day in my entire life where you weren’t there,” his son Dærick, also an artist, wrote on Facebook. “If you weren’t next to me, you were only a phone call away. As an adult, I didn’t need to hear your voice every day, but there was always that option if something changed. And I always thought of you. Never a day in my life has passed where you and Mom weren’t in my thoughts and in my heart. I have never known a day without you in it. And now I will never have that opportunity again.” Died December 8

21. Joshua Quagmire (b. 1952)
With few if any photos out there capturing Joshua Quagmire (the pen name of Richard Lester) at work, not to mention the fact he declined to show his own face the few times he wrote himself into one of his stories, it’s clear that he preferred his privacy. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that his death was also a private affair, with many fans of his work not hearing the news of his passing until days or weeks after the fact. What we do know is that Quagmire was the creator of the underground comic Cutey Bunny, a strip about a busty funny-animal superheroine that first appeared in Army Surplus Komikz, which ran sporadically for five issues from 1982 to 1985, and later appeared in publications from Fantagraphics and Rip Off Press. His comic work also overlapped with the early furry fandom of the 1980s and ’90s; one online resource for the furry community calls him a “greymuzzle” (a term of respect for older furry fans) for his contribution to their community. “Cutey Bunny was a favorite of mine, after picking up that initial run of comics in the mid-1980s,” writes comic shop owner and blogger Mike Sterling. “Every page was just crammed wall-to-wall with fun art and funny (and even better, corny) jokes. Quagmire’s personality just shone through wherever his pen touched paper and his work was a constant delight.” Died May 28

22. Allan Asherman (b. 1947)
To most comic fans, Allan Asherman’s name might not ring any bells; older readers might remember seeing his name listed as assistant editor in the credits of books from the 1970s… Star Trek fans might recognize him as the author of such reference works as The Star Trek Compendium and The Making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (as well as DC’s two-issue Who’s Who in Star Trek series)… and fanzine readers might recognize his byline from one of the hundreds of articles he wrote for publications like The Amazing World of DC Comics and Monster Times. He was a writer, an editor, a historian, and a fan above all else, but to the colleagues who knew him from his decades of work as DC’s librarian, they had one other word for him: indispensable. “Our paths crossed when he was the company’s librarian, a job he held for decades,” wrote Charles Kochman. “Allan was the repository of incalculable knowledge, and took his role as gatekeeper of the DC archives very seriously. If you wanted to fact check or research a question about an issue or a series or an author or artist, Allan was your first stop. And, if you were lucky, you were invited into the inner sanctum of the library, crossing over to the other side of the counter where the stacks of back issues were shelved — row after row of complete sets of comics dating to 1935, starting with NEW FUN No. 1 (the first DC comic of all-new material) and continuing to the present.” Allan leaves behind his wife, Arlene Lo, who also worked for DC as a proofreader. Died September 22

23. Michael Reaves (b. 1950)
If you’re a child of the ’80s or ’90s who spent way more time watching cartoons than is medically advisable (raises hand), then you have Michael Reaves to thank for making a lot of that magic happen. An aspiring science-fiction and fantasy writer, in 1974 he moved to Los Angeles to break into television. He sold his first script (“Bigfoot,” an episode of the live-action superhero series The Secrets of Isis) to Filmation in 1975, and soon transitioned to the studio’s animated division where he worked on shows like The New Archie/Sabrina Hour and Space Sentinels. From there, it was a short hop to basically every cartoon under the sun, From He-Man and The Smurfs to Dungeons & Dragons and My Little Pony, with some of his comic-based animation credits including 1979’s Flash Gordon, 1981’s The Amazing Spider-Man and Friends, and 1988’s Superman. And all of that was just a warm-up act for what was to come next; when Batman: The Animated Series launched in 1992, Reaves was one of the show’s main writers, earning a Daytime Emmy for co-writing the episode “Heart of Ice” as well as writing or editing many other classic episodes. His association with the DC Animated Universe led to him co-writing the screenplays for 1993’s Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and 2003’s Mystery of the Batwoman, as well as several issues of DC’s Batman Adventures and Superman Adventures. Outside of animation, Reaves was a prolific writer of novels and short stories with eight Star Wars novels to his credit; his last major work was the InterWorld novel trilogy that he co-wrote with his daughter, Mallory, and Neil Gaiman. Died March 20

24. Phyllis Coates (b. 1927)
Television’s first Lois Lane started out life in Wichita Falls, TX, as Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell; moving to Los Angeles as a teenager, she landed a job as a chorus girl and did skits in comedian Ken Murray’s vaudeville show, then performed in USO tours. She first portrayed the headstrong Lois opposite George Reeves in 1951’s Superman and the Mole Men, and the success of that film — the first full-length theatrical feature starring the comic-book hero — quickly led to production on a syndicated TV show. Coates played Lois for all 26 episodes of the first season of 1952’s Adventures of Superman, earning $350 per episode (roughly $4,200 in today’s money); four or five episodes were shot at one time, leading to Coates wearing the same hat, clothes, and earrings in every shot to avoid continuity errors. She was asked to come back for a second season, but by then she had committed to star in a TV pilot that ultimately didn’t go to air… and besides, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be known as Superman’s girl friend for the rest of her career. “[Producer] Whitney Ellsworth offered me about four or five times what I was getting if I’d come back,” she said in 2006. “But I really wanted to get out of Superman.” Noel Neill, who had played Lois in the 1948 and 1950 Superman film serials starring Kirk Alyn, was recruited to replace Coates for the remainder of the show’s run, which suited Coates just fine; after starring in a string of films (Girls in Prison, Blood Arrow, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein) and TV episodes (The Lone Ranger, Death Valley Days, This Is Alice) in the 1950s, by the 1960s she settled into a comfortable semi-retirement as a wife and homemaker after marrying a Los Angeles doctor. One of her final TV roles saw her back in the superhero business, this time as Lois’s mother in a 1994 episode of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Died October 11

25. Paul Reubens (b. 1952)
As Reubens once explained to The Hollywood Reporter, his chance to portray the Penguin’s father twice (in 1992’s Batman Returns and in the 2014 Fox series Gotham) was a happy coincidence. “I wasn’t campaigning to play this role, I had no idea about it. My friend Carol Kane was playing the Penguin’s mother, and I asked her if we could have lunch while I was in Manhattan doing The Blacklist, and she said, ‘Oh, I’d love to bring someone along that I’m working with,’ and she brought Robin [Lord Taylor, aka Gotham’s Oswald Cobblepot] along to this lunch. The two of them, in the middle of the lunch, said, ‘You know, they’re talking of bringing in Penguin’s father into the series, and would you consider doing it?’ I said yes immediately.” It also helped that Reubens greatly resembled someone who could convincingly play the father of Taylor’s conniving sociopath — and yes, that’s a compliment. Reubens first gained fame with Pee-Wee Herman, a man-child character he created while working with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings in 1978. After two hit films and an acclaimed Saturday morning show (Pee-Wee’s Playhouse) during the 1980s, he hit a career bump in 1991 after an arrest for indecent exposure led to the cancellation of his show. He bounced back with bit roles in films like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Batman Returns; he would later appear in such comic-based films as Mystery Men and The Smurfs, as well as voice roles in Batman: The Brave and the Bold (as Bat-Mite), 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the CW’s Legends of Tomorrow. He died at age 70 after a private bout with cancer. “Please accept my apology for not going public with what I’m been facing for the last six years,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “I have always felt a huge amount of love and respect from my friends, fans and supporters. I have loved you all so much and enjoyed making art for you.” Died July 30

26. Arleen Sorkin (b. 1955)
As the story goes, Paul Dini was inspired to create Harley Quinn for the Batman animated series he was developing after his college friend, Arleen Sorkin, gave him a videotape of her favorite scenes from her time on the soap opera Days of our Lives. In one scene, Sorkin played her eccentric character as a roller-skating court jester in a fantasy sequence, and it was exactly the kind of energy that Dini was looking for as he was trying to come up with a foil for the Joker. “I thought, maybe there should be a girl there,” he said. “And I thought, should the girl be like a tough street thug? Or like a hench-person or something? And then suddenly the idea of someone funny kind of struck me.” The makeup and costume for Sorkin’s clown character inspired Dini to sketch an idea for her look, which he then brought to Batman: TAS head artist Bruce Timm. After settling on “Harley Quinn” for the name, Dini also decided to give her Sorkin’s bubbly personality and blonde hair, and by then there was no question about who should give voice to this new addition to the Batman universe. Harley Quinn would debut in the September 11, 1992, episode titled “Joker’s Favor” and Sorkin returned for eight more episodes before reprising the role in video games, movies, and other animated series including Gotham Girls, Justice League, Static Shock, and Superman: The Animated Series. “Without this gorgeous, talented goddess, #HarleyQuinn would have never existed,” wrote Tara Strong, a voice actor who has also played Harley Quinn. “She was the inspiration & the heart & soul of this iconic character.” Died August 26

27. Richard Moll (b. 1943)
When Richard Moll interviewed for the role of Aristotle Nostradamus “Bull” Shannon on the 1980s sitcom Night Court, he showed up with his head shaved because of a part he was playing in the 1983 sci-fi film Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn. “They said ‘Richard, the shaved head looks good. Will you shave your head for the part?'” he recalled in a 2010 interview. “I said, ‘Are you kidding? I’ll shave my legs for the part. I’ll shave my armpits, I don’t care.'” Moll would go on to appear on all but one of the show’s 193 episodes between 1984 and 1992, and he would also make appearances in other TV shows and films including 1994’s The Flintstones and 2001’s Scary Movie 2. But he’ll likely be best remembered by comic and animation fans for his voice work on shows like Justice League, Superman: The Animated Series, 1994’s Spider-Man, Freakazoid, 1996’s The Incredible Hulk… and, of course, 1992’s Batman: The Animated Series, where he played Harvey “Two-Face” Dent. Moll had played a pre-transformation Harvey and gave voice to the Batcave’s computer in earlier episodes of the series, but it was the (naturally) two-part episode titled “Two-Face” (airdate September 25, 1992) that allowed him to really let his dark side run loose; legend has it the show’s producers were stunned into silence by the ferocity in Moll’s voice when he auditioned for the part. “Richard Moll was so wonderful as Two-Face,” Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy once said. “He’s a strange and quiet character. Extremely reserved. But he nailed that character.” Died October 26

28. Ray Stevenson (b. 1964)
Ray Stevenson is proof positive that no matter how big, brawny, or British a person might be, there’s a little bit of geek in all of us. “Getting to wield the lightsaber is just the best feeling in the world,” he once said about his character in the Star Wars streaming series Ahsoka. “The first time they handed it to me for the camera test, I couldn’t help myself, I made the noise.” After breaking into show business by acting in various British TV series, he first turned heads on the other side of the Atlantic as Titus Pullo, the charming if morally questionable soldier in the 2005 HBO drama Rome. A year after that series ended, he showed up on the big screen in 2008’s Punisher: War Zone, a violent romp that failed to score big at the box office but has since gone on to cult movie status (thanks in part to avid fans like comedian Patton Oswalt praising its cinematography and go-for-broke approach to action scenes). In his second Marvel outing, Stevenson played the Asgardian hero Volstagg, one of the fabled Warriors Three who were allies to Chris Hemsworth’s Thor. Other franchise appearances include his role as Marcus Eaton in all three Divergent films, 2013’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation, and the animated series Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The first episode of Ahsoka, released three months after Stevenson’s death, includes a dedication to him: “For our friend, Ray.” Died May 21

29. Robert Butler (b. 1927)
It was all there right from the first episode: the over-the-top acting, the Dutch angles, the over-saturated colors, the cliff-hanger death-traps, even the wooden sign that tells us the secret entrance to the Batcave is 14 miles from Gotham. When Robert Butler took on the job directing the pilot episode for the 1966 Batman TV show, he likely had no idea just how insanely popular the show would become over the course of its run… and all the elements that made it so popular were in place right from the start. Butler worked as an usher at CBS before breaking into directing in 1959 with an episode of the military comedy-drama Hennessey; in just a few short years, he was in demand to direct pilots for shows like Batman, Hogan’s Heroes, and Star Trek (which didn’t get aired but would later be repurposed for the show’s Season 1 two-parter episode “The Menagerie”). Over the years, and in between directing jobs on everything from Bonanza to Columbo, he would continue to produce memorable pilots over the decades with TV shows like Hill Street Blues (1978), Remington Steele (1982), Moonlighting (1985), and Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993). “Few directors have changed the face of television as much as Bob did,” said Directors Guild of America president Lesli Linka Glatter. “At ease in any genre, Bob’s pilots established the look and feel of several seminal series including Hogan’s Heroes, Batman and Star Trek. His groundbreaking work on Hill Street Blues brought to life the grit and reality of an urban precinct by coupling his unique visual style with evocative performances he coaxed from an incomparable cast, forever changing the trajectory and style of episodic procedurals.” Died November 3

30. Taraja Ramsess (b. 1982)
Director Ava DuVernay, who had worked with Taraja Ramsess at her distribution company, had just one word for him on Instagram: regal. “That’s the word that comes to mind when I think of him,” she wrote in a tribute. “He walked like a king. And to me, always acted like one.” Small wonder, then, he was tapped to do stunt work on both Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, in addition to such comic-based films and shows as Black Adam, Avengers: Infinity War (in which he also got to appear uncredited as a Wakandan warrior), Avengers: Endgame, The Suicide Squad, Black Lightning, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Tragically, he was killed in a car crash that also claimed the lives of three of his children: Sundari, 13; Kisasi, 10; and Fujibo, eight weeks. His mother, Akili Ramsess, executive director of the National Press Photographers Association, announced their deaths on Instagram. “All who knew and met him know how special Taraja was,” she wrote. “He had a deep capacity for love and loved his children more than all. He loved his martial arts, motorcycles and all things related to filmmaking.” Died October 31

31. Lisa Lyon (b. 1953)
When Lyon began studying kendo, the Japanese art of fencing, she realized she needed to develop more upper body strength. This led her to weight training, which in turn led to bodybuilding. By her 20s, she was setting new standards for female bodybuilding — and challenging societal expectations of women. Lyon first came to prominence when she put women’s bodybuilding on the map in 1980 by winning the first International Federation of Bodybuilders Woman’s World Pro Bodybuilding Championship. This led to appearances in fitness magazines, a Playboy photo spread in 1980, her fitness book titled Lisa Lyon’s Body Magic in 1981, and photo shoots with photographers like Robert Mapplethorpe, who released a 1983 collection of photos titled Lady: Lisa Lyon. It was around this time she caught the attention of comic artist Frank Miller, who modeled his character, the deadly assassin and Daredevil love interest known as Elektra, after her. After posing in Playboy, she told the Washington Post she did it because she had grown tired of appearing in muscle magazines and wanted to introduce the magazine’s readers to a different kind of femininity. “In the ’50s, you had women like Marilyn Monroe who were strictly sex objects,” she said. “In the ’60s, you had Twiggy, who started the undernourished, androgynous style. In the ’70s, there was Farrah [Fawcett]. Now, in the ’80s, health is a reality. Women are building up their bodies without sacrificing beauty or femininity.” Died September 22

32. Roger Hill (b. 1948)
“The first thing I started collecting when I was a kid was Famous Monsters during the late 1950s,” Roger Hill once told an interviewer, adding he and his brother had discovered the magazine on the newsstand with issue #5. “Then, I graduated to Gold Key and Dell comics during the early 1960s when titles like Magnus Robot Fighter and Space Family Robinson were introduced.” From there, it was a hop and a skip to a burning passion for the story and art of EC Comics, and before long Hill was organizing and running early comic book conventions in Wichita, eventually branching out to support comic conventions in Oklahoma, Texas, and other places throughout the Midwest for many years. Then there was Squa Tront, the EC fanzine he launched in 1967 with childhood friend Jerry Weist and to which he was still contributing in 2022, as well as his own EC Fan-Addict Fanzine, which debuted in 2004 and will see its sixth and posthumous issue out next year. Notable books by Roger for the discerning comic historian include Wally Wood: Galaxy Art and Beyond, Reed Crandall: Illustrator of the Comics, Mac Raboy: Master of the Comics, and the recently published The Chillingly Weird Art of Matt Fox. In addition to his writing and scholarly work, Hill worked with Weist to help auction houses organize comic and comic art auctions during the 1990s. “We’re all very saddened by the loss of one of the most important historians and collectors the world of comics has ever seen,” Heritage Auctions’ Todd Hignite and Jim Halperin said. “We’ll miss him greatly, both as an extremely kind, supportive, and generous member of the comics community and for his innumerable contributions to the field over many decades.” Died December 6

33. Cindy Jackson (b. 1969)
“I get accused of having the world’s coolest job,” Cindy Jackson told a reporter in 2011. “And I won’t deny it.” After receiving an undergraduate degree in information systems and a master’s degree in English from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Cindy Jackson began working in VCU Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives as a student employee in 1996. Hired as a full-time employee in 2005, she oversaw the school’s Comic Arts Collection, which includes more than 125,000 comic books, as well as reference titles, journals, graphic novels, fanzines, original works of comic art, and the personal papers of notable figures in the comic arts. Under her watch, the collection grew into one of the largest research collections of its kind in the U.S., and it was designated as the official repository for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Celina Williams, who worked with Jackson for more than a decade, was with her when she died; she said Jackson expressed her passion for comics until the very end. In their last conversation, the two discussed the Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman: “I’m glad she got to see it. She was looking forward to seeing Season 2. I don’t know what happens in the afterlife, but I hope we can still watch content… because I’d like to think of her getting to watch Season 2 on Netflix.” Death announced January 6

34. Mike Voiles (b. 1973)
In life, comic collector Mike Voiles — proprietor of the website Mike’s Amazing World of Comics — was not a public person (from his site’s FAQ page: “Mike is semi-retired and does not wish to be contacted at this time”), but the story he shared about “The Origin of Mike” will sound familiar to a lot of comic fans. “It began one day in late 1985 at a comic shop where I was busy spending my allowance at an after-Christmas sale,” he recalled. “I heard another customer speaking to a store employee. This customer claimed that he owned every DC comic. My 12-year-old mind had no way of knowing the magnitude of his claim. Several years later, I realized how unlikely his claim was. It is possible I misunderstood the conversation, or that the man was exaggerating. In any case, my mind was set on the idea, so I set out to accomplish this same feat.” Mike never completed his quest of owning every DC book published between 1935 and 2010, but he might have come as close as anyone who’s ever tried (“only 1647 to go!”), and along the way he achieved immortality by creating a website that would become one of the few absolutely essential web resources for comic fans. “The impact of Mike’s Amazing World of Comics extended far beyond a mere collection of facts and figures,” his obituary says. “His meticulous work showcased not only the evolution of characters and storylines but also the cultural significance of comic books over the years… His passing leaves a void in the community, but his legacy will undoubtedly live on through the pages of the website he so lovingly crafted.” Died November 27

35. The Nib (b. 2013)
“I’m really proud of what we have accomplished,” wrote Matt Bors, editor and publisher of The Nib, in his post announcing the end of the online daily comics publication launched in 2013. “Over the past decade, The Nib has published more than 6,000 comics and paid out more than $2 million to creators. Countless book projects have launched from Nib pieces and a number of creators had their first professional comics published with us. For ten years we were the outlet supporting political cartooning and showcasing the possibilities of nonfiction comics. Rather than enduring years of painful cuts and diminishing output, I’d rather go out while The Nib is still in a place that feels respectable, rather than run the publication into the ground.” There was no one reason behind the decision, he said; rising production costs, the changing landscape of social media, inflation, and the ongoing usual challenges of keeping a small independent publishing project alive all played a part. If he had wanted the magazine to go out on a high note, he succeeded; just over a month before the magazine shut down, Bors appeared at the Eisner Awards to accept that year’s trophy for Best Anthology, the latest in a string of awards and nominations snagged by The Nib and its contributors over the years. As for what’s next for The Nib or Bors, he can’t say, but one thing he knows for sure: “I will simply make comics until I die.” Last email publication sent out September 1

36. Comixology (b. 2007)
In November, retail giant Amazon announced its Comixology app would no longer be available to users after December 4; after that date, users would have to read their graphic novel and manga purchases in the Kindle app for Android and iOS. The cloud-based digital distribution platform launched in July 2007 as an online community for comic book fans; by September 2013 it had surpassed 200 million downloads. Amazon bought Comixology the following year, and for a while it was more or less content to let the service do its own thing. But after the shuttering of Comixology’s Pull List in 2018 (a service that allowed readers to order comics from brick-and-mortar shops through Comixology.com), a heavily criticized redesign in 2022, and a round of layoffs earlier this year, Amazon decided to leave only the Comixology store page up as a place to buy online comics and manga after the app’s shutdown date, along with an FAQ page on how subscribers could access their books in the company’s Kindle app. “Comixology was never going to save comics, but it tried,” wrote Polygon’s Susana Polo. “It tried to provide what comic book creators, comic book publishers, comic book sellers, and comic book readers needed. There might be a better solution out there. But if the death of Comixology has demonstrated anything, it’s that Amazon doesn’t care to find it.” App discontinued December 4

37. The DC Extended Universe (b. 2013)
Pour one out for the DC Extended Universe, which after years of controversies, setbacks, triumphs, and failures was finally put to rest with the release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the sequel to 2018’s Aquaman that landed with a wet thud in theatres earlier this month (losing the Christmas Day box office battle to The Color Purple after posting one of the slowest starts of the DCEU). It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the DCEU during its decade of existence; there were some genuinely good movies during its run, it launched a number of actors to the A-list, and (for better or worse) it ignited a passionate fanbase that to this day insists the DCEU experiment — Warner Bros.’ attempt to replicate the Marvel Studios shared-universe formula — was a success. But the numbers don’t lie; of the 15 films released under the DCEU banner, only one (2018’s Aquaman) made more than $1 billion at the box office (a far cry from the nearly dozen MCU films that have achieved the same milestone to date), and any legitimate successes the franchise could claim were constantly overshadowed by reports of studio interference, production delays, on-set disputes, rapid U-turns in the writing room, Ezra Miller’s legal and mental health issues, and a pervading sense among fans and film critics that no one involved in making the films had any real idea what to do with the characters. It’s possible the DCEU will live on in some form; director James Gunn, who along with producer Peter Safran was hired by Warner Bros. in 2022 to take over DC Films, has said that Xolo Maridueña’s Blue Beetle will play a role in the new DCU, so it’s anyone’s guess what other parts of the DCEU might be retained… though I’m pretty sure touching scenes involving the word “Martha” won’t be among them. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the final film set in the DCEU, released December 22

Also leaving us in 2023:

• Toni Batllori (Antoni Batllori Obiols), 72, Spanish cartoonist, January 7.
• Enrich (Enric de Manuel González), 93, Spanish cartoonist, February 12.
• Joseph Loeckx, 85, Belgian comic book artist, February 7.
• Paulo Caruso, 73, Brazilian cartoonist, March 4.
• Bill Tidy, 89, British cartoonist, March 11.
• Luigi Piccatto, 68, Italian comic artist, March 14.
• Raoul Servais, 94, Belgian filmmaker, animator, and comics artist, March 17.
• Ernesto García Seijas, 81, Argentine comics artist, March 28.
• Bruce Petty, 93, Australian cartoonist and animator, April 6.
• Bryn Parry, 66, British cartoonist and co-founder of Help for Heroes, April 12.
• Ed Koren, 87, American cartoonist, April 14.
• Ted Richards, 76, American cartoonist, April 21.
• Paul Giambarba, 94, American graphic designer and cartoonist, May 1.
• Chris Reynolds, 63, Welsh comics author, May 4.
• Sam Gross, 89, American cartoonist, May 6.
• Massimo Cavezzali, 73, Italian comic artist, May 10.
• Jean-Louis Pesch, 94, French cartoonist, May 17.
• Graziano Origa, 70, Italian comic book artist, July 18.
• Ippei Kuri, 83, Japanese manga artist and animator, July 1.
• Tabaré Gómez Laborde, 74, Uruguayan cartoonist, July 4.
• Francisco Ibáñez Talavera, 87, Spanish comic artist, July 15.
• José Luis Ruiz Pérez, Mexican comic artist, August 1.
• Giuseppe Montanari, 86, Italian comic artist, August 5.
• Ajit Ninan, 68, Indian political cartoonist, September 8.
• Renato Calligaro, 95, Italian painter and cartoonist, September 13.
• Paul Ramboux, 91, Belgian cartoonist, October 5.
• Jean-Claude Cassini, 55, French cartoonist, October 10.
• Paul Leuquet, 90, French painter, cartoonist, and poet, October 10.
• Tony Husband, 73, British cartoonist, October 18. 
• Carlo Ambrosini, 69, Italian cartoonist, November 1.
• Malo Louarn, 74, French comic book author, November 5.
• Bob de Groot, 82, Belgian comic book artist, November 17.
• Camillus Perera, 84, Sri Lankan cartoonist, December 17.