Comics Artist Dave Cockrum Dies at 63

By Mark Hoerrner

Marvel Comics has been the home of hundreds of great names in the history of popular culture artists and Dave Cockrum was no different. What made him different is that his ascension to comic artist was not through the typical means at the time. Cockrum was first and foremost, a fan – and fans, at least in the 1970s, didn’t become comic artists without some formal indoctrination. Cockrum, however, bridged the gap because he had the mystical ability to take a simple pen and a sheet of paper and create magic.

Fans will remember Cockrum as the creator of memorable X-Men characters, most recently brought to the big screen in the X-Men trilogy of films and perhaps to an audience that was not familiar with the comics but would be engaged by the on-screen characterizations. Cockrum was responsible for such X-Men staples as Nightcrawler, Mystique, Storm, Colossus and Thunderbird.

He died in his sleep on Nov. 26.

By all accounts, Cockrum was a gregarious fellow, always carrying a kind word for both working and aspiring artists. Perhaps it was because he started out with a fan’s love for comics that carried him through a childhood in the 1950s and into the late 1960s where Cockrum was signed on with the military, but hoped to break into comics when he came home. He spent the first part of his career illustrating "fanzines" about comics rather than drawing them, but the graciousness of a friend who had seen his work gave Cockrum the chance to draw a new comic franchise in the 1970s – the Legion of Superheroes. This was the start of a distinguished career.

Later, Cockrum would move to Marvel Comics and ultimately assist in the revival of the X-Men franchise that was critical for Marvel’s financial success. What may surprise most people is that Cockrum, especially in the later part of his life when he was burdened with the effects of a body wracked by disease, is that Cockrum had rarely profited from providing the industry with some of the most creative work in its history. It was not until friends helped him negotiate a settlement with Marvel that he found some financial comfort.

Author Neil Gaiman, famous in the comic world for his "Sandman" stories and throughout the rest of the literary world for his numerous books, cited Cockrum’s work on Legion of Superheroes as one of the cornerstones of his existence at the tender age of 12.

"I was made foolishly happy," Gaiman writes in his blog, "many years on, during the early Sandman years, at a New York convention, to be told by Paty Cockrum that she and Dave liked what I did. And, somewhere inside me, a twelve year old exulted: if I couldn’t join the Legion, this was easily the next best thing, and, for a moment, I was back in the Golden Age...."

He greeted thousands of fans, doing sketches and talking shop for three decades at conventions across the country. Now that his pen is finally still, those fans will remember, fondly, those first images that drew them into some of the most amazing stories ever told. In that regard, Dave pioneered the path for others, becoming the first bridge between fans and professional artists and the whole of the comic world thanks him for that. And perhaps, just like Cockrum, there’s someone out there who grew up reading his work, a real fan, who will decide to follow in his path and aspire to drawing comics and providing us with a new escape.