Yesterday DC Comics was the host for a memorial tribute to artist Dave Cockrum. We dearly wanted to attend, since Cockrum’s art had a profound effect on our youth, and his spirit was an inspiration to so many people, but alas, deadlines kept us away. Luckily, Comic Foundry’s Tim Leong went and filed a report:
Clifford Meth, Cockrum’s longtime friend, started off the speeches, reminding everyone Cockrum died in his Superman pajamas and was cremated in his Green Lantern shirt. He also read a statement from Marv Wolfman, who was unable to make it in town. Next Meth introduced a prepared audio statement from Harlan Ellison, but not before making a light dig at Gary Groth. Ellison read from a humorous intro he wrote for a Cockrum tribute book. It actually drew a tear from Peter David — which actually came out of laughter, not sadness. Not everyone was into Ellison’s enthusiastic but long speech, as Mark Waid jokingly pretended to cut his wrists halfway through.
Jo Duffy, Jack C. Harris, Roy Thomas (via Paul Levitz proxy) and Chris Claremont also spoke and shared anecdotes. Unfortunately I missed the rest because I had to get back to the other job.
My report for ComicMix will probably be written later this evening. It was a strange day. I didn’t see Mark do the wrist-slitting thing and I was sitting right next to him, so I might take Tim’s entry with a bit of salt there.
Harlan’s tribute was enjoyed by everyone, but no one more than Paty Cockrum and the rest of the family.
Save the salt. I too was sitting next to Mark, and apparently only a few seats away from you, Elayne. Still a lovely tribute.
I wasn’t joking.
I also kept myself alert by maintaining a list of words used during the service that are not normally heard at memorials. Some of my favorites:
pudenda
offal
Bouncing Boy
Godzilla
810 Tankbuster Camouflage
sentient island
inveterate filker
Kooey Kooey Kooey
Somebody mentioned the living island from Justice League International???
That said, it was a lovely ceremony. Only Claremont could get up, do ten minutes, wind down with an anecdote that ended “…and that’s when I finally learned to shut up. Which is what I will do now”–
–and then go on for another ten minutes.
Kudos to Paul and WB for hosting. It was, all in all, a very warm and respectful memorial.
Thom, the context of the Kooey Kooey Kooey stuff was Paty talking about how Dave loved the Giffen-DeMatteis Justice League and its sense of fun.
I echo Mark’s sentiment, it was a really nice way to remember Dave, and I think it did Paty’s heart a lot of good to hear all the love in the room.