Obituaries

The tributes are still coming in -- When Fangirls Attack and Tom Spurgeon have missive link collections.

Following the shock at his death, a well-justfied outpouring a remembrances of Dwayne McDuffie flowed out yesterday. A few words kept appearing over and over: respect and honesty. In a business where pettiness and jealousy are motivations far more than we'd like to admit, McDuffie seemed to rise above all that.

CBR is reporting the tragic news that creator Dwayne McDuffie has died of unknown causes. In addition to co-creating the Milestone Universe and its signature character, Static, McDuffie had a long career as writer, editor and producer, story editing the popular Justice League of America cartoon and most recently writing the All-Star Superman movie. As CBR reports, he was in full stride as a creator:

Joanne Siegel, the widow of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and inspiration for the Lois Lane character, passed away today at age 93. Her death comes only a few days after Jerry Siegel's childhood home in Cleveland, OH was restored and the streets in front of it honorarily renamed Joe Shuster Lane and Lois Lane.

In her 72 years, Tura Satana learned karate, dated Elvis Presley, tracked down the men who raped her when she was 9, starred in FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!, was a noted burlesque dancer, broke her back, was married three times, had two daughters, and inspired the entire canon of gothabilly. Who knows how much of it is true, but she was pretty damn cool.

Jeff Alexander, a mainstay of the DC comics scene and former Executive Director of SPX, died suddenly over the weekend of a heart attack. He's survived by his fiance, Erika. Shocked remembrances poured out:

Canadian artist Clément Sauvé (1977-2011) has died at the tragically young age of 33 after a battle with cancer. He entered comics working as an assistant to Yanick Paquette but made his own mark with pencils on projects including G.I Joe, JLA Secret Files, Stormwatch and the fondly remembered Human Defense League. Most recently he had been working in character design.

Adrienne Roy, a popular colorist of the '80s and beyond, has passed away, an email from her ex husband Tony Tollin informs us. She...

The new issue of Revolver magazine salutes the rock greats who died this year, and has a special painted cover by JG Jones, artists of such things as WANTED and FINAL CRISIS. The cover depicts Ronnie James Dio, Slipknot’s Paul Gray, Avenged Sevenfold’s the Rev, Type O Negative’s Peter Steele, Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell, Metallica’s Cliff Burton, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, Ozzy Osbourne’s Randy Rhoads, Queen’s Freddie Mercury, and Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley and it is available as a free poster in the issue. rocking together in heaven. The cover painting also appears as a free poster

We are remiss in not mentioning that Irvin Kershner, (above left) director of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, died over the weekend. Kersh, as he...

While he will be long remembered for his timeless, side-splitting, searing portrayal of Lt. Frank Drebin, we shouldn't forget Leslie Nielsen's earlier stint as a stolid, upright leading man that allowed his later send-ups of this same role to pack such punch. And of course, he was pretty memorable in FORBIDDEN PLANET, a classic '50s SF version of The Tempest that also introduced Robbie the Robot on a waiting world.

One of The New Yorker's most iconic cartoonists, Leo Cullum has passed away at age 68. The NY Times obituary has an associated slide show, and proves that some New Yorker cartoons will actually make you laugh out loud.