Obituaries

The Cleveland Plains Dealer is reporting that underground comics legend Harvey Pekar died last night. Pekar's wife, Joyce Brabner found him dead at about 1 am. Pekar had battled lymphoma previously, as chronicled in Our Cancer Year, but the cause of death is awaiting an autopsy. Pekar was best known as author of American Splendor, an autobiographical comic that adapted Pekar's lowly life as a filing clerk at the Cleveland VA into a journey of humor, drama and insight as memorable as any fictional hero, hiring artist friends such as R. Crumb, Gary Dumm, Frank Stack and others to illustrate his stories. American Splendor was an early self-publishing success story of sorts -- while its acclaim gained Pekar enough notoriety for him to become a semi-regular on the David Letterman Show (until erratic on-air behavior got him banned) he still had to work at the VA to rely on getting a pension and continuing to make a living -- indie comics was not a cash cow.

Although there has been no official confirmation, close family friends have reported that EC artist Al WIlliamson has passed away. The youngest of the EC artists, Williamson joined the legendary crew at the age of 20, finding kindred spirits in

Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel and Angelo Torres

, the group known as the "Fleagle Gang." All shared a love of classic illustration -- influenced by Alex Raymond and Hal Foster -- which found expression in a lush, romantic style based in classical drawing.

Linda Gold, wife of longtime industry figure Mike Gold and mother of Adriane Nash died yesterday morning of a heart attack., as reported by Glenn Hauman. Gold was a familiar figure at shows and a frequent message board commenter and her loss is felt in many places today.

Okay we're wrapping up our Beat Giveaway Frenzy with a special THREE BOOK DEAL. First up:SPECIAL FORCES by Kyle Baker, a dark parody of war set in Iraq about a mentally disabled teen-aged recruit...

On Monday Mark Evanier reported the death of cartooning vet Howard Post. Post had worked as a writer and artist on just about every funny comic book character from the '40s on, including Harvey...

In regard to embodying his own dynamic artistic sensibilities, perhaps the only pop culture artist who could give Frank Frazetta a run for his money was Jack Kirby. These two poets of force and motion so intuitively understood the fantasies they were drawing that each established the style that would forever define their respective genres: the superhero in action for Kirby, the barbarian in action for Frazetta.

I was saddened to learn this morning that frequent Beat poster Lewis "Alan" Coil died of a heart attack on Friday. He was 55.

I never met Alan in real life, and certainly he had his disagreements with many people on the internet, but he was a constant presence here and at many other sites, and obviously passionate about comics and participating in the discussion. Alan was a ubiquitous internet presence in the tradition of the great letterhacks.

On Peter David's site, Alan's friend Paul Shiple wrote:

Carl Macek, a pioneer of bringing anime to America, died of a heart attack on Saturday, April 17th. He was 58. Jerry Beck, who founded Streamline Pictures with Macek in 1988, has his...

Manga-ka Keiko Tobe has passed away at age 52. Tobe is known for her award-winning WITH THE LIGHT (published in the US by Yen Press), the sensitive story of a couple raising an autistic...

The great author and recluse J.D Salinger has died at age 91. Author of The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey and Nine Stories, he was revered by would-be Zen Buddhists everywhere.

Leftist author, teacher and activist Howard Zinn passed away yesterday at age 87. His bestseller, A People's History of the United States, was a ground level view of American history that focused on the...

Film director Eric Rohmer, part of the French New Wave in the 1960s, passed away Monday in Paris at the age of 89.He might be best known in the US for MA NUIT CHEZ...