Dave Cockrum (
November 11,
1943
November 26,
2006) was an
American comic book artist.
Cockrum was born in
Pendleton,
Oregon. His father was a
lieutenant colonel of the
United States Air Force, resulting in the Cockrums frequently transporting their household from one city to another for years.
He discovered comic books at an early age. His reported favorites were
Captain Marvel by
Fawcett Comics and
Blackhawk by
Quality Comics. His ambition was to be become a comic book creator himself. However following his school graduation, Dave joined the
United States Navy for six years. After leaving the military, Dave managed to find employment by
Warren Publishing. He was then hired as an assistant inker to
Murphy Anderson. Anderson was responsible for inking various titles featuring
Superman and
Superboy for
DC Comics. The later title was featuring a backup strip by the name of
The Legion of Super-Heroes.
When the position of artist for
The Legion of Super-Heroes he was left vacant, Cockrum sought the job and had his first assignment at drawing a series. Cockrum's work on
The Legion (beginning in the early
1970s) is generally seen as redefining the team. Certainly he redefined the look of the Legion, creating new costumes and designs that would last until artist
Keith Giffen did a similar revamp in the
1980s. Cockrum eventually left DC and the Legion in a dispute involving the return of his original artwork for
Superboy #200.
At Marvel, Cockrum and
Len Wein (under the direction of editor
Roy Thomas) created the new
X-Men, co-creating such characters as
Storm,
Nightcrawler and
Colossus (some of which had been designed by Cockrum as possible additions to the Legion during his tenure). These characters made their debut in
Giant-Size X-Men #1 (Summer
1975), and then in a relaunched
Uncanny X-Men (beginning with issue #94). Wein left after an issue and a half, succeeded by
Chris Claremont, the team's primary writer from then on. Cockrum stayed with the title until
1977 (as main penciller on issues #94-105 and 107), when he was replaced by penciller
John Byrne with issue #108. When Byrne in turn left in
1981 with issues #144, Cockrum returned to the title, but left again in
1983.
Cockrum has also pencilled and/or inked a number of other titles for both Marvel and DC, and was Marvel's primary cover artist in the late 1970s.
In 1983, Cockrum produced
The Futurians, first as a
graphic novel (
Marvel Graphic Novel #9), and then as an ongoing series published by Lodestone. Though it did not last past issue 3, a collected edition was published that included the "missing" issue 4 and other new material. Futurians has recently been reprinted in
France by Semic. At the time of Cockrum's death, there were plans for a movie and a new series; how these plans will be affected by his death is not known.
In recent years, Cockrum has worked less frequently in comics. In
2004, he became seriously ill due to complications from
diabetes and
pneumonia; a number of fellow artists and writers led by author
Clifford Meth and
Silver Bullet Comics organised a fundraising project. The auction, run by Heritage Comics at the WizardWorld Chicago show in August, raised nearly $25,000. Marvel also announced it would compensate Cockrum for his work in co-creating the enormously successful X-Men.
Cockrum was due to draw an eight-page story in
Giant Size X-Men #3 (
2005), but a recurrence of his health problems prevented this.
[1]
In the novelization of
X-Men: The Last Stand, the
President is named David Cockrum.
Cockrum passed away on the morning of November 26, 2006 due to complications from diabetes. His death was announced by
Clifford Meth on the Nightscrawlers forum.
[1]
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