Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Visionaries of Tomorrow Dave Cockrum R.I.P. :-(

I'm just stunned.

I hate diabetes.

I too am very saddened by this news. Dave Cockrum was the artist on the first Legion comics I read. I hope the fact that I am still here and enthralled by the Legion over three decades later stands as a testament to the power of his visuals to capture the imagination and draw a person in. R.I.P. Mr. Cockrum.

He'll really be missed.

Rest well Dave.

damm shame

I already responded in the other thread. Very sad. Dave changed the legion for the better and is the reason for their popularity after he left.

I hope the current creative team takes hard look at what Dave did. Also I hope they bring in one of the Legion's most popular characters...Wildfire a Cockrum creation!

DX Oh man, I'm depressed now. It feels like the world is lesser without him; he will be missed.

At this moment, I just feel privileged that I was able to discover Dave's work on the Legion, then follow his work on the X-Men. I lost touch with his career after that (I followed characters more than creators), but there's no doubt that those four years or so, from 1973-77, left an indelible impression on me. His work on those two series shaped my desire to write comics.

I met Dave once, at a convention a few years back. This was after he'd started posting as "dark bamf" on the DC Message Boards, so I just walked up and introduced myself as "He Who Wanders." The name meant nothing to him -- understandable, as legions of posters vyed to exchange a word with him. I then told him, with fanboy sincerity, that his work had had a significant impact on my life. I suppose I was hoping he'd ask me to elaborate, but he didn't. He just said thank you. He'd heard it before, I'm sure. I then asked him to sign a few issues from his Legion run. He obliged, even signing the covers he didn't draw. My courage having deserted me then, I politely withdrew.

If my encounter with Dave wasn't all I hoped it would be, it's only because I wasn't sure what to hope for. At age nine, I had no idea I would ever get to meet the people who wrote and drew the stories that ignited my imagination. They lived in New York. I lived in Missouri. The distance between the two states was further than the distance between the 20th and 30th centuries to me.

Still, getting the chance to walk up to Dave and thank him for his work was like completing a pilgrimage: a way of giving back something, however meager, to one who had given me so much. I don't know if Dave ever truly understood the effect his Legion work had on fans. I don't know if one can ever know the effect one has on others. But I do know that the chance to say "thank you" in person is a precious gift.

So, thank you once again, Dave, for a body of work that, decades later, continues to inspire and influence others.

We did lose a friend today.

In just a short period of time, he brought popularity and new life to both the Legion and then the X-Men. His artistic vision really propelled the Legion into a more sci-fi type of future than previously depicted.

Rest in peace, Dave.

Dave Cockrum was a Legend ,He was my Jack Kirby ,His eye for designing costumes was second to none.Without Dave I would have never started reading comics in the first place,his art grabbed me at the tender age of 7 with SLSH #197 it was the first comic I ever read and one look at Dave's art was all it took I was in love,alot of comic creators have passed over the years but this one has truly hurt me the most.
Rest in Peace Dave and may God be with Paty Cockrum during this time of loss.

That's very sad. He made inmeasurable contributions to the medium.

I don't know what to say. Dave's Legion artwork meant so much to me. His revitalized Legion offered me an escape during an especially bleak period of my life. His run was way too short but it changed the Legion and me forever. I feel like I've lost a friend.

It's hard to know what to say. I never had the chance to meet Dave Cockrum personally, but his impact on the medium can't be ignored. Right now I feel most sad that the guy who revitalized, not one, but two comic-book concepts wasn't given the chance in later years to explore his talent further. Lone Wolf Legionnaire called him his Jack Kirby above. Dave could have had a career as prolific as Jack's, if only the big two had known what they had at the time. 20/20 hindsight and all that.
For now, my heart goes out to paty, who did so much to keep him going for so long, and to all of Dave's close friends, who, from everything I've ever heard, are presently mourning the loss of one of the friendliest and most giving creators this art form has ever seen.

Wow.

Oh wow.

Instant melancholy.

I never got to meet Dave either but I did ask Barry (several months ago) to convey our best wishes and our love and also tell him he's in our prayers when he got to chat with Dave himself.

It hurts when we lose one of our own. Dave Cockrum was indeed a Legionnaire and one of our best.
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Rest well Dave, Godspeed.
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I posted on the Gym'll thread, but Ill add here.

Dave was a kind soul, a good man and a true artist. I feel honored to have known him in the little sliver of life where our paths intersected.

202 was my first Legion comic. Dave Cockrum was the first creator whom I ever recognized by name. I am saddened by his death and the lost hope of ever seeing him work on another Legion project.

It was Mr. Cockrum's art that introduced me and got me hooked for good on the Legion (Superboy back-up story "Murder the Leader"). That alone made his work special to my life.

My condolences to the Cockrum family and friends. Good luck and best wishes to you, Dave, on your 'reboot'.

My prayers go out to Dave's family and friends. He has earned his place on Shanghalla.

To echo LWL...Dave was by far the best superhero costume designer ever without a doubt. Look at all his classic X-Men and Legion costumes.

I've spent the last few hours reading The Uncanny Dave Cockrum... A Tribute which was published by Aardwolf Publishing two years ago as a benefit book for Dave. It hits me how lucky we all are that Dave got to know just how much everyone cared about him while he was still alive, which is something that doesn't usually happen.

On a personal note, it seems strange to me that I'll never have reason to drop him a line again, asking him if it's okay to use his art in an upcoming publication, or if he's got something stored away that he'd like to share. When he sent me artwork for the Legion Companion, there were Post-It notes on some of the photocopies explaining what they were. I kept those Post-Its, because how does one throw away a Post-It note written by Dave Cockrum?

I never had the opportunity to get him to sign the book (something which I thought would always happen... eventually), but I'm glad for the experience that I did have with him, even if it was long distance and not face-to-face. He was as generous with his time as could be, and never stopped being the fan that started drawing comics in the first place. It's too bad that recent years were not kind to him, but in the end he knew that people loved him, and that he touched the lives of many. At least there's solace in that.

Can anyone post a photo of Dave here? I've never seen one.

http://ourworlds.topcities.com/blackhawk/bios/bio_cockrum.html

I also just found out that Dave's father passed away on November 11 - Dave's birthday - at the age of 95. What a month for the Cockrums.

Here\'s another picture of Dave from Heroes Con 2005.

Here's an entry by Neil Gaiman about Dave. It comes from the tribute book that Glen mentioned a few posts back.

Scroll down to the Nov. 26 entry.

Neil Gaiman blog

I never knew Neil Gaiman was a Legion fan, but he encapsulated some of what I've been thinking/feeling since yesterday.

An updated from Clifford Meth (didn't see this on the thread):

She (Paty Cockrum) requested that, in lieu of flowers, contributions are made to ACTOR , a cause/organization that she and Dave believed very strongly in.

And here's what Marv Wolfman had to say:

Marv Wolfman blog

Maybe there's a volume or two in The Dreaming Library of unwritten books featuring a collaboration between Marv and Dave on a Teen Titans team.

Imagine his designs for some of those characters... Sigh.