Darwyn Cooke passes away at age 53.
This is not a memoriam, as I was not friends of Darwyn Cooke. Nor is this an obituary.
This is just a memory. A snapshot in time about a comic creator that I truly admired.
Like most people, my first exposure was Darwyn’s mini-series DC: The New Frontier. It was a story that told the beginning of the Silver Age of comics. I was instantly hooked. Darwyn had this clean, stylish, yet retro look to his art. It was truly stunning. Plus the fact that he wrote this series was just the icing on the cake.
The next thing I remember from Darwyn was his Batman/Spirit crossover he was drawing. The story was written by Jeph Loeb. I was already a huge Spirit fan, so I could not wait for this crossover. It was worth the wait.
At the time, DC Comics had the license to the Spirit and a new series was coming out. The writer and artist on the series was none other that Darwyn himself. He truly understood Will Eisner’s character and was able to bring the Spirit into the modern world while still maintaining that classic feel. So awesome.
I got a chance to meet Darwyn at Baltimore Comic Con. I had four books I wanted him to sign: DC: The New Frontier books 1 and 2, The Spirit, and Batman: Ego. And Darwyn was a class act. Not only did he sign the books, but I got a little drawing from him
While he was signing the books, the fanboy in me started rambling to Darwyn about how awesome I thought his Spirit run was. This actually led to a conversation between the 2 of us about the Spirit movie that was coming out. We talked about the fact that the film’s director leaving out the Spirit’s sidekick Ebony White, and the director really didn’t have a grasp of the Spirit. It’s a conversation I’ll never forget.
Darwyn was just a class act. Just letting me ramble and actually talking to me.
I got to meet him a second time over at New York Comic Con, and this cosplayer came up to him dressed up as Nightwing. Darwyn was very nice, but said how he didn’t like the character of Nightwing and wanted Dick Grayson to stay as Robin. I might not agree with him, but I get it.
Darwyn’s art really made everything just look so much more classier.
All I can really say at this point is you will be missed Darwyn.
Thank you for all the wonderful art you left for the world to see.
Rest in peace.
Anthony Andujar Jr.