I found this out, like, sixty seconds ago, so this is not exactly going to be a prepared statement, but apparently Dwayne McDuffie passed away for reasons that aren’t known just yet. This is terrible! I know him best, personally, for creating and overseeing the vast majority of, y’know, the Justice League cartoon. I know! Seriously! He is not allowed to die! I don’t think he was, like, old, either. He was still relatively young and spry! (Not that anywhere seems to list his birthdate to confirm.)
He’s also known for creating Static, who most folks will recognize best as the hero of the cartoon Static Shock, and McDuffie was also well-known as being a crusader for writing non-white people in comic books as not horrible stereotypes. And he wrote the script to the animated version of All-Star Superman, which I just friggin’ watched this friggin’ morning. He is one of the best things to happen to the world, and I guess now he’s gone, and this sucks so bad.
Man, what the hell.
EDIT: Since I first babbled out this post, Wikipedia has added his birthdate and we know the cause of his death. He was 49 and he died of complications due to surgery. Neither information makes me feel particularly better. Maggie and I watched some Justice League Unlimited episodes tonight. She’s really been getting into them this past month — I’ve shown her episodes before, but this month it’s really clicked and it’s become her newest obsession. (It and Young Justice.) It broke her (and my) heart to learn that the writer of “The Great Brain Robbery” is dead far ahead of his time. What an awesome dude he was. What a sad day this is.
WHAT THE FAWK!!! DMD was the best thing to happned to CN since Toonami!!! at least the first season of Young Justice and Second Season of Ben 10 Ultimate alien survive him. This is seriously a bummer.
I’m not happy about this. Not at all.
But, I noticed that the year they say the JLU toy line is ending, the story editor of the JLU cartoon dies. Creepy coincidence.
Yeah, one of the last posts on his website was about the Static toy for JLU. Goddamn.
This is incredibly sad. I actually met him a couple times; he graduated from my high school. He was really cool. He even based Mrs Hoag of Damage Control, in name and personality at least, off of the matronly, feisty, omni-capable school secretary.
I got to say hello to him, if just barely, when he came up to our booth at SDCC last year. Mostly he was there to talk to Spike. I was, of course, too shy to say any real thank yous for all the joy he’s given me. Stupid, stupid me!
Maaan.. That blows. Complications due to surgery is one of the most crappy ways to die, because A) you just paid lots of money and B) you think you just IMPROVED your health… then, nope! Sudden deaths of awesome creative people are sad enough already.
Wikipedia lists his birthdate as February 20, 1962. That means he died two days before his 49th birthday.
Two days after, you mean.
and whats even worse, He was suposed to have an event Today about All Star Superman.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFF! Mental Note. Never ever schedule an operation a day or two after your birhtday, or before a big event, especaly if both happen in the same week! Damn it all.
Oops. Yes, 2 days after. I blame fluctuations in the time space continuum. Either that or lack of sleep.
I’m so angry and sad right now. I just don’t even know what to say.
Wow. This is heartbreaking.
I just found out about a little while ago myself. It’s crushing when someone of his talent, that’s brought joy to so many, is lost in the prime of their life, much much too young. RIP, Mr. McDuffie
Damage control was one of the funniest and best written miniseries to come out of the 90s. When he revisited it after World War Hulk, it was still hilarious. One of the issues actually had a fill-in-the-blank major storyline recap.
He was a great writer.
This sucks. Anyone know of a way to send support to his family?
He is a true fan and he will be missed by all who shared in his passion for all things geeky!
Seriously? Thats really sad. I loved the JLU series and static shock, he will be missed. RIP Dwayne
This is a big loss for everybody who loves cartoons and comics.
Shit. Just found out right here and now.
Didn’t you do a Shortpacked! strip about how much trouble the man had in making sure the issues of JLA didn’t contradict with the ever-changing Event that was taking place back then? Or am I misremembering your strip with something else?
I don’t think that was me.
Thanks. I was able to narrow down my search, and found the comic in question:
http://comiccritics.com/2009/06/16/the-sad-strange-tale-of-dwayne-mcduffie/
So sad to hear this. I was a fan of his work for years I Bought every title of Milestone comics back in the day and watched JLU and Statc Shock all the time.
All of Dwayne’s work at Milestone was one of the reasons I was inspired to become a writer in college and why I got into self-publishing when the comic industry imploded.
Comics ain’t gonna be the same without Dwayne He had a huge impact on the industry and he’s gonna be missed.
That is the perfect picture right there. They should have actually put his body on a Viking ship and hurled it into the sun.
Can… can they still do that? Is it too late?
I miss Dwayne McDuffie. He was a great writer and a great dude.