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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 17, 2017 11:28:27 GMT -5
Seth Fisher died at 33, from a fall from the seventh floor of a Japanese building.
André Beautemps died at 30 (I forget what health problem it was, but it was a medical condition, not an accident). He was a very talented, very promising artist whose work on Michael Logan and Karga really impressed me as a kid. He was also the first cartoonist I know to make references to Tolkien's work, at a time Tolkien was almost unknown in the French-speaking world. His death really brought home the idea that even these towering figures, those demigods creating bandes dessinées, were as mortal as the rest of us.
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 17, 2017 11:39:14 GMT -5
Joe Maneely and Gene Day were just 32 and 31 respectively when they were struck down in their prime. Joe's death was accidental, a fall from a train; Gene had a heart attack while crossing a street. Just tragic.  I remember reading somewhere that Doug Meonch blamed Jim Shooter for Gene Days death. He claimed that Shooter had him virtually homeless and fighting Pneumonia. |
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Post by rom on Mar 17, 2017 11:51:35 GMT -5
Gene Day is my all-time favorite comic book artist; his short-lived but extremely powerful work on Master of Kung Fu was superb & extraordinary. His early death was extremely tragic; he was only 32, and I always wonder what heights he would have achieved had he lived. Here's a blog on his life & work - this includes some art that I had never seen before: ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2010/11/original-art-stories-gene-day-in-his.html
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Post by kirby101 on Mar 17, 2017 11:59:56 GMT -5
George Klein, a great Marvel inker in the late 1960s, (Behold the Vision) died at 54.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 17, 2017 12:04:25 GMT -5
What age do we consider early? I know of a few who died in their 50s, Bill Everett, Wally Wood, Dave Stevens, Marshall Rodgers, Don Newton. Others who were definitely young, Michael Turner and Mike Wieringo, Don Newton was 49. He was three months shy of his 50th birthday. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 17, 2017 12:05:24 GMT -5
Vince Colletta died of cancer at age 67.
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Post by Phil Maurice on Mar 17, 2017 13:09:29 GMT -5
I remember reading somewhere that Doug Meonch blamed Jim Shooter for Gene Days death. He claimed that Shooter had him virtually homeless and fighting Pneumonia. From what I recall, it was Dave Sim and not Moench who leveled those accusations. They were shown to be meritless years ago by Shooter, Tom Brevoort and others. The whole thing was in very poor taste IMHO, and added to the reasons I'm not terribly fond of Sim, though I've enjoyed Cerebus. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 17, 2017 16:59:43 GMT -5
Don Heck died at 66 of cancer.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2017 17:04:28 GMT -5
Drew Hayes of Poison Elves fame was 37.
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Post by Red Oak Kid on Mar 17, 2017 17:27:32 GMT -5
Just my two cents: Now, it is common to live well into your 70s and 80s. However, in the time frame of many of the artists mentioned here, it was common for people to die in their late 50s and 60s due to cigarettes and poor diet. I'm always looking up actors on IMDb and many of the actors I like in movies from the 40s and 50s died from heart attacks in their 50s.
I don't think the death rate of comic book artists is out of the norm for the general population. It depends on what generation you are talking about.
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Post by kirby101 on Mar 17, 2017 17:51:12 GMT -5
True Red Oak Kid, and some were known to be alcoholics.
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Post by rom on Mar 17, 2017 17:57:14 GMT -5
Just my two cents: Now, it is common to live well into your 70s and 80s. However, in the time frame of many of the artists mentioned here, it was common for people to die in their late 50s and 60s due to cigarettes and poor diet. I'm always looking up actors on IMDb and many of the actors I like in movies from the 40s and 50s died from heart attacks in their 50s. I don't think the death rate of comic book artists is out of the norm for the general population. It depends on what generation you are talking about. True. Re: the late GD, based on an interview I read with a fellow-artist who worked with him, apparently he claimed to have said something like (and I'm paraphrasing), "I only need three things to make it through deadlines - coffee, cigarettes, and doughnuts". I'm also a huge movie fan, and some of the actors who died of heart attacks/strokes (or other preventable deaths) in their 50's included: Peter Sellers, Warren Oates (not extremely well-known, but one of my favorite '60's/'70's actors), Robert Shaw, etc. It's interesting that the average life expectancy for American males in 1910 (only about 100 years ago) was only 47.....but I digress. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 17, 2017 18:40:11 GMT -5
Certainly there is more information about health risks available. I believe that the death rate by Cancer , heart attack for comic people reflect the average among people in other fields. Just asking to see who died from those diseases and who died from other causes. Seth Fisher dying by falling out of a building is a freak accident and worth talking about.
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Post by chadwilliam on Mar 17, 2017 21:16:36 GMT -5
E C Segar. Though he worked as a cartoonist for 22 years, only about of nine of those were spent working on his creation Popeye, dying as he did at the age of 43. In fact, Segar spent more years working on Thimble Theatre before Popeye was created than he did on the strip after the star was introduced.
I'm also going to second Bill Finger. Even though he wasn't a young man when he died I don't think any comic creator more embodies the notion of dying tragically early than he. I can't really see what would have changed about the injustice shown to him by Bob Kane who withheld and later angrily opposed Finger's right to be credited as Batman's co-creator, but had he lived another 15 years (at which he point he would have been 75) I'm sure he would have started to get the respect shown to him that he deserved at least within the comics community if nowhere else. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 18, 2017 5:58:17 GMT -5
Bob Brown died from leukemia at age 61.
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