I don’t know how I didn’t find out about this until yesterday, but we lost one of the Comic Industry’s supreme talents Friday night when artist extraordinaire Michael Turner passed away. Turner had been battling chondrosarcoma, a bone-based cancer that attacks the cartilage, since 2000, “which ultimately cost him his right hip, a portion of his pelvis and several pounds of bone.” (
link) Over the past few years as Turner turned his attentions to drawing primarily covers, his artwork continued to shine as he produced some of the most memorable covers in modern comics including the covers for DC’s
Flash,
Identity Crisis and
Justice League America and Marvel’s
Civil War.
Turner got his big break when he was discovered by Marc Silvestri, the founder of
Top Cow with whom his art has frequently been compared, and co-created with him Top Cow’s most famous comic character Witchblade. He then left Top Cow to start his own company
Aspen Comics, where he has been producing his creator-owned titles
Fathom and
Soulfire. Michael Turner was 37 years old.
While I didn’t know Turner personally, I had the great luck to meet him at the inaugural Wizard World Texas and spend a few minutes speaking with him while he signed and sketched for fans. He was always willing to give of his time to fans and during that time I never heard him say no to anyone. Turner was an unbelievable talent and will be truly missed throughout the industry.
There are tributes and remembrances in honor of Turner all over the web, but if you’d like to read some of the thoughts and memories of others in the comic book community check out this
article from
Newsarama. There is also a warm remembrance of Michael Turner by his friend and author Brad Meltzer on Meltzer’s official
blog and one by Marc Silvestri on his
MySpace blog.
And so today Aly gave me the first part of my birthday present when she ordered us two opening night tickets to see The Dark Knight in IMAX. I'm pretty excited, so I thought I'd share it with the blogosphere. After seeing Batman Begins in IMAX a few years ago I knew there was no other way to experience the world premier of Heath Ledger as the Joker. So far the birthday weekend is looking pretty good with Friday night's scheduled viewing of The Dark Knight. Look for a full review of Christian Bale’s second Batman film, The Dark Knight, in just under three weeks.
