Artist and author Maurice Sendak (b.1928) died on May 8 from complications from a stroke. Sendak is best known for his children’s book Where the Wild Things Are. He also provided the illustrations for Isaac Bashevis Singer’s children’s book Zlateh the Goat. He was involved in the early development of Sesame Street. He received the first Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and also received the Caldecott Medal, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
Artist Moebius (b.1938, born Jean Giraud) died on March 10. Moebius is best known for his work in the comic Heavy Metal and also worked on numerous films, including Alien, Tron, The Fifth Element, Space Jam, and The Abyss. He did work for Marvel Comics and did the concept art work for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unproduced film version of Dune Giraud also used the pseudonym Gir for some of his work. In 2011, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
Artist Sheldon Moldoff (b.1920) died on February 29. Moldoff was a ghost artist on Bob Kane’s Batman and was the co-creator of several characters, including Poison Ivy, Mr. Zero (Mr. Freeze), Clayface, and the original Bat-Girl. Moldoff was also active in drawing Hawkman and Hawkgirl. He left DC Comics in 1967 and worked in animation on the show Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse.
Artist Ralph McQuarrie (b.1929) died on March 3. McQuarrie is best known for providing the original concept art for the Star Wars films and also worked on the original Battlestar Galactica, E.T. The Extraterrestrial, and Cocoon, for which he won an Oscar. He got his start illustrating air and space craft designs for Boeing in the 1950s and was commissioned by George Lucas to create paintings which could be used to help sell the studio on the idea for Star Wars in 1975.
Comic artist John Severin (b.1921) died on February 12. Severin worked for EC Comics, as well as Marvel and Cracked. Some of his notable work included The Rawhide Kid and The Punisher, with much of his early work on war and western comics, including Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. Severin was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2003.
Brazilian comic book artist Al Rio (b.1962) died on January 30, possibly a suicide. Rio, whose full name was Alvaro Araújo Lourenço do Rio, worked on Gen¹³, Dungeon Siege, X-Men Unlimited, and DV8. his art also appeared on album covers.
Costume designer Eiko Ishioka (b.1939) died on January 21 from pancreatic cancer. Ishioka won an Academy Award for her work on Bram Stoker’s Dracula and also designed costumes for The Cell, The Fall, Immortals, and the upcoming Mirror, Mirror. She recently helped design costumes for teh Broadway show Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Ishioka also won a Grammy Award for the cover design of the Miles Davis album, Tutu.
Christopher J Garcia and Steven H Silver have announced a new fanzine, Paint, Pen, and Pixel to showcase the excellent artwork done by fan artists. They are asking for fan artists to send us a piece of original, unpublished artwork to be included, along with contact information. The fanzine will be in an electronic format and either horizontal or vertical artwork is welcome. The submission deadline is February 15 with the goal of publishing the fanzine on March 1.
For more information, e-mail paintpenpixel@gmail.com
Comic artist Eduardo Barreto (b.1954) died on December 15. Barreto, from Uruguay, worked on titles including Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, The New Teen Titans, and his last work, DC Retroactive The 70′s: Superman, published earlier this year. Also in 2011, Barreto became the artist for the Sunday The Phantom comic strip.
Comic artist Jerry Robinson (b.1922) died on December 7. Robinson is best known for co-creating Robin, the boy wonder, and creating the Joker. Robinson also worked on the creation of Alfred and Two-Face. Robinson began working for Batman creator Bob Kane in 1939. In the 1970s, Robinson worked to get credit for his friends, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for their part in creating Superman. Robinson is in the Comic Book Hall of Fame and has received lifetime achievement awards from the Cartoon Art Society and the National Cartoonists Society.
