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Comic artists dying early
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79 posts in this topic

On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 1:39 PM, RCheli said:
On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 10:51 AM, the blob said:

jeez louis, John Romita Junior is 62!

 

I was bagging some of his early Spider-Mans (in the 200s) the other day and thought about his age. I'm 46, and I started doing the math... and holy cow! He is 62! You never expect these guys to age. You have that one picture of them in your brain when you met them, and that's the age they'll always be.

Funny you mention JR jr.  My first ASM off the stands was 208, his debut issue.  There was a picture of him on the Stan's Soapbox page - the young pup in his 20s, breaking in - and I still picture him as that.

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On ‎1‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 4:54 PM, the blob said:

While there may be deadline stress and lousy (or no) health insurance, this isn't working in a coal mine or welding sky scrapers. Are my observations purely anecdotal? 

Tough job.  There's deadline stress, month after month.  That's doubly hard if you are in the majority of people with time management and procrastination issues.  If you work at home, there's isolation issues.  That would take a toll on mood.  Job security, both from performance, and the whimsies of the market and editors, would be stressful.  It's sedentary - lots of sitting - minimal exercise - temptations to snack, smoke and drink to excess.  There'd be interpersonal stress - not getting along with the writer or other members of the creative team, or having a hard editor (hello, Mr Shooter).

I think of Wally Wood when I consider the grind of monthly art.

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17 minutes ago, Phicks said:

Sal Buscema, Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, and John Romita Sr. worked in the 1960s and are all alive and well. 

Joe Sinnott is still around. Joe Simon was in his late 90s when he passed away.

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Update from above on Neal and Sinnott, unfortunately, but 80 & 93 respectively, so those are good runs, with both living to be celebrated by generations of fans. I was saddened to see Garry Leach of "Marvelman/Miracleman" fame died at 67 on March 26th, to be followed by the Adams/Perez 1-2 punch shortly after.

6 years tomorrow for Darwyn Cooke, what a loss that was. 2016 was a tough year for my favorite artists, including Steve "Preacher" Dillon who was only 46. 

Dave Stevens' stature continues to grow, coming up on 15 years after. Vaughan Bode & Dave Sheridan died young long ago, but no doubt still had lots of great underground comix work in them.

Edited by jdandns
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Mike Parobeck, for me, remains the worst, most tragic example of a very talented creator lost far too soon ; just 30 years old.

Edited by Ken Aldred
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On 5/14/2022 at 4:36 AM, jdandns said:

I was saddened to see Garry Leach of "Marvelman/Miracleman" fame died at 67 on March 26th,

Very sad news. I completely missed that. :frown:
 

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On 5/14/2022 at 1:43 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Mike Parobeck, for me, remains the worst, most tragic example of a very talented creator lost far too soon ; just 30 years old.

His was completely preventable, though, wasn't it? 

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On 5/14/2022 at 5:24 AM, Cat said:

His was completely preventable, though, wasn't it? 

I believe so. Poorly-managed Type 1 Diabetes.

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On 5/14/2022 at 2:29 PM, Ken Aldred said:

I believe so. Poorly-managed Type 1 Diabetes.

And iirc he refused to seek treatment. Such a waste of talent. I treasure his JSA series. 

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On 5/14/2022 at 5:31 AM, Cat said:

And iirc he refused to seek treatment. Such a waste of talent. I treasure his JSA series. 

I agree. Under-appreciated gem of a series.

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On 5/13/2022 at 11:31 PM, Cat said:

And iirc he refused to seek treatment. Such a waste of talent. I treasure his JSA series. 

 

According to his Wikipedia page:

 

Parobeck was diagnosed with Type one diabetes, which can be controlled by taking insulin. According to his friends, however, he was somewhat lackadaisical in this regimen, which ultimately led to his death.[4] 

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On 5/13/2022 at 11:43 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Mike Parobeck, for me, remains the worst, most tragic example of a very talented creator lost far too soon ; just 30 years old.

That was sad. Seth Fisher was a tough one too, just starting out but almost revolutionary. Fell off a freaking roof at a party in Japan.

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