Darwyn Cooke

Darwyn Cooke (November 16, 1962 – May 14, 2016) was a Canadian comics artist, writer, cartoonist, and animator who worked on the comic books Catwoman, DC: The New Frontier, The Spirit and Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter. His work has been honoured with numerous Eisner, Harvey, and Joe Shuster Awards.

Early life Darwyn Cooke was born in Toronto on November 16, 1962. Cooke's father was a construction worker and later ran a union. He discovered comics as a child, but did not become passionate about them until he was a teenager.

Cooke's desire to be an artist crystallized at 13 years old after reading a reprint of The Spectacular Spider-Man #2 (Nov. 1968), with Cooke purchasing markers and boards the day after reading the comic and attempting to copy John Romita's artwork. The following week, Cooke purchased Detective Comics #439 (Feb./March 1974), featuring the story "Night of the Stalker," and had found his calling. Cooke also recalled tracing panels of Will Eisner's The Spirit as a teenager. He attributed the ability to develop his own style as a byproduct of limited entertainment choices, allowing him to focus on deconstructing the comics that inspired him. He eventually established his own design studio. According to Cooke, the Batman Beyond team created a strong show in light of what he considered "kind of a disheartening mandate from the network," which wanted a show about the Batman of the future.

Justice League: The New Frontier In July 2006, it was announced that Warner Bros. Animation and DC Comics would release a series of direct-to-DVD DC Universe Animated Original Movies based on important DC comic books. Due to the adamance of DC's then-Senior Vice-president of Creative Affairs Gregory Noveck, During the scripting process, Cooke intervened to preserve both Wonder Woman and Lois Lane's places in the film, which had originally been eliminated due to time constraints. marking Cooke's permanent move from animation to comics at 37 years old. the internal dialogue of Batman: Ego between Bruce Wayne and Batman was inspired by the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre. Cooke would stay on the series until issue #4. In 2002, he would write and draw the Selina's Big Score prequel which detailed what had happened to the character directly before her new series. Cooke regarded Selina's Big Score as the "single thing I did that I liked the most."

DC: The New Frontier

Cooke's next project was 2004's DC: The New Frontier, a six-issue miniseries which bridged the gap between the end of the golden and the start of the silver age of comic books in the DC Universe. Cooke began brainstorming The New Frontier after completing Batman: Ego and being steered by Mark Chiarello to do a Justice League story.

Other projects Solo #5 (Aug. 2005), featuring Slam Bradley. Cover art by Cooke. In 2004, Cooke also contributed to DC's artist-centric anthology project Solo. His issue (#5, Aug. 2005) featured several different stories in different styles with a framing sequence featuring Slam Bradley, and was originally intended by Cooke to be his final mainstream comic before other palatable DC projects pulled him back. In 2006, Solo #5 won an Eisner Award for "Best Single Issue."

In November 2006, Cooke and writer Jeph Loeb produced a Batman/The Spirit intercompany crossover. Despite intending a second year of the series, Cooke announced at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con that his run on The Spirit would conclude after one year, after artist J. Bone had to step down, and an editorial reshuffle at DC moved editors Scott Dunbier and Kristy Quinn from the book, believing that resulting quality would not be up to his standards. which debuted on November 1, 2006, and featured stories set in Superman's early career. As Cooke developed the plot with artist Tim Sale, he realized he had no creative hook for a Superman story until discovering that, surprisingly, none had been told regarding the character's early fear and uncertainty at the limits of his invulnerability.

Cooke was the writer/artist of Before Watchmen: Minutemen and the writer of Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre in 2012–2013. After originally being pitched to author the entire Before Watchmen series, Cooke was able to reduce his commitment to only two books, eventually accepting the project after successfully conceptualizing the Minutemen series.

Vertigo Vertigo editor Shelly Bond encouraged Cooke to produce a collaborative work. Cooke proposed Gilbert Hernandez as the writer, believing Hernandez would not be interested. Their collaboration, The Twilight Children, takes place in a Latin American fishing village and mixes elements of science fiction and magic realism.

Marvel Comics While preparing for DC: The New Frontier and before creating Selina's Big Score, after Marvel solicited and praised his business plan for the Marvel Adventures children's line, yet subsequently passed it onto other creators without the company's communication or his involvement. and Slayground was published in December 2013, with Cooke handling the entire art direction and physical design. Compared by Cooke to Mickey Spillane's I, the Jury,

Comic creators such as Dan DiDio, Brian Michael Bendis, Gail Simone, Jimmy Palmiotti, Ed Brubaker, and Mark Waid expressed condolences, reminisced on working with Cooke, and made recommendations of Cooke's works to fans.

Legacy Upon Cooke's death, DC Comics issued a statement describing Cooke as "one of our medium's true innovators," comparing his "bold, direct style" with Joe Kubert, Alex Toth, and Jack Kirby.

Cooke acknowledged himself as difficult to work with,

Joe Shuster Awards Outstanding Cartoonist (writer and artist) – 2005 Darwyn Cooke for DC: The New Frontier (DC) Outstanding Artist – 2007 Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone for Batman/The Spirit #1 (DC) Outstanding Cartoonist (writer and artist) – 2007 Darwyn Cooke for The Spirit #1 (DC) Outstanding Writer – 2007 Darwyn Cooke for Superman Confidential #1–2 (DC) Outstanding Cover – 2010 Darwyn Cooke for Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter (IDW)