Dwayne McDuffie

Dwayne Glenn McDuffie (February 20, 1962 – February 21, 2011) was an American writer of comic books and television. He co-founded the pioneering minority-owned-and-operated comic book company Milestone Media, which focused on underrepresented minorities in American comics, creating and co-creating characters such as Icon, Rocket, Static, and Hardware. McDuffie was also a writer and producer for animated series such as Static Shock (based on the Static character), Justice League Unlimited and the Ben 10 sequels, Alien Force and Ultimate Alien.

McDuffie earned three Eisner Award nominations for his work in comics.

Early life and education McDuffie was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Leroy McDuffie and Edna (née Hawkins) McDuffie Gardner. He attended and graduated from the Roeper School, a school for gifted children in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, in 1980. One of McDuffie's first introductions to comics was when he learned of the character Black Panther at the age of 11. He described the character as not being "anyone's sidekick", but "his own hero, his own man", saying that "In the space of 15 pages, black people moved from invisible to inevitable." Of other Black characters in comics, he later said:

In 1983, McDuffie graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Michigan, followed by a master's degree in physics. He then moved to New York to attend film school at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. While McDuffie was working as a copy editor at the business magazine Investment Dealers' Digest, a friend got him an interview for an assistant editor position at Marvel Comics.

After McDuffie's death, comedian Keegan-Michael Key discovered that he and McDuffie were biological half-brothers, having the same father.

Career

Marvel and Milestone Going on staff at Marvel as editor Bob Budiansky's assistant on special projects, McDuffie helped develop the company's first superhero trading cards. He also scripted stories for Marvel. His first major work was Damage Control, a miniseries following a company that cleans collateral damage from battles.

After becoming an editor at Marvel, McDuffie submitted a spoof proposal for a comic entitled Teenage Negro Ninja Thrashers in response to Marvel's treatment of its black characters. Becoming a freelancer in 1990, McDuffie wrote for dozens of various comics titles for Marvel, DC Comics, and Archie Comics. In addition, he wrote Monster in My Pocket for Harvey Comics editor Sid Jacobson, whom he cites on his website as having taught him everything he knows. In early 1991, he divorced his first wife, Patricia D. Younger, in Seminole County, Florida.

In the early 1990s, wanting to express a multicultural sensibility that he felt was missing in comic books, McDuffie and three partners founded Milestone Media, which The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, Ohio, described in 2000 as "the industry's most successful minority-owned-and operated comic company".

Milestone, whose characters include the African-American Static, Icon, and Hardware; the Asian-American Xombi, and the multi-ethnic superhero group the Blood Syndicate, debuted its titles in 1993 through a distribution deal with DC Comics. He scripted the film adaptation of All-Star Superman, which released one day after his death. Furthermore, he wrote Justice League of America vol. 2 from issues #13–34 (November 2007 – August 2009). He was fired from the series following a Lying in the Gutters compilation of his frank answers to fans about the creative process.

McDuffie married comic book and television writer Charlotte Fullerton in 2009.

Tributes The 2012 film Justice League: Doom is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie, and the Blu-ray and 2-Disc DVD editions of the film include the documentary A Legion of One: The Dwayne McDuffie Story. That same year, a diner named "McDuffie's" was depicted in the Green Lantern: The Animated Series episode "The New Guy".

In 2012, the Ultimate Spider-Man episode "Damage" was dedicated to McDuffie. Furthermore, Mac Porter, the CEO of Damage Control, is modeled after him.

The Ben 10: Ultimate Alien finale episode "The Ultimate Enemy" and the video game Ben 10: Galactic Racing are dedicated to McDuffie.

In the 2011 Static Shock comics series, Virgil Hawkins' high school is named after McDuffie.

In 2015, the Long Beach Comic Expo gave out the first Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics. It has since become an annual event for the expo.

The Dwayne McDuffie Award for Kids' Comics is given out each year at the Ann Arbor Comic Arts Festival.

DC Comics character Naomi McDuffie is named after McDuffie.

Awards and nominations In 1995, McDuffie received Eisner Award nominations for Best Writer (for Icon), Best Editor (for Worlds Collide, Xombi, and Shadow Cabinet), and Best Continuing Series (with M.D. Bright for Icon) In 1996, McDuffie won the Golden Apple Award from his alma mater the Roeper School for the "use of popular art to promote and advance human worth and dignity". In 2003, McDuffie was awarded the Humanitas Prize in Children's Animation for the Static Shock episode "Jimmy", which explores the topic of gun violence. In 2011, McDuffie was posthumously awarded the Animation Writers Caucus' annual Animation Writing Award by the Writers Guild of America, West.

Screenwriting series head writer denoted in bold

Television Static Shock (2000–2004): season 4 head writer What's New, Scooby-Doo? (2002) Justice League (2002–2004): season 2 head writer Teen Titans (2004) Justice League Unlimited (2004–2006) Ben 10: Alien Force (2008–2010) Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (2010–2012) Ben 10: Omniverse (2012)

Films Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010) All-Star Superman (2011) Justice League: Doom (2012)