Marshall Rogers (January 22, 1950 – March 25, 2007)

This is just getting ridiculous....and very sad.
Marshall was always one of my favorites.

Marshall Rogers (January 22, 1950 – March 25, 2007) was an American comic-book artist best-known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics and DC Comics in the 1970s, particularly as was one of the key illustrators of the character Batman. In addition, Rogers also illustrated one of the first graphic novels, Detectives Inc.

Marshall Rogers studied architectural drawing, and his work was characterized by the depiction of characters with relatively human proportions rather than exaggerated musculature, and by detailed rendering of buildings and structures.

Some of his first comic-book work appeared in the black-and-white magazine The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, where he worked with writer Chris Claremont on a story featuring the "Iron Fist" supporting characters Misty Knight and Colleen Wing as the Daughters of the Dragon. He eschewed the grey wash that was used in other black-and-white comics stories in favour of applying screentone.

With writer Steve Englehart, Rogers penciled an acclaimed run on the character Batman in Detective Comics #471-476 (Aug. 1977 - April 1978), providing one of the definitive interpretations that went on to influence the 1989 movie Batman and be adapted for the 1990s animated series, considered a definitive interpretation of the darker mooded Batman. The two also did a sequel miniseries, Batman: Dark Detective, and had worked together on other series, such as The Silver Surfer. Their first Batman run was collected in the trade paperbacks Batman: Strange Apparitions and Batman: Dark Detective.

He had also done independent work at Eclipse Comics and others. This included the first Coyote series with Englehart, and his own Capt. Quick and the Foozle.

Rogers was found dead from a heart attack in his home by his son on March 25, 2007.

Hugh Jackman teams with Virgin for new comic books | Entertainment | People | Reuters

Hugh Jackman teams with Virgin for new comic books Entertainment People Reuters:

"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hugh Jackman, who plays the mutant Wolverine in the 'X-Men' action movies, is pairing with Virgin Comics to create a comic book series called 'Nowhere Man,' Virgin said on Tuesday.
The series, a futuristic science-fiction odyssey set in an era when men have traded their privacy for safety and security, will be written by Jackman and Marc Guggenheim, who wrote Marvel comics' 'Wolverine' series and 'Amazing Spider-Man.'"

Dave Stevens (July 29, 1955 – March 10, 2008)

Dave Stevens (July 29, 1955 – March 10, 2008) was an American illustrator and comics artist. He is most famous for creating The Rocketeer comic book and film character and for his pin-up style "glamour art" illustrations, especially of model Bettie Page. He was the first to win Comic-Con International's Russ Manning Award in 1982.

Stevens was born July 29, 1955 in Lynwood, California, but grew up in Portland, Oregon. His family relocated to San Diego, where he attended San Diego City College for two years.

His first professional comic work was inking Russ Manning's pencils for the Tarzan newspaper comic strip and two European Tarzan graphic novels 1975 (he later assisted Manning on the Star Wars newspaper strip. He began doing occasional comic book work, including providing illustrations for fanzines (inking drawings by comic book veteran Jack Kirby among them.) as well as creating the Aurora feature for Japan's Sanrio Publishing.

Starting in 1977, he drew storyboards for Hanna-Barbara animated TV shows, including Super Friends and The Godzilla Power Hour where he worked with comics and animation veteran, Doug Wildey. For the rest of the decade, he continued to work in animation and film, joining illustrators William Stout and Richard Hescox's art studio on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles, working on projects such as storyboards for the Raiders of the Lost Ark film and pop singer Michael Jackson's Thriller video.

1982 saw the release of the first comics featuring Stevens' signature character and title, the Rocketeer. Those stories first appeared as a back-up in issue #'s 2 and 3 of a Pacific Comics effort from Mike Grell called Starslayer. The feature later moved to the anthology title Pacific Presents and then in 1984 became a comic book bearing the lead's name. The first adventure was collected in a single volume by Eclipse Comics . The second story was collected by Dark Horse as The Rocketeer: Cliff's New York Adventure .

The Rocketeer was a throwback adventure story set in a pulp fiction-informed 1930s pulp fiction with allusions to heroes like Doc Savage and the Shadow about a down-on-his-luck pilot named Cliff Secord that finds a mysterious rocket pack. Despite its erratic publishing history, Rocketeer proved to be one of the first successful features to emerge from the burgeoning independent comics movement. Influenced by golden age comic book artists such as Will Eisner, Lou Fine, Reed Crandall, Maurice Whitman, Frank Frazetta and Wally Wood, Stevens, along with other non-mainstream artists such as Steve Rude and Jaime Hernandez was widely recognized as one of the finest artist's of his generation.

Stevens began developing a Rocketeer film proposal in 1985 and sold the rights to the Walt Disney Company, which produced the 1991 film The Rocketeer. The Rocketeer was directed by Joe Johnston and starring Billy Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin and Timothy Dalton to a mixture of highly positive and lukewarm reviews, and a disappointing box office take. Stevens himself co-wrote the screenplay and was a hands-on co-producer of the film.

Comic Book Adaptations Ruining Franchises

New University Online:

"Comic Book Adaptations Ruining Franchises
By Allison Izon
Comic books seem like easy targets for movie treatments. The storyboards, setting and costumes are already laid out for you, and an established fan base already exists. So, it is not surprising that there are about 20 movies based on comic books in various stages of production this year. As you read this article, someone somewhere in Hollywood is out there trying to make “Ant-Man” into a film (the amount of excitement that you would feel for this film is directly proportional to how long you’ve waited in line for a Star Wars film).

So what is it that separates films like “Sin City” from “Daredevil” ? “Batman Begins” from “Catwoman” ? “X2” from “X3” ?Comic Book Adaptations Ruining Franchises