Dwayne McDuffie’s death shocks comics industry
Feb. 22, 2011 | 3:08 p.m.
Sad and shocking news from the comics world today as word spread about the untimely death of Dwayne McDuffie on the same day that “All Star Superman” – which he wrote the screenplay for — arrived on home video.
Dwayne McDuffie (pictured above left), who wrote scores of comic books for Marvel and DC and founded his own publishing company before crossing over to television and animation, has died. He was 49.
DC Comics says the Detroit native died Monday, a day after his birthday. His cause and place of death weren’t immediately known.
McDuffie wrote comics for the New York-based DC and Marvel, including runs on “Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight,” “Fantastic Four” and the “Justice League of America.” He also penned several animated features, including the just-released “All Star Superman” as well as “Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths” and the animated TV series “Static Shock” and “Ben 10: Alien Force.”
News of McDuffie’s death was first reported Tuesday by the website Comic Book Resources. As recently as last week, McDuffie attended the premieres of the new “All Star Superman” film in Los Angeles and New York, and was scheduled to appear at an event this week at Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles.
McDuffie tweeted last week that he was “Taking a break from a script I owe to attend the LA premiere of ‘All Star Superman.’”
McDuffie’s work for Marvel included “Damage Control,” which took a serious but fictional look at a company whose job it was to clean up the damage — both physical and legal — resulting from battles between superheroes and supervillains. In 1992, however, he formed the comic book company Milestone Media, which gave him the freedom and leeway to create his own characters, many of whom were of differing ethnic backgrounds.
Milestone Media focused on multicultural superheroes including Hardware, Icon, Blood Syndicate, Xombi and Static, which was turned into the popular children’s cartoon “Static Shock,” on which he served as a story editor. McDuffie also wrote for other titles and characters, including Black Panther and Deathlok.
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| Milestone comics |
Besides comics, McDuffie was a producer and story editor on Cartoon Network’s “Justice League Unlimited,” and wrote and produced episodes of other cartoons, including “What’s New, Scooby Doo?,” “Ben 10: Ultimate Alien” and “Teen Titans.”
McDuffie was nominated for two Emmy Awards for “Static Shock,” a Writers Guild award for “Justice League” and three Eisner awards for his work in comic books, his website said.
McDuffie’s death took his colleagues and friends by surprise.
Dan DiDio, co-publisher of DC Entertainment, said the writer “left a lasting legacy on the world of comics that many writers can only aspire to. He will not only be remembered as an extremely gifted writer whose scripts have been realized as comic books, in television shows and on the silver screen, but as the creator or co-create of so many of the much-loved Milestone characters, including Static Shock.”
Added DiDio: “The industry has lost a true talent.”
Tom Brevoort, Marvel’s senior vice president for publishing, said McDuffie was a force behind bringing more diversity into comics.
“He was very interested in creating a wider range of multiculturalism in comics, having been profoundly affected by the example of the Black Panther when he was growing up, and wanting to give that same opportunity to others of all races, creeds and religions, which is one of the reasons he left Marvel and co-founded Milestone,” Brevoort told The Associated Press. “And he eventually came back to write both Beyond! and Fantastic Four for me.”
– Associated Press
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I’ve been a fan of Mr. McDuffie’s for a while. I was one of the people who bought the early issues of Milestone comics. I was still reading comics and I was excited about this new company by black people and featuring black characters. I even did a paper/presentation in college on the company.
When I saw that one of the comics
Static was being produced as a cartoon
Static Shock, I watched it. As I spoke about in my
Verb piece I always enjoyed seeing cartoon characters that looked like me. I didn’t have brown palms like they did, but I wasn’t picky. Ever since I started studying film I also started reading the credits for television/film. Credit reading, I noticed Mr. McDuffie’s name as have written a lot of great episodes of not only Static Shock, but another great show that I watched Justice League. He was also the writer of the BEST animated action movies I’ve ever seen
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010) and that was mostly because of the great story. (I named it one of the best films of 2010 in my Entertainment Review
here )
His stories weren’t about race or favoring a particular character they were just good stories. He explains himself in one of the clips below about how that is a misperception among black writers and he says it better than I ever could.
As the title of the article above says, his death shocked the industry, but it also shocked this fan. His talent will be missed. Rest in Peace bro.
-Dankwa Brooks
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Below are two excerpts from the documentary
Shaft or Sidney Poiteir: Black Masculinity in Comic Books featuring Dwayne McDuffie.
About the film-
Through interviews with prominent artists, scholars and cultural critics along with images from the comic books themselves, this film examines the degree to which early Black superheroes generally adhered to common stereotypes about Black men. From the humorous, to the offensive, early Black superheroes are critically considered.
A cool tribute featuring footage of McDuffie and many of the characters he help give "voice" to.
Related links-
Shaft or Sidney Poiteir: Black Masculinity in Comic Books
http://blacksuperherodoc.com/
2011 article about Milestone Comics
Milestone Media's Wikipedia page
Wikipedia - Milestone Media
A cool site devoted to every issue put out by Milestone Comics
Milestone Rave
Dwayne McDuffie's official website
http://dwaynemcduffie.com/
Ocober 19, 2011
The site
Shadow & Act posted
Website Of Emmy Award-Winning Writer Dwayne McDuffie (1962 - 2011) To See Changes read it
here
When I saw that one of the comics Static was being produced as a cartoon Static Shock, I watched it. As I spoke about in my Verb piece I always enjoyed seeing cartoon characters that looked like me. I didn’t have brown palms like they did, but I wasn’t picky. Ever since I started studying film I also started reading the credits for television/film. Credit reading, I noticed Mr. McDuffie’s name as have written a lot of great episodes of not only Static Shock, but another great show that I watched Justice League. He was also the writer of the BEST animated action movies I’ve ever seen Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010) and that was mostly because of the great story. (I named it one of the best films of 2010 in my Entertainment Review here ) 
