R.I.P-Michael Turner

A bit of sad news fellow artists and bloggers, although this didn't happen today, i was overlooking Jim lee's blog and as i went down i noticed a post about his fellow comic artist Michael Turner.

Jim talked about how he and Michael worked together and what kind of person Michael was...It didn't quite hit me untill i looked on a few more sites that confirmed that Amercian comic artist Michael Turner died on June 27th, 2008 due to bone cancer.

For those who might not Know Michael Turner I'll give you a bit of back story ( you can also check his bio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Turner_(comics)

Michael's early work started on comics(Top cow) like ballistic and codename-strkeforce and he is one of the co-creators of the comic series Witchblade ( he worked with Jim lee and Marc Silvestri )

He pencilled and did covers for the entire first volume of fathom(1-15) as well as many many covers for Marvel, DC and Top cow.

Due to him having cancer treatment ( after fathom vol. 1) other artists took over and pencilled for fathom vol.2(talent caldwell,koi turnbull) as well as its off shoots ( aspen seasons, etc) Michael came back after a lenghty down time and began worked on Soulfire as well as establishing his new company Aspen MLT.

I believe Michael would have resumed his pencil work on fathom Vol.3 which has recently come out but is pencilled by Ale Garza.

I never met Michael, nor did i ever see him, but i can say he's probably one of the artists that got me interested in comic books again a few years ago when i had picked up Fathom volume two.

Its my regret that i never did meet michael at any cons ( i have yet to go to san diego or LA or any of the major american comic-cons) but it was something i looked forward to because i really enjoyed Mike's style and his stories from his water wielding herione Aspen matthews or magical Grace from Soulfire.

Michael has battled Cancer before and it took him out of comics after his first volume on Fathom was done, i remember reading the back of one of the comics and him writing how sick he was and how bad he felt not being able to work, he joked and said that the drugs gave him some awesome ideas for his stories.

Another sad fact is that mike was a young guy with a lot of talent and although many artists and people dislike his style it is one of my favorite styles in comics today, reading interviews with people who've worked under mike or met him have said nothing but great things so it pains me to hear another great artist is lost to the world.

Rest in peace Michael, you won't be forgotten~

On top I drew some sketchs of my own take on Aspen matthews ( main character from Fathom)

Peace~