On Friday, Darwyn Cooke’s wife Marsha announced in a blog post that her husband was receiving palliative care following treatment for an aggressive form of cancer.

Marsha said that Darwyn’s brother, family and herself are thankful for everyone’s support, but they asked for privacy as they face trying times like this. The next day, Saturday 14, it was confirmed Cooke’s death from cancer. According to the blog post, he died early that morning at 1:30 AM ET surrounded by friends and family at his home in Florida.

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Widescreen variant by Darwyn Cooke Justice League United. Credit: Comics Alliance

“Darwyn Cooke had a vision of the DC Universe that was uniquely his own, yet embraced by everyone. Once you saw his timeless designs and concepts for Batman, Catwoman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern or any other character, you immediately adopted his jubilant interpretation of these heroes as your own and wanted more. His take on the most iconic heroes in the world was breathtakingly direct and elegant, powerful and cool.  His were some of the most beautiful, fun DC superhero images we have ever seen,” reads a statement released by DC Comics on Darwin’s death.

Darwyn Cooke lived like he was a character from a Micky Spillane novel, said DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio. He described Darwyn as a compassionate and combative person, who approached the things he did with tenaciousness and temerity.

DiDio added that working with Cooke was challenging, they could spend hours arguing over a story and could even spend months without speaking to each other, but they always found their way back. At the end of his statement, DiDio said that the sadness for the death of his friend is mitigated because he knows that his work will last forever.

According to DC Comics, Cooke always felt lucky for the family, friends, and life that he had. He lived with that brilliance and fearlessness that so permeated his work, they added.

Darwyn’s successful career

According to ComicsAlliance, Cooke’s comic career started in the mid-’80s. In the mid-’90, he was hired as a storyboard artist for DC Comics cartoon. In the late ’90s, DC Comics asked Cooke to work on a project published in 2000 as Batman: Ego. Since then, he worked on several projects at Marvel, including X-Statix and Spider-Man’s Tangled Web.

In 2004, DC Comics released Darwyn Cooke’s most remembered work called DC: The New Frontier which follows characters such as Green Lantern, The Flash and Martian Manhunter. In 2009 Cooke started adapting Richard Stark’s Parker series of stories for IDW, starting with The Hunter. In 2012, Darwyn wrote the Silk Spectre series alongside Amanda Conner on art and wrote and drew the Minutemen mini.

Source: Comics Alliance