DAMMIT

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

I never wanted to believe something was an Internet hoax more than when a morose Kathleen informed me that Dwayne McDuffie had passed away.

I’ve known him literally for decades, going back to his days as an assistant editor at Marvel. I loved his work on “Damage Control,” which I always thought was inspired and should have been an ongoing title. I continued to read and enjoy his constantly innovative and groundbreaking work throughout the years, and I was thrilled to have the chance to actually work closely with him on several episodes of “Ben 10: Alien Force” and “Ben 10: Ultimate Alien,” for which he was the story editor. I will never forget sitting in his office as we worked out storylines. There was more than just his physical presence (he was well over six feet tall). He seemed to radiate confidence in his abilities, which was entirely warranted, and he was determined to roll with whatever curves Cartoon Network might throw his way and turn them into the best stories possible. He had boundless enthusiasm not only for his work, but for the sheer creative process. To say he will be missed is to understate it. I offer condolences not only to his family, but to the entirety of fandom for losing one of the great ones.

As for us, right now we’re watching one of his “Ben 10” episodes and later I’m running out to buy his “All-Star Superman” DVD.

PAD

Updated 7:36 PM–And Rich Johnston reports that Nicholas Courtney, the Brigadier from “Doctor Who,” has also passed away. What a suck-ášš day.

49 comments on “DAMMIT”

  2. A droll man. One of my favorite bits of his was his entry about meeting Justice Clarence Thomas.

    A true loss to the world.

  3. He was a hero to me, I grew up on his work. I saw his work as proof that if I do make it as a “writer of stuff” I can be more than just “the black writer”. It’s still feeling surreal right now. As for me, I’m going to have to go back and re-read some of his old milestone comics.

  7. When the word came of his passing there was this sudden void filled with sadness. I’ve enjoyed his writing from Damage Control, Deathlok and his short run on FF. I was happy to hear he was working in the Ben10 universe, wherever he was writing I was going to read. An inspiration for budding writers…

  8. Y’know – end of the day – creators (writers, artists, etc.,) are just people doing a job and we fans build up such unreal expectations of them – almost like athletes. Many a time, when we get the chance to meet them, they just aren’t as we ‘imagined’ them to be.
    Not McDuffie – he was that rare breed, he was one of the good ones. I thank him for all of his work, dedication, talent and patience with a fandom that sometimes didn’t deserve him. My sense of loss and pain cannot come even close to those that knew you well, like your family and closest of friends.
    All I can say is: Rest well, sweet prince.

  9. .
    Ðámņ. I loved damage Control. I really loved his work on the Milestone books as well. Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is one of Ian’s top “That one!” picks in the genre on our Wii’s Netflix list.
    .
    He was 49. Way too soon for such a talent.

  10. Very sad. Always liked the his work. Have to break out “Damage Control” and “Static”.

  11. And as for your update … the Brig, too? Sonofa&*((*^&*. That’s less shocking, since Nick Courtney was getting along in years … but dámņ. Just dámņ.

      1. Has anybody seen confirmation on Nicholas Courtney passing? I’ve just combed various news sites (incl. BBC and Google), and there’s nothing anywhere.

      2. Tim, I’ve yet to see a media outlet confirm it, but it’s pretty widespread on Twitter and Doctor Who blogs. He had been in poor health for several years now.
        .
        Honestly, any more, it seems the major media outlets are the last to report on the news.

    3. Sadly, I’ve never met Mr. McDuffie personally, but I’ve enjoyed several projects that he worked on, especially The Justice League and Justice League Unlimited Series. As for Nick Courtney, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him over 25 years ago. He was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word and had a delightfully wicked sense of humour. He once related a story about playing The Criminologist on The Rocky Horror Stage Show in Britain and when they did the Curtain Call at the end, he surprised everyone by wearing the same Merry Widow and fishnet outfit that everyone else was wearing and he didn’t have to do it! A very cool guy that will be deeply missed by Whofans worldwide. RIP Brigadier Allister Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart!

  13. Shìŧ.
    .
    Just Shìŧ.
    .
    Never met him in person, but we exchanged some e-mails a few years back, when he wrote to (quite gently) correct something stupid i’d said about Damage Control.
    .
    From that and from what people like you who actually knew him have said, he was a Class Act.
    .
    And forty-nine? Cheeze – that’s too soon for anyone to leave the party.

  14. I vaguely remember seeing Dwayne at a con somewhere, and thinking Jesus Harold Christ, he’s huge! Then hearing that wry voice, and realising, he’s smart as hëll and funny to boot! I became a fan during Damage Control, and like you, Peter, I really thought it should’ve been an ongoing series; the idea was so dámņ cool, and I grabbed every issue.
    .
    I think Dwayne’s humor was what I loved most. I remember an issue of Black Panther where Ben Grimm and Ororo got into an argument over whether her hair was extensions, and she wanted to be picked up by the hair to prove it. T’Challa told be to humor her, because she wouldn’t quit until he did as told… Next panel was him looking embarrassed, holding her up by the hair. Only Dwayne could’ve come up with that.
    .
    Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I never thought of Dwayne as a black comics writer. He transcended color and genre, and was just a kickass writer. I’m gonna miss him.

    1. Well some of his work is (rightfully) about getting more minorities represented, further calling attention to his colour.
      .
      But agreed, it would be an oversimplication of his career to just focus on Milestone and the like. Damage Control remains my favourite work of his. He was a great writer period. Related to the other bit of bad news, irony of ironies, he said interview I just saw online somewhere that he wanted to write Doctor Who someday.

  15. The Damage Control series that I read was smart and funny, and I loved what he did with Justice League Unlimited. It wasn’t a single story on the show that I liked the most, just that the overall arc involved people mistrusting the Superman and the Justice League for good reasons, Superman and the League doing their best while becoming unpopular and making tough decisions, Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel and the rest having passionate, principled arguments, and the “lightweight” Wally Weast Flash proving himself a hero at the end.

    He made me care about the characters while I had fun reading and watching them, and it’s a big regret that we won’t have him around for several more years.

  16. This sucks. The man was too young. 🙁

    Sadly, Dwayne McDuffie is one of those writers that I’ve heard a lot about, but somehow I missed all of his noteworthy works.

  17. Dwayne’s version of the Hulk as he appeared in “Damage Control” was the ONLY guest shot written during my run on the book where the Hulk actually sounded like the way I wrote him. No one except Dwayne ever captured his voice.
    .
    PAD

  18. Never got the chance to meet him, not many creators make it to Minneapolis comic conventions. Thanks for coming PAD! 🙂
    .
    I really liked Damage Control also and was a bit miffed when Marvel messed the whole thing up by making them out to be villians causing their own business. Did that make any sense?
    .
    RIP

  19. Man, that just sucks. You’re not supposed to die at 49. McDuffie, along with the rest of Milestone Comics, came to Walter Simonson’s graphic novel class at SVA as guest speakers during the 1992-93 school year. He was softspoken, especially compared to the more laugh-a-minute Michael Davis, but he was a presence for comic book readers like me who often saw his name in credits, and it was that class that prompted me to read McDuffie’s Static (which ironically, was initially drawn by my classmate, John Paul Leon). He will be missed.

    I remember when Marvel ran a feature in its books that would include a profile of Marvel editors and other creators, along with a caricature of the person, and McDuffie was one of them.

  20. I am beyond stunned, and at 49 too. I never read many of his comics, but I always knew a good story awaited me when I saw his credits on the Justice League cartoons and DC’s animated movies.

    Also, bummer about the Brig. Supposedly, he was to cameo on the Sarah Jane ep that featured the tenth doctor, but couldn’t make it for health reasons.

  21. In honor of Nicholas Courtney:

    “You know, just once I’d like to meet an alien menace that wasn’t immune to bullets.”

    Rest in peace.

  22. A few years ago, I started buying comic-books again, after more than a decade. It was difficult because my money was very limited, and I had no idea what might be good or bad. But one change that had occured since I’d stopped reading before was that Marvel now put the author’s names on the covers. That should’ve made it easier, but the only name I recognised was the writer of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man– the others I saw were complete unknowns to me. But then the new Fantastic Four appeared, and write on the cover it said Dwayne McDuffie.
    I hadn’t read very much from him– just some Solo Avengers stuff and the Captain Marvel one-shot– but it was still a relief to see a name I knew. And the stuff I’d read from him before was at least decent.
    I can’t remember for certain, but I think that Fantastic Four was only the second non-Spidey book I bought after returning to comics.
    .

  24. I saw Dwayne just last week at the NY premiere of All-Star Superman. He was having the time of his life, proud of his script and thrilled to be adapting a story he loved as much as anyone. He was especially looking forward to finally meeting Grant Morrison at SDCC. Fate, of course, said otherwise.

    I feel like I should have some to say about “the Brig” but sometimes it’s just enough to remember someone who played an iconic role and did it well.

  25. Aw, no.
    Though I never met the man, and only had a few small interactions with Dwayne online, this really hurts. Always a name to trust when buying the work, always a guarantee of honesty, always entertaining–and from all accounts, a genuine and good guy. Too young; too fast.

  26. I never knew him, but I respected his talent. I enjoyed his stuff as far back as Static and as recently as Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths. When he didn’t have some pinhead editor gumming things up, he did really good work.

  27. I’m a fan of both these gentlemen. Never met either, but also never heard a bad thing about them.
    .
    I remember pushing Milestone when it first came out. A lot of the store’s customers perceived it as a “gimmick company” and wouldn’t give it a try.
    .
    Sometime after the Shadow War crossover, I talked the store owner into a Grab Bag promotion. I took four random issues from our overstock, crammed them all into one bag, and sold them for $2.
    .
    When I “randomly picked” the issues, I made sure that every bag included a Milestone comic. Over the next few months, sales on Milestone titles nearly tripled. (Not as impressive as it sounds. We went from ordering 3 copies, selling 2 to ordering 7 copies, selling 5-6.)
    .
    I can’t say that I’ve read everything McDuffie was involved with. But, I can say that I’ve never read anything by him that I wouldn’t recommend to someone else.
    .
    Theno

  28. This is truly tragic news. I am stunned. I had to reread the item a few times. Dwayne McDuffie? Dead? At 49? No way.
    .
    He was such a unique talent. Everything he wrote was unique, accessible and – an ingredient missing in all too many comics these days – fun.
    .
    I first met him about three years ago at a convention in Philly that put the spotlight on African-American talent and characters in the comic industry. We were on a panel together the small – but increasing number of comic book characters of color.
    .
    It was an incredible discussion. I talked about how DC had just made a bold decision to have a black Firestorm, Asian Atom and Hispanic Blue Beetle, but those books were failing and as a result, it’s harder for the next company or editor to take a shot.
    .
    Dwayne’s response was classic. Something along the lines of, “Right. Because comic companies never bring back old concepts, again and again..” and then cited books that are always brought back only to fail again, like Metal Men, Aquaman and/or similar books.
    .
    There was much back and forth and the crowd loved it. I was extremely restrained, due t what i felt was an important subject and because I respected the heck out of Dwayne.
    .
    Afterward, when I approached him he told me I should relax and that I should have been more combative. He said we were discussing comic books and that should always be fun. When I said I had been afraid of offending members of the audience and/or him he said people are too easily offended today. That the audience ate our debate and the give-nad-take right up and that he hoped i would be “more combative and more relaxed” next time.
    .
    I truly looked forward to that “next time”. which, of course, will now never happen, though he would briefly mention a rematch whenever I saw him at shows.
    .
    Life is truly too short – and not fair. I will miss Dwayne a lot.

  29. That’s three tragedies now, if you include the untimely death of Perry Moore, a very talented writer/producer, whose best-selling novel Hero was a wonderfully sensitive look at a gay teenager trying to cope with his own sexuality while dealing with his emerging superpowers and the possible disapproval of his dad, a former superhero himself. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
    .
    I was fortunate to interview Dwayne McDuffie back in 1993 for a Comics Scene piece we were doing on the newly-created Milestone Universe. I had to interview virtually every writer and artist involved in the Milestone books, but it was McDuffie that left the biggest impression on me, not only because he obviously had a lot to say about these new characters, but also because he seemed to be involved in so many of them.
    .
    And finally, at the risk of hijacking too much of this thread, it’s the death of Nick Courtney that has really hit me the most. Back in 1986, long before I became a freelance journalist, I was part of a local Doctor Who club here in New Jersey. Filled with naiveté and enthusiasm, I asked the club president if they had ever thought about running interviews in their monthly newsletter, not realizing that I had just put myself on a path that would forever change my life. Here I was, a dopey Doctor Who fan in my mid-20s, without the slightest clue how interviews were actually done, but knowing that actor Nick Courtney was coming to New York for a Starlog Festival in a few months, I wrote to him in England and asked if he could find time for an interview while he was here. To my surprise, I got a letter back a few weeks later saying he would be happy to chat.
    .
    So on May 11, 1986, I came to New York, armed with eight or nine pages of meticulously researched questions, met up with Nick and we left the hotel for the comfort of a local deli. I’m sure he had heard every one of my questions a dozen times before, but he was hugely accommodating, even spending the better part of his afternoon with me. So long in fact, that when we eventually made our way back to the hotel, his then-girlfriend was so annoyed that she wouldn’t speak to him (‘She’ll be fine!’ he assured me with a wink). Based on the success of that interview, I went on to contact a number of other Doctor Who people over the next couple of years, making my first professional sale a few years later and eventually giving up my mundane job to become a full-time freelancer in 1991. I’ve probably done three thousand interviews since that uncomfortable conversation 25 years ago, and written god-knows-how-many magazine articles in that time, but in some ways, I owe it all to Nick Courtney.

  30. Pingback: Fellow creators and fans remember Dwayne McDuffie | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment

  31. Dammit, Indeed. I enjoyed his printed work, and his writing for animated series always sucked me in more than I ever expected to. My condolences to his friends and loved ones.

    I’ll be sure to pull down his treatment of All Star Superman tonight that I’ve had my eye on…

  32. Pingback: Best Action Figures of 2009 - Linkarama@Newsarama

  34. I never met Dwayne McDuffie, but I interviewed him by phone for an article about Black superheroes back in 2006. Among other things, he spoke about how he didn’t like the character of Luke Cage; and how Black Panther made him a big comicbook fan instead of a reader. He said that book made him realize Black people could be from any walk of life.
    .
    He also spoke about Milestone Media, and said it helped bring a number of important African American creators into the business.
    .
    Obviously, McDuffie’s contributions to the comics industry extended well beyond his work at Milestone; and who knows? We may find in years to come that people (of any race) who get into the business at some future date were influenced to some degree by something Dwayne McDuffie wrote and/or edited. Something that made them say, “I want to do something like that.”
    .
    My condolences to his family.
    .
    Condolences also to the family of Nicholas Courtney.
    .
    Rick

  35. I was offline from Monday evening until this morning, in between which I watched All-Star Superman. When I saw the headline at CBR, my response was PAD’s headline for this thread.

    RIP, Mr. McDuffie. You weren’t ready for it, but you earned the rest.

  36. Back when I still wrote for TOON Magazine, I had a brief phone interview with Mr. McDuffie. He was an impressive man, and he mentioned a movie script he was trying to pitch. It was a live-action fllm of Damage Control.

    The idea was a Marvel mockery of the many DC movies being released. Damage Control had to clean up after very destructive, careless heroes – specifically, the Squadron Supreme, imitations of the DC big guns. Damage Control finally gets sick of the cleanup work and actively goes out to teach them a lesson.

    Think of it; it would have been a workplace comedy similar to The Office with big action, stunts and satire. The tragedy of McDuffie’s death is that his great idea will never be made, while crap like Superhero Movie fills the shelves of Blockbuster. (Maybe that’s why Blockbuster is going out of business. Revenge from the grave.)

  37. There are very few names in comics that mean quality and his was one of them. The only thing I can say is I hope he didn’t suffer at the end.

    On a side note I got an invite to the All-Star Superman premiere last week (I am part of a podcast) and had the opportunity to interview the vocal talent and Dwayne as well and I blew it off because the timing was a little difficult. I’ll always consider it one of my biggest lost opportunities.

    I am going to go watch some Justice League Unlimited.

  38. Only met him once, briefly. Back in the Millenium days. I got his signature, and I told him how much I liked Static: “Move over, Peter Parker!” He liked that. Yeah, he was a pretty big guy, and gave the impression of having a lot going on upstairs.

    He did a wonderful job with about any title he wrote: Damage Control and Deathlok got me watching for his writing. My favorite line was when Static told Frieda that he had to go fight the bad guy, I gotta beat him, and as she watched Static fly away, she said, “My hero. The bûŧŧhëád.”

    LIfe ain’t fair when a talented writer goes before me. You’re younger than me, Dwayne, you’re not supposed to do that! Please come back, I want more of your writing! (Sigh. At least I can see All-Star Superman. And I will be thinking of the writers the whole time. He shall be missed.)

  40. Dwayne McDuffie…

    I’m not really familiar with his work but I remember really enjoying his work on the Fantastic Four (it was before Mark Miller took over, right?), and i mean REALLY enjoying it.

    It was just so much fun! I actually prefered it to MM’s entire run ( not a knock on MM)

    I do know that he was the guy who created Static Shock. I remember watching the cartoons as a kid and still have fond memories of them.

    I feel really bummed now as not only I just learnt about his passing, but it seems that I learnt it late too.

    My belated condolances to his family and loved ones…

Comments are closed.