Remembering Dave Cockrum

[Glen Cadigan]

It was this time last year that Dave Cockrum, co-creator of the New X-Men and designer of Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Thunderbird, Phoenix, and Logan (from the neck up) passed away. Dave was a great guy, and it took him almost dying to finally get the acknowledgements and accolades which he deserved. He revived the Legion of Super-Heroes before he did the exact same thing for the X-Men, and both franchises were the better for it. In some ways, it's hard to believe that a year has passed, but in others, it has been a long time since he posted online in response to a query from one of his many fans.

On this sad aniversary, I thought that people might like to take a trip down memory lane and talk about how they first discovered his work, and the effect which it had on them. Myself, it was Uncanny X-Men # 145, the issue with Dr. Doom on the cover. I'll always remember being blown away by the FF's arch-nemesis crossing over into the X-Men's book, and it only got better from there.

Anyone else?

[david r]

Dave Cockrum rocked on X-Men. His Starjammers and Imperial Guard alone make him worthy.

I discovered his work during the Byrne era. I'd find an older issue of his and grab that baby like gold!! I remember loving his take on the early 1970s X-Men. And you could tell he liked Nightcrawler cause Kurt Wagner got so much spotlight.

I've posted this before, but the splash page in X-MEN #100 of the new team vs. the Original 5 is the most gorgeous splash page to ever grace an X-comic. Claremont/Cockrum were on fire and I wished it could have gone forever.

[Schuimend Mormel]

I am no expert on art, but what has always struck me about Dave Cockrum is his sense of perspective. Especially when he drew something huge, like a Space Shuttle rocketing into space, the Starjammer about to be devoured by a ginormous space whale, or the skeleton of said whale lying on the Brood's planet's surface with its ribs sticking out into the sky. It's like it was coming AT you. I've rarely seen other comic book artists capture that for me.

[david r]

I always wish I could have met Dave. I've read he was really great with fans, and always enthusiastic about X-Men & comics. And he had a mighty sense of humor, and fun to be around.

You know he loved comics, because he died wearing a Green Lantern shirt. To me, that said he wasn't ashamed of his passion.

[Michael Sean]

One of Dave's original designs for Jean's Phoenix costume was the white/gold one.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/newmsgt/333px-White_Phoenix_005.jpg

Thats why Claremont and the artist (Mike Collins?) put Jean in a White Phoenix costume when she went to the afterlife to meet Death in the Classic X-Men#43 backstory which was a back story to Uncanny X-Men #137 and showed what happened to Jean's consciousness after she died on the moon and before she went to the cocoon body and Maddie.

And thats how Jean's White Phoenix identity got started and thats part of what makes it so special.

[david r]

The "White Phoenix"--that is gorgeous

[DDM]

One of Dave's original designs for Jean's Phoenix costume was the white/gold one.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/newmsgt/333px-White_Phoenix_005.jpg

Thats why Claremont and the artist (Mike Collins?) put Jean in a White Phoenix costume when she went to the afterlife to meet Death in the Classic X-Men#43 backstory which was a back story to Uncanny X-Men #137 and showed what happened to Jean's consciousness after she died on the moon and before she went to the cocoon body and Maddie.

And thats how Jean's White Phoenix identity got started and thats part of what makes it so special.

The design reminds me of Fawcett's then DC's Captain Marvel, particularly the cape design & the sash:

http://www.tconl.com/~clowns/Images/marvelradio.JPG

http://www.greatkrypton.com/kc/figures/captainmarvel.jpg

I'm glad Dave Cockrum changed Phoenix's costume to the familiar green costume; it is far more streamlined & simplified:

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/uncanny-x-men/101-1.jpg

[Michael Sean]

I think they had to go with the green because of paper quality. I think Dave wanted the white. I'm glad they went with the green too.

I think it turned out very well for the green, red, and white looks and the symbolic meaning behind each of them.

I'm glad the White version ended up being used though and has been brought back in recent years and has a special place in Jean's story.

[pryde15]

Dave Cockrum is one of my favorite artists! Its sad that we lost such a great artist like him, but he did leave behind a menagerie of artwork that will be around for years to come. My first issue where I found his art, would be Uncanny X-Men #146, I later went back and collected more of his work on Uncanny X-Men.

[DDM]

I think they had to go with the green because of paper quality. I think Dave wanted the white. I'm glad they went with the green too.

I think it turned out very well for the green, red, and white looks and the symbolic meaning behind each of them.

I'm glad the White version ended up being used though and has been brought back in recent years and has a special place in Jean's story.

Dave changed Phoenix's costume in several ways. He nixed the cape, redesigned her elonged boots & gloves from golden flames to triangle design, & he made the Phoenix symbol on Jean's chest far smaller than originally conceived.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v40/newmsgt/333px-White_Phoenix_005.jpghttp://www.coverbrowser.com/image/uncanny-x-men/101-1.jpg

Dave would use his Phoenix costume as template for Ms. Marvel's second costume & Binary:

http://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/55283435382.23.GIFhttp://image.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/17292128602.68.GIF

[Michael Sean]

Dave changed Phoenix's costume in several ways. He nixed the cape, redesigned her elonged boots & gloves from golden flames to triangle design, & he made the Phoenix symbol on Jean's chest far smaller than originally conceived.


Yeah, I know. I was just talking about the color schemes in general.

I wonder why he made the Phoenix symbol on her chest so small. It looks better bigger.

[DDM]

Yeah, I know. I was just talking about the color schemes in general.

I wonder why he made the Phoenix symbol on her chest so small. It looks better bigger.

Maybe to not emphasize her boobs? However, I like how the Phoenix symbol slowly changed as Phoenix's powers grew until Dark Phoenix's symbol covered her whole chest completely.

[DDM]

I'll repeat what I said in Classics Comics forum:

A young Dave Cockrum's letter can be found in Marvel Super-Heroes #13; it's the second story arc involving Captain Marvel, the Sentry, & the first appearance of Carol Danvers.

[Rivka]

Thanks for remembering, Glen. Dave died a year ago today. All his friends miss him a great deal. And the comics community lost an incredibly talented, creative, and innovative man, so all of us should miss him, even if some of us don't appreciate Dave's contributions. Like you said, I think a lot of fans realized how important his contributions were to the X-Men and Legion and comic book art in general after his near fatal illness in early 2004. By then, he was too sick to draw much any more. I was hoping he'd have time to begin typing or dictating stories, because he was a fantastic story teller. He had a scifi writer's imagination, but for most of his life he made his stories come to life with his art. In the last couple of years, because of the diabetes and other things, he could hardly hold a pencil any more, and his eyes were bothering him. But he was always creating new stories and thinking about new designs for characters; several fans were trying to convince him to begin writing. I offered to transcribe what he wrote if he'd dictate. But that never happened. It's like this deep well of creativity was sealed off when Dave passed away.

He is deeply missed.

[david r]

Dave was going to bring back the Futurians. Too bad it'll never happen now.

I still wish he could have done more X-Men stories. Or maybe a Nightcrawler tale.

[Vegetarian Goat]

To my mind, he was easily one of the best SUPERHERO costume designers ever. He also seemed to have a natural love of genre- the man could take any type of story and just knock it out of the park visually- with his own twist. Cockrum is number one on my list of fave X-Artists.

[bakla]

/\ Amen. I loved his work on Legion of Super-Heroes, then followed him to X-men. I trace my love of drawing hands back to Dave, when he drew the final scene in the battle between Storm and Polaris in Uncanny #97 over 32 years ago, ending it with a dramatic foreshortened hand shot. I was hooked on mutants ever since. Here was my homage on my blog:

http://draw365.blogspot.com/2007/06/this-is-no-game-polaris.html