Panel one is a close-up of Catwoman running towards the reader, slightly left to right. Adding the crosshatching and the details and the scratchy little lines that define 'detailed' artwork in standard superhero comics, for example, would work against the style of work animators want to do. That's what it takes to create that movement in your mind. The images are also 'simpler.' They put more panels or more drawings in a single scene. Characters squash and stretch and bound across the page. Everything about it indicates motion across the page. The animators I've seen doing comics are more fluid. They look for that 'decisive moment' and work hard to maximize the single image. The typical comic book artist sees things in terms of the frozen image.

Animators have a way of seeing things that most comic book artists don't have. I wrote last week of my admiration for animators in comics, and Cooke is another excellent example of this at work. Cooke's background in animation and storyboarding is on full display here. He only drew the first four issues, but I could talk about them for days. 'This is an industry-wide loss that I feel personally, but the sadness is mitigated in the knowing that the beauty and grace of his art will forever stand the test of time and be a monument to all that is great about comics,' DC publisher Dan DiDio said.It's all well and good, but I kept getting hung up on Cooke's art. 'His were some of the most beautiful, fun DC superhero images we have ever seen.' 'His take on the most iconic heroes in the world were breathtakingly direct and elegant, powerful and cool,' the publisher said.

Saturday, DC Comics wrote a comprehensive tribute to Cooke's life, art and legacy. On Friday, Cooke's family reported on his personal blog that he had begun receiving palliative care 'following a bout with aggressive cancer.' He became well known for his retro-inspired designs of several major characters, and DC Comics in a statement noted that his take on Catwoman is still the template used today, as well as for the television series Gotham. He won the 2006 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue for his work on DC's Solo #5 and also was recognized five times by the Joe Shuster Awards for achievement by Canadian comic book creators.Ĭooke's breakthrough performance in print came with Batman: Ego, published in 2000. He was 53.Ĭooke began as an animator on two key cartoon series in the 1990s: Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series, before joining the print medium. Darwyn Cooke, the influential illustrator of numerous iconic heroes in the DC universe of characters, died on Saturday after a short battle against cancer.

Catwoman by Darwyn Cooke