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Dave Cockrum (1943-2006)
01/12/2006 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
An obituary of a comicbook artist, by GF Willmetts. Buy Dave Cockrum in the USA - or Buy Dave Cockrum in the UK  It's a rather odd state of affairs when my favourite national newspaper covers the death of comicbook artist Dave Cockrum and is more interested in what clothes he died in than his significance in the comicbook world. Without him, none of the character designs of the new X-Men back in 1975 would have been like they were. The designs for Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, Thunderbird and even a polishing of Wolverine's costume all came from Dave Cockrum's sketchbook. When it came to character design, Dave Cockrum was in a class of his own.
Not just with the X-Men but with secondary character groups like the Starjammers and the Imperial Guard.
Prior to the X-Men, he worked for DC Comics where he did a total re-vamp of the Legion Of Super-Heroes. Considering how their original costumes hadn't changed since the early 60s, Cockrum modified with a vengeance and these stayed the norm for a couple decades purely because they looked futuristic. As mentioned above, at Marvel he created the Imperial Guard as a homage to the LSH but it could hardly be calling plagiarising as he designed both. There was a certain trademark to his design style in patterns and accessories but they looked effortless and been around forever.
My own small limited collection of original comicbook pages includes several by Dave Cockrum. I even overlooked Phoenix blasting out of the Hudson River in Uncanny X-Men # 101 in preference to a page from # 107 where Nightcrawler uses his image inducer to take on Hobgoblin, a shape-shifter in the Imperial Guard. The page reeked of activity. I even managed to acquire a stack of cover designs he did at Marvel when he was their cover design editor.
Cockrum had a sly sense of humour and invariably blue pencilled a certain 'S' on Ms. Marvel's costume.
Cockrum's run on the X-Men was curtailed both times largely because of the speed he worked could not keep up with a monthly schedule. Seeing the corrections on my original pages tended to indicate a perfectionist at work. His work on the Nightcrawler mini-series was more in line with how he perceived Kurt Wagner as more a light than brooding character.
In many respects, his work has been over-looked in recent years. When director Bryan Singer decided against using super-hero costumes on the X-Men films, it also meant not seeing anyone making a serious attempt at bringing Cockrum's designs to life although they do permeate through the TV animation series.
Dave Cockrum had an undeniable influence on the X-Men comics and now he's gone. One can only hope that if he's looking at the pearly gates that he has a pencil out with ideas for a new design and re-dressing all the angels up there. You were unique, Dave.
GF Willmetts
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