Sad, sad, sad...

I just read that comic book and animation writer, Dwayne McDuffie died. From early reports that are coming in, he died yesterday from complications from a surgery he had. Whatever happened (and I don't know what he was getting surgery for), Dwayne McDuffie was only 48 years old and that's waaaay too young to die. The only time I met him was back in November 2008, when he was a guest at the Vegas Valley Comicfest at the Clark County Library (that's where this photo is from). If I remember correctly, it was Derrick, of Comic Oasis, who was instrumental in Dwayne McDuffie actually coming out to Vegas for our Comicsfest that year (Kate and I, being that we've been on the planning committee for the past few years with Derrick, loudly echoed our support that Dwayne McDuffie would be a great guest - and he was).
Just about everyone who reads comics and watches some of the best in animation already know that Dwayne McDuffie had (damn, I'm having a hard time writing about him in the past tense) many credits to his name, including creating Static for DC Comics' Milestone line, writing Damage Control (one of my favorites of his comic books) for Marvel, and writing most of the episodes of the very, very excellent Justice League Unlimited cartoon.

It looks like Dwayne McDuffie's last script writing will be the adaptation he did of All Star Superman that came out today from DC Comics animation. I was really looking forward to watching this tonight, but now it's going to be a sad experience. I'm not a religious person at all, but it's times like this that I hope there is an afterlife so that Dwayne McDuffie can entertain the people there as he has here on this mortal realm for so many years and will continue to for years to come as new generations discover his work. The comics industry and animation have lost a great voice, with the passing of Dwayne McDuffie. Sad.