RIP Dwayne McDuffie

I was heartbroken to hear that Dwayne McDuffie passed yesterday, so unexpected as it was. McDuffie had long been one of my favorite modern animation & comicbook scribes, particularly for his work on Justice League Unlimited.

It was his unique take on The Question (one of my absolute favorite comic book characters) in the JLU episodes that spurred me to contact Dwayne via email some years back. We discussed Denny O’Neil, Steve Ditko and his use of the Randian elements, Rand hercrazyself, Justice League arcs and Lex Luthor, and the single usage of the fantastic phrase “Brobdingnagian distaste” that I had, and still have, ever heard.

From that first email we went on to talk about his work on Damage Control, Milestone comics, and plenty of other fangirly things not to mention my own apsiring writerdom. He was unbelivable generous with his replies to my dumb college self, and since then I’ve been a lifelong fan of his work.

He was an assiduous writer, a prolific storyteller and a truly magnanimous gentleman.  He will be sorely missed.

As a tribute I watched the McDuffie adapted ALL-STAR SUPERMAN last night. It was released yesterday and captures the comics wonderfully. Highly recommended to any DC fan. Over on Twitter this morning @dblackanese captured the bittersweet final moment of the film nicely:

“He’s not dead. He’s up there fixing the sun. And when he’s done, he’ll be back.” ~Lois Lane #ALLSTARSUPERMAN #DwayneMcDuffie

CBR has a nice tribute: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30978