A Short Tribute To Michael Layne Turner

While I was away on vacation, I found out that one of my comic book artist heroes, Michael Turner, tragically passed away on 27 June 2008 at approximately 10:42 pm in Santa Monica, Ca. Turner had been dealing with recent health complications arisen from bone cancer.

In March 2000, Turner was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a form of cancer, in the right pelvis. He was treated at UCLA Medical Center with surgery in which he lost a hip, 40% of his pelvis, and three pounds of bone. The surgery was followed by nine months of radiation therapy. After that, he continued the battle with cancer for 8 long years.

He was and artist - penciller, editor and writer for many comic books series, up to and including Witchblade, Fathom, Soulfire and many, many more titles.

I will always remember picking up the first issue of Witchblade and admiring the art and how Japanese-looking the characters were and how flowing the textures and inking was. When Fathom came along, his art had evolved to take on a greater texture, and one of the most difficult to draw - water! I was amazed at how he managed to make the ocean in those comic pages jump out of the pages and make it look so easy to create.

I'm sure that I won't be the only person to miss all his beautiful and wonderful artwork.

Rest in peace, forever.