DWAYNE McDUFFIE PASSED AWAY

Sad news today: DWAYNE McDUFFIE passed away yesterday, due to "surgical complications".

McDuffie co-founded the MILESTONE imprint of comics which included STATIC SHOCK and (my personal favorite of the line) HARDWARE and contributed to numerous pre-established Comic Books. Diehard Marvel fans will also recall he co-created DAMAGE CONTROL!

Upon co-founding Milestone Media, McDuffie stated:

"If you do a black character or a female character or an Asian character, then they aren't just that character. They represent that race or that sex, and they can't be interesting because everything they do has to represent an entire block of people. You know, Superman isn't all white people and neither is Lex Luthor. We knew we had to present a range of characters within each ethnic group, which means that we couldn't do just one book. We had to do a series of books and we had to present a view of the world that's wider than the world we've seen before."

In addition to adapting his Static Shock to an animated series, he was also a major driving force in [the awesome] JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (acting as writer, story editor & producer) and created BEN 10: ALIEN FORCE & ULTIMATE ALIEN. He also wrote some of the recent, badass DC Direct-to-DVD Animated Movies; 'Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths' and 'All-Star Superman'.

McDuffie was a fantastic storyteller and was a positive contributor to Comics & Animation. He pushed for breaking Race Stereotyping and showed that in the end, its all about GOOD Storytelling.

My condolences to his Friends & Family. Thank you for your contributions, Mr McDuffie, and the legacy you leave behind.

*Hardware: Vol 1 available now!