Lobo co-creator Roger Slifer who was seriously injured in a 2012 hit and run died this morning while on the way from his nursing home to an emergency room. He was 60 years old.
"It is especially sad because in the last month he was making good progress." his sister Connie Carlton wrote on Facebook. "He was writing words on his new whiteboard that I bought with money his friend Larry Spears sent for Christmas. He was nodding yes and no to questions. A couple weeks ago they put a passey muir device (speaking valve) in his trach and he said 'yes, no, and hi'. They were getting ready to start him on speech therapy and occupational therapy. Things were finally looking up for him. But God needed another angel."
The hit and run Santa Monica, California left Slifer in critical condition with broken bones and a traumatic brain injury. He was comatose for nearly a month. No arrest has been made in the accident.
A member of the CPL Gang alongside future creators as Roger Stern, Bob Layton, John Byrne, Tony Isabella and Steven Grant, Slifer began working for Marvel in the mid-1970s as a writer and assistant editor before moving in 1981 to DC Comics as its first sales manager for the direct market. He also wrote Omega Man for which he created the alien mercenary Lobo with Keith Giffen.
He later moved into animation working for Sunbow Entertainment as a producer, story editor and writer on such series as Jem and the Holograms, Transformers and G.I. Joe Extreme. Slifer was reportedly working on a new project at the time of his accident in 2012.
His funeral will be held in Morristown, Indianna.