Marvel comic illustrator David Cockrum, largely responsible for making the X-Men comic book series popular in the 70s, died early Sunday morning of complications related to diabetes. He was 63 years old.
Cockrum and writer Len Wein took the X-Men premise and added more characters including Storm, Colossus, Mystique and Nightcrawler to bring us Giant-Size X-Men in 1975. The X-Men storyline originally came out in 1963, but did not get the attention of fans until after Cockrum and Wein's beefed-up re-release of the comic.
A family friend expressed that Mr. Cockrum experienced a great joy from seeing the comic adapted to screenplay.
At the request of Dave Cockrum, no public services will be held. Cockrum will be cremated and his ashes will be spread on his property.
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