Ah, the year is nearly behind us. So, per tradition, we like to take this time to give requiem for what was and be hopefully be grateful for the good that stumbled our way this time around. It seems for most that this year was an especially dark one, book-ended by the passing of many trailblazing artists and a seemingly unprecedentedly vitriolic election cycle. Oh, and the Olympics were cool. You remember the Olympics, right? It's nearly curtains for 2016 and 2017 is looking ever closer. So maybe this one was a wash, but I think that maybe we should give it the ole’ college try to close things out right; maybe over the last few weeks of the calendar year celebrate what inspired us, whether it be events or works that planted some faith or people that we found to be remarkable, maybe even some remarkable people that we lost this year. One of those incredible artists that we lost this year was visionary cartoonist and writer Darwyn Cooke, who passed after a fight with an aggressive form of lung cancer back in May at only 53-years-old.

Cooke’s work was something that I only took notice of within the last year or so that he was around, despite 25 plus years working in comic books and the arts at large. As a cartoonist he has an incredibly distinct style; evoking the best of the clean line work made famous by Silver Age (the late 1950’s to 1970 for the uninitiated) artists like Jack Kirby and John Romita. The classically inspired, but uniquely recognizable style was further complimented by the thing that made Cooke not only a beautiful cartoonist, but a master of his form- his adeptness for storytelling that was forged early in his career in his time as an animator. Darwyn Cooke comics are lean, there is no fat. His pencil bends to his will and his panels are cut together with the craftsmanship of an expert director and editor. Everything is where it should be and the book unfolds almost unneeding of words.

Where I first took note of Cooke’s work was on lists of “The best comics of the 21st century” or “Top 10 DC Stories of all-time” that evangelized for what many consider to be his magnum opus- DC: The New Frontier. I saw Cooke’s art and was not initially wowed. It looked old-school and cartoony to me. Almost minimalist. But, the more praise I saw, the more intrigued I was to see what the hype was about. And when I found out what it was about- I was sold. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed. The New Frontier uses the period in between the Gold and Silver Ages of comics in the DC Universe to explore uncertainty, paranoia and ultimately hope for the future in post-Korean War America just before the dawn of the 1960’s. The book is punctuated with a section of John F Kennedy’s “The New Frontier” speech that he gave to the Democratic National Convention in accepting the nomination in 1960. The book is brilliant and essential, I would argue especially in light of an ever uncertain political and cultural climate.

The other Darwyn Cooke work that I’ve gotten my hands on is his adaptations of Richard Stark’s Parker crime-noir novels. Cooke did four adaptations before he passed and I truly believe that they some of the best comic books ever created. This is Cooke at his most refined. The storytelling is unparalleled. The word-less intro to the first book The Hunter is some of the most immaculate panel work I’ve seen. The framing and angles are perfect. The pacing seems to blur the lines between the panels, as if each a movie frame already in motion.

I could go on and on about how wonderful Darwyn Cooke’s work is, and I almost did, but I’ll just drop some images and let the work speak for itself.

I find inspiration in Cooke’s work in part due to his aesthetic style. It looks simple at first glance and Darwyn made it look so easy that you’re almost tricked into thinking “Hey, I could do that.” And sometimes that is all it takes. There is something about it that says if some guy from Nova Scotia can do that for a living, why not me? I’m from a small town too. Not to say that it is easy, because as Darwyn would retort “It takes 40 years... And then it is kind of easy, actually.”

Darwyn Cooke was a paragon of comic books potential as storytelling medium and one of the greatest cartoonists of our time. What he did for the artform will not be forgotten soon, and I hope that at least some of you will take some time and browse through some of Cooke’s incredible body of work.