Dwayne McDuffie passed away on February 21, 2011, the same day as my father.
I had always been a fan of his work, now in some bizarre connection, I’ll never forget his absence.
Unfortunately, the comic book industry doesn’t always do the best job preserving the memory and honoring the legacy of their biggest heroes. If it took years for creators like Jack Kirby and Bill Finger to have their name attached to their creations, you might get a sense of the struggles that exist within the industry.
Dwayne McDuffie was one of those talents that come around only once in a generation. He was ridiculously smart. He had his master’s degree in physics. He was a pioneer of diversity and strove to develop and write characters in mainstream comics and animation that portrayed a realistic, multi-cultural and accurate portrayal of the world. His vision for the comics industry was realized with the launch of Milestone Media in 1993, which featured not only a diverse universe of characters, but an equally diverse talent pool. Dwayne served as editor-in-chief and created or co-created many of the characters, which included Static, Hardware, The Shadow Cabinet, Icon and Xombi.
In addition to creating Damage Control at Marvel, Dwayne wrote such characters as Batman, Fantastic Four, Deathlok, The Demon, She-Hulk, Spider-Man and even The Artist in Prince: Three Chains of Gold. He also created one of the greatest pop culture discussion topics of all time with his Tommy Westphall Universe Theory (which connects a number of shows to St. Elsewhere which in it’s final episode was revealed to be entirely in the mind of autistic child Tommy Westphall).
But more than anything else, Dwayne McDuffie should not be forgotten, and thanks to his wife, Charlotte (Fullerton) McDuffie, it won’t be.
If you help.
Charlotte is currently raising funds via Go Fund Me to establish The Dwayne McDuffie Foundation, a non-profit organization to award academic scholarships for diverse students. In addition, the fund will also continue to keep Dwayne’s vision alive by managing and maintaining an archival website for research purposes, and applying on behalf of Dwayne’s fans for his well-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (among his credits are producing Ben 10 and Justice League animated series and writing such animated series and films as Static Shock!, Teen Titans, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, All-Star Superman, Justice League: Doom, and various Ben 10 animated series).
With the holiday season approaching, there are plenty of charities deserving of your money, but maybe this year, instead of buying a few comics that you don’t really enjoy out of sheer habit, you donate a little bit of money to preserve the legacy of a creator who did so much, but who had so many more stories to tell.
To support The Dwayne McDuffie Fund, click HERE.