Born in Crossville, Tennessee, Michael Turner, aged 37, passed away this past Friday, June 27, in Santa Monica, CA, after a long battle with chondrosarcoma.
Known best for his artwork on Top Cow books Witchblade and his creator-owned Fathom, and his work on Superman/Batmanfor DC Comics, Michael Turner is a massive loss for the comic book industry.
Turner was first discovered by Marc Silvestri, who immediately hired him for Silvestri’s Top Cow Productions as an artist. He started off doing background illustrations, before being part of the five-man team who developed Witchblade. In the summer of 1998, he debuted his creator-owned Fathom.
For those not familiar with his more independent work, his skills have not been hidden. A veritable plethora of big-named books, from both Marvel and DC, have seen Turner’s work. He drew the covers for all seven issues of the mini-event Identity Crisis for DC, as well as their relaunch of the Justice League of America books in 2006. Over at Marvel, Turner drew the cover for the 500th edition of Uncanny X-Men, and the variant and sketch variant covers for each of the seven Civil War issues.
In March of 2000, Turner was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a form of cancer of the bone, located in his right pelvis. He was treated at UCLA Medical Center with surgery, in which he lost his entire hip, 40 percent of his pelvis, and a total three pounds of his bone.
In their official statement, Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada said:
“In this all access world, very little remains that one could consider truly rare. Mike Turner was one of those things. One of those rare individuals who come around once, maybe twice in a lifetime, a cut above the rest of us, special in every way, undeniably touched by god or whatever higher power you believe in.
“I had the good fortune of knowing and working with Mike and because of this, I consider myself incredibly privileged as it allowed me the opportunity to have been touched by his talent and grace. And for that, I will always be thankful.
“Mike, it was a rare pleasure, Godspeed!”
An award-winning water skier, an instructor-level red sash in martial arts, and an avid video game player, Michael Turner will be greatly and sorely missed. We at Geeks of Doom offer our prayers, our thoughts and our best wishes to the Turner family, and to Michael’s friends and relatives.
“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.”
– Luke 16:22a
We’re losing way, way too many.
What! I am truly shocked and saddened even though I knew he had to take a sabatical from penciling because of cancer treatment. Maybe also because he is younger than me. Prayers to him and his family.
This is devistating. I never seen a better artist than Michael Turner. Once he left Witchblade I left comics because I didn’t want him to leave. He is in a better place and will be missed.
Take care friend.
Art Remai
[...] I wrote an obituary for Michael when I found out that he had passed away earlier this year. Suffering from chronrosarcoma, Michael was taken from us far too early. [...]