Today the comics industry has lost a legend. Eugene “Gene” Colan passed away at the age of 84 on July 23rd due to complications from liver cancer.

He had quite the resume in his long career. He drew many books for both DC and Marvel. Captain America, Batman, Howard the Duck, Daredevil, Sub Mariner, he did it all. He had two massive comic runs in his career. He drew the entire 70 issue run of “Tomb of Dracula” in the 70’s and an almost interrupted (all but three issues) 81 issue run, from issues #20 to #100 on Daredevil.

Recently he won an Eisner award for Best Single Issue along with Ed Brubaker for their work on Captain America #601 proving he was still one of the best in the business. Here are a couple of quotes from the publishers of DC comics Jim Lee and Dan Didio on how they felt about Gene Colan:

“Gene Colan was one of the great draftsmen in the industry and his work is a fond part of some of my best comic book memories.” —Dan DiDio, Co-Publisher of DC Comics

“Gene Colan was like no other artist of his generation.  His ability to create dramatic, multi-valued tonal illustrations using straight India ink and board was unparalleled.  The comics industry has lost one of its true visionaries today.” —Jim Lee, artist and Co-Publisher of DC Comics