David Emmett Cockrum (; November 11, 1943 – November 26, 2006) was an American comics artist known for his co-creation of the new X-Men characters Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, and Mystique, as well as the antiheroine Black Cat. Cockrum was a prolific and inventive costume designer who updated the uniforms of the Legion of Super-Heroes and the X-Men in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Cockrum was born on November 11, 1943, in Pendleton, Oregon. His father was a lieutenant colonel of the United States Air Force, resulting in the Cockrums frequently transporting their household from one city to another for years. Cockrum discovered comic books at a young age; an early favorite was Fawcett's Captain Marvel, especially Mac Raboy's Captain Marvel Jr. Other artists whose work the young Cockrum admired were Wally Wood, Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson, and Joe Kubert.
As a young man, Cockrum was a dedicated "letterhack," who had many letters printed in comic book letter columns such as Fantastic Four #22 (Jan. 1964), The Amazing Spider-Man #12 (May 1964), The Atom #1 (June 1962), and Fantastic Four #36 (March 1965) (return address "YN 'A' School, USNTC"). A letter from Cockrum in Fantastic Four #34 (Jan. 1965) led to a correspondence with Andrea Kline, who later became his first wife.
Cockrum's ambition was to become a comic-book creator himself. After attending but not graduating from Southern Illinois University, Cockrum joined the United States Navy for six years. During this time, he created the character Nightcrawler, though the character would not be used until years later.
Despite serving during the Vietnam War, Cockrum found time to contribute artwork to comics fanzines such as Star-Studded Comics and Fantastic Fanzine.
After leaving the military, Cockrum found employment with Warren Publishing, as well as with Neal Adams' Continuity Associates as a member of the "Crusty Bunkers".
He was then hired as an assistant inker to Murphy Anderson, who was inking various titles featuring Superman and Superboy for DC Comics. At the time, Superboy featured a "Legion of Super-Heroes" backup strip. When the position of artist for "The Legion of Super-Heroes" was left vacant, Cockrum sought the job and was rewarded with his first assignment drawing a feature. Cockrum's work on the feature, beginning with a backup story in Superboy #184 (April 1972) and recurring in several following issues "established an exciting new vibe". He remained the artist on the Superboy series after the Legion of Super-Heroes became the main feature of the book with #197 and his art redefined the look of the Legion, creating new costumes and designs that would last until artist Keith Giffen did a similar revamp in the 1980s. Cockrum is credited with creating team member Wildfire. Cockrum drew the story wherein the characters Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel were married in Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #200 (Feb. 1974). Cockrum eventually left DC and the Legion in a dispute involving the return of his original artwork from that issue.
Prior to his departure, Cockrum had been preparing to be the regular artist on an ongoing Captain Marvel Jr. back-up strip in the Shazam! series for DC.
Moving over to a staff position at Marvel, Cockrum and Len Wein under the direction of editor Roy Thomas created the new X-Men, co-creating such characters as Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus. Storm and Nightcrawler were directly based on characters which Cockrum had intended to introduce into the Legion of Super-Heroes storyline had he remained on the title. These characters made their debut in Giant-Size X-Men #1 ([July] 1975), and then in a relaunched Uncanny X-Men (beginning with issue #94).
Cockrum stayed with the title until 1977 (as main penciler on issues #94–105 and 107), when he was succeeded by penciler John Byrne with issue #108. The final issue of his original, regular run introduced the Starjammers, a spacefaring superhero team he had originally intended to debut in their own series. Issue #110, which Cockrum co-pencilled with Tony DeZuniga, was an inventory issue. He continued to contribute covers for the series until Uncanny X-Men #126.
Journalist Tom Spurgeon wrote about Cockrum's X-Men,
Cockrum's penciled interiors on those first few issues of the "new" X-Men were dark and appealingly dramatic...Cockrum gave those first few issues of X-Men a sumptuous, late-'70s cinema style that separated the book from the rest of Marvel's line, and superhero comics in general. Reading those X-Men comics felt like sneaking into a movie starring Sean Connery or Sigourney Weaver, not simply like flipping on the television. Uncanny X-Men really felt new and different, almost right away, and Cockrum's art was a tremendous part of that.
In 1979, Dave Cockrum designed Black Cat for writer Marv Wolfman. Cockrum quit his staff job at Marvel in 1979 and his angry resignation letter was printed without his permission in Iron Man #127 (October 1979) but he continued to work for Marvel as a freelancer. Cockrum was Marvel's primary cover artist during this period, and also penciled or inked a number of other titles for DC during this time. Although not a regular artist on the series, he re-designed the costume for Ms. Marvel. When John Byrne left the X-Men in 1981, Cockrum returned to the title with issue #145 but left again with issue #164 (Dec. 1982) to work on The Futurians.
He returned to the X-Universe in 1985 with a four-part Nightcrawler limited series that he wrote and inked as well and his wife Paty Cockrum (credited as just "Paty") colored, a two-part Starjammers limited series in 1990 and an X-Men short story for Marvel Holiday Special #1 in 1991. Two unpublished fill-in issues that Cockrum pencilled in the early 1990s for X-Men and New Mutants were released together posthumously as the one-shot X-Men: Odd Men Out in 2008.
In 1983, Cockrum produced The Futurians, first as a graphic novel (Marvel Graphic Novel #9), and then as an ongoing series published by Lodestone Comics. Though it did not last past issue #3, a collected edition was published by Eternity Comics in 1987 that included the "missing" issue #4. In 1995, Aardwolf Publishing printed the "missing" issue as Futurians #0, with a new five-page story by Cockrum and author Clifford Meth.
In 1993, Cockrum was recruited by Claypool Comics to produce work for them, resulting in several stories for Claypool's Elvira, Mistress of the Dark series beginning with #7. Cockrum was put into rotation on Peter David's Soulsearchers and Company, beginning with issue #13, becoming the series' penciler with #17 and penciling most issues through #44, published in 2000. Cockrum contributed a short feature to Richard Howell's Deadbeats #18.
Personal life, illness, and death
While serving in the Navy in the late 1960s, Cockrum married Andrea Kline and had a child with her, Ivan Sean.