Comic book artist Gene Colan dies at 84

Comic book artist Gene Colan, whose career spanned seven decades and who illustrated the adventures of characters like Dracula, Batman, Daredevil and the wisecracking fowl Howard the Duck, has died in the Bronx at age 84.

Longtime friend and biographer Clifford Meth told The Associated Press that Colan died late Thursday at Calvary Hospital from complications of liver disease and cancer. A private funeral will be today.

Colan's impact on the industry was undeniable, developing a style both subtle and emotional that imbued characters he drew with a sense of vitality that seemed to leap off the pages.

His work drew him the nickname Gene "The Dean" Colan.

"He was a mighty craftsman, with such a strong style of his own that he avoided entirely working under any of the popular house styles, even the mighty Jack Kirby one that roared through Marvel in the 1960s," comics historian and editor Tom Spurgeon told AP on Friday. "He was his own chapter in the history of comics."

Colan's art was a staple of the Silver Age era of comics, and his 70-issue run on "The Tomb of Dracula" that was written by Marv Wolfman in the 1970s remains critically lauded for returning horror to the pages of comics, along with creating the character, Blade.

Wolfman told the AP that Colan's art work was stunning and that Colan was "maybe the only artist I know in comics who nobody else tries to mimic. Everyone tries to do superheroes like Jack Kirby or war books like Joe Kubert or Spider-Man in the Steve Ditko style." With Colan, though, "they simply cannot do it."

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Mark Evanier, a comics historian, said Colan's work on "Tomb of Dracula" was defining.

"It came to the point that Gene was so involved in that comic, there was something organic about the book," he said. "The moods were set by Gene's skill as an artist. He drew such rich characters -- people who had flesh and blood in them and had recognizable human emotions."

Colan also worked on Marvel's satirical "Howard the Duck," written by Steve Gerber, and did art for other publishers, including DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Archie Comics and Eclipse.