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Underground > Comic Books >

Mike Wieringo passes away

14:06 / 13.08.07

He died on Sunday of a sudden heart attack. He was 44.

Link

He co-created Impulse with Mark Waid. He came out of the Clone Saga with his dignity intact. He created Tellos with Todd DeZago. He did beautiful work on FF and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. He was a charming, humble, down-to-earth guy with extraordinary talent. His sketch blog (www.mikewieringo.com) is a gift to the world.

Haus of Mystery

14:08 / 13.08.07

Damn! That's a real shame. He was a very talented guy, and one of the prime exponents of bringing simple joy back to superher o comics with his work with Waid on the Flash and the FF.

A real shame.

14:45 / 13.08.07

I was absolutely shocked to read this just now. Such a sudden passing. He was fantastic, and seemed like a wonderful guy. Very sad news.

15:32 / 13.08.07

Goddamnit, that's awful. I really enjoyed his work.

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

15:42 / 13.08.07

Aw fuckfuckfuckfuck. The guy was a great talent, and from the stuff on his website he was still also only getting better and better. And he seemed like a great guy as well. Shit. RIP Mike.

17:21 / 13.08.07

I'm shocked and gutted and immensely saddened. He was brilliant. My thoughts and prayers go to his family, friends, and colleagues.

The world is that much less joyous today.

18:37 / 13.08.07

So sad.

18:38 / 13.08.07

Oh God, how awful. Ringo always had a nice cartoon touch, something very friendly about his art; fuck, what a shame.

18:44 / 13.08.07

The comics world is poorer for having lost him, a man of huge talent and apparently infinite kindness. He was a regular over at thedrawingboard.org and always spent the time to converse with and encourage the other artists there. I had always hoped that I would meet him some day and shake his hand and I'm very saddened that I won't get that chance now.

20:35 / 13.08.07

Wieringo's art was always full of life, warmth, and a kind of gentle playfulness that's sadly all too rare in comics these days.

I'll always remember the Fantastic Four stories he worked on as some of the best.

20:41 / 13.08.07

Saw this while randomly googling for his work, on waking a bit ago. Damn. Damn damn.

Exceptionally talented and capable of making characterization extrapolations that went into his visualizations of all sorts of fictional folks that was sometimes simply astonishing.

Spyder Todd 2008

21:46 / 13.08.07

Alas, another talent gone before his time. Condolences to his friends and family.

21:58 / 13.08.07

yeah, i read the news this morning and was really heartbroken. i've never met him but have been so very impressed with his talent over the years. i pretty much bought everything he did whether i liked the story or not because i enjoyed his work that much. its hard to wrap my brain around the fact that we will never be treated to his talents again. i think i'll dig out some of his stuff tonight.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

22:14 / 13.08.07

Yeah -- I haven't been exposed to THAT much of his work, but liked what I saw. All death is tragic, but if the facts are straight -- healthy man, vegetarian, great guy, freak heart attack -- then that makes it even more distressing.

23:15 / 13.08.07

Mark Waid and a few others have some words about Mr. Wieringo's passing over at Newsarama.

Waid expresses what it was like to work with him.

---
I could spend the rest of the day writing and writing and writing to explain how empty this makes the world and I wouldn't come close to getting it across. Mike's artistic style quietly influenced an entire generation of artists that followed. I could never get it into his thick, humble head in what regard he was held by his fellow professionals. Mike was a member of a very small club of illustrators -- among them, Alex Toth, Michael Golden, Kevin Nowlan -- who were so revered by their peers that the brilliance of their work was never a matter of debate.

I have more to say--much, much more--but I'm just not up to it right this second. I'm fielding calls, I'm making calls, and I'm trying to adjust to this feeling that I've lost my right arm. I've never done better work than with Mike, and I probably never will. I miss you, buddy. Thanks for letting me be your partner.
---

mikewieringo.com is currently down (presumably due to traffic from the news), but when it comes up, go have a look. There's a lot of great work there from a great comics worker.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

19:53 / 15.08.07

Wieringo was - with Alan Davis and John Byrne - one of the first artists that I genuinely noticed while growing up, and I latched on to his run on The Flash way back in the day, particularly when he and Waid introduced Bart Allen to the world.

By coincidence - I went looking for old copies of his Flash today, while I was in the shop - DC's Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told hit the new issue racks today, featuring a story Wieringo did for that run. Reading it... smashing. Wally's encounter with Max Mercury early on, before he really bought into the Speed Force thing, and Wieringo's art is so crisp and electric. It seemed unnaturally poignant to come out now.

Haus of Mystery

21:15 / 15.08.07

Did he do the art for Flash #0 (the Zero Hour issue DC did in..oh I don't know, 1999 or so?) If so that's one of the best Flash stories ever told, and proof if it was needed that Mark Waid is one of the prime architects of good quality accesible and fresh superhero comics post all the 90's 'gritty' chain' 'n' guns bullshit. For that alone he desreves a heads up.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:34 / 15.08.07

Ringo did indeed do the art for Flash #0 -- which is actually referenced before the fact in the comic reprinted this week; Wally asks Max Mercury if he was the stranger who stopped by his house one time and encouraged him on. #0 showed that Wally himself was the stranger. That comic was one of the better things to come out of Zero Hour.