Richard Corben, a celebrated comic book illustrator known for his work on Heavy Metal magazine and the iconic album cover for Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell, has passed away at the age of 80. The unfortunate news was confirmed on Corben's official Facebook page by his wife, Donna.
"It is with great sorrow and loss that I must share the sad news that Richard Corben died December 2, 2020 following heart surgery. He will be missed tremendously by his family, his friends, and his fans," reads the post. "Richard was very appreciative of the love for his art that was shown by you, his fans. Your support over the decades meant a great deal to him. He tried to repay your support by working diligently on each piece of art going out to you. Although Richard has left us, his work will live on and his memory will live always in our hearts. I will continue to conduct sales of Richard's art through the Corben Studios website at corbencomicart.com. I will also be managing the ongoing process of publishing his work internationally. Please give me and my family a little time to collect ourselves and we'll get back with you in 2021."
"Richard Corben has been an institution in American comic book culture for the better part of four decades. Richard's art is what Heavy Metal is all about, edgy, experimental and prolific. Having been intertwined into the fabric of Heavy Metal, this news comes as an incredible loss to not only Heavy Metal, but the community at large. Our thoughts and prayers are with Dona and the entire Corben family," Heavy Metal CEO Matt Medney said in an exclusive statement to SYFY WIRE.
Born in Missouri, Corben grew up in Sunflower, Kansas: "a work force community of Sunflower Ordinance Works which made bombs for World War II," according to his website. His affinity for artwork began at an early age when he decided to draw a comic about his family's dog, Trail. In senior year of high school, he created a five-minute animated short using his father's 8mm camera (the same kind of camera used by a young Steven Spielberg). While he wanted to move to New York to pursue a full-time career in animation, Corben did some construction work for his father before finding a job with an industrial film company in Kansas City.
After a decade or so with the company, Corben began to give into his artistic calling and started drawing underground comics. He got his big break in the comic book industry from James Warren and editor Bill Dubay of the Warren Publishing Company. Eventually, his original creations (like Den) found their way into Métal hurlant and Heavy Metal. Den was even featured in the Heavy Metal movie released in 1981.
For Bat Out of Hell (released in October 1977), Corben worked off a concept from composer Jim Steinman. "They needed the final art within a week, so there was no time for preliminary sketches," the artist remarked during an interview in 2014. "The only pre-existing image to be used was a panel of a bat that I had drawn in my Den series that was running in Heavy Metal Magazine at the time. The concept of the guy on a motorcycle was all Steinman's."
Throughout his prolific career, Corben worked with some of America's biggest comic book publishers: Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse for characters like Ghost Rider and Hellboy. In particular, his Crooked Man limited series with Mike Mignola won an Eisner Award in 2009. In 2012, Corben was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.
"R.I.P. the great Richard Corben I discovered him way back when (alongside Moebius) in an early issue of Heavy Metal magazine and instantly became a fan. His work was larger than life (in every way) and totally unique," Mignola wrote on Twitter. "I never in a million years could have guessed that one day we would work together but we did. I wrote The Crooked Man specifically for him and to this day it remains my favorite Hellboy story. I didn't really know him — I think very few did — but I did get to spend one very memorable afternoon with he and his wife in their home. They couldn't have been [more] nice and my thoughts go out to her, and their daughter, today."
My first experience with Corben's work was his "Den" series beginning in 1977 in HEAVY METAL magazine (although unknown to me at the time, earlier versions of Den appeared in GRIM WIT 2 in 1973, and ARIEL magazine 1 and 2 in 1976-1977). But Corben's first work that I'm aware of is from 1968, reprinted in a nice edition as TALES FROM THE PLAGUE (originally appearing in WEIRDOM COMIX 13, in 1969). Corben built his reputation doing work in underground comics from 1970-1973, in titles such as FANTAGOR, SKULL COMICS, GRIM WIT, FEVER DREAMS, UP FROM THE DEEP, and SLOW DEATH.
Corben also did covers and interior work for several issues of S Q Productions'
HOT STUF' "ground-level" title, from 1974-1977.
Den, of course, was included in the Heavy Metal animated film in 1981, with John Candy doing the voice of the Den character, which is quite funny. Wrightson's "Captain Sternn" is also in the movie.
After that, Corben did the bulk of his work for Warren magazines from 1973-1982, doing anthology stories in CREEPY, EERIE, their
1984/1994 magazine, and VAMPIRELLA. Plus the same material reprinted in a few other series and one-shots, and
THE ODD COMIC WORLD OF RICHARD CORBEN reprinting underground comics stories.
Dark Horse published a thick hardcover in 2012, that collects virtually all of Corben's stories for Warren.
Heavy metal also did a HEAVY METAL:THE BEST OF RICHARD CORBEN hardcover in 1998, including a few stories not collected in the later Dark Horse hardcover.
And after 1977, in HEAVY METAL, doing serialized work on DEN (I) in 1977-1978, TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS (1979), and DEN II:MOVOVUM (1981-1983), that were later published in collected form as magazine-size graphic novels.
And a Robert E. Howard graphic novel adaptation, BLOODSTAR (1979).
Corben also played a role in the budding independent comics movement of the early 1980's, doing stories for the anthologies TWISTED TALES, ALIEN WORLDS and a one-shot of Poe's FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, from 1981-1984.
Corben also did an A BOY AND HIS DOG adaptation with Harlan Ellison around 1989, published as a comic miniseries and as a graphic novel.
Then Corben had his own comics publishing company
Fantagor Press from 1986-1994, starting with RIP IN TIME 1-5, CHILDREN OF FIRE 1-3, a DEN comic book series 1-10, SON OF MUTANT WORLD 1-5, HORROR IN THE DARK 1-4, and in 1993-1994 the last few projects, DEN SAGA 1-4, and FROM THE PIT 1, which I think was Fantagor's last publication. During those years, Fantagor also published collected graphic novel versions of all five DEN graphic Novels, MUTANT WORLD, THE BODYSSEY, RIP IN TIME and others.
In the 1980's, Catalan also reprinted some of these, starting with DEN, and also collected stories in EDGAR ALLAN POE, THE WEREWOLF, and THE COMPLETE UNDERGROUND WORKS OF RICHARD CORBEN volumes 1, 2 and 3.
Starting in the late 1990's, Corben did projects for DC/Vertigo, Marvel, Dark Horse and IDW, on HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND, HELLBLAZER:HARD TIME, BANNER, CAGE, PUNISHER: THE END, SWAMP THING 7-8 and 20, HAUNT OF HORROR 1-3, BIGFOOT, and a DC anthology SOLO collection of Corben short stories, among others. I think of these, I like best HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND and PUNISHER:THE END.
Just about a week ago, I discovered a Lovecraft-esque 4-issue series Corben did for Dark Horse in 2012, titled RAGEMOOR that I thought was among his best. Also later published as a collected hardcover.
And several collaborations on HELLBOY with Mike Mignola, some I have, others still to explore.
There's probably a number of others I haven't discovered yet.
For me, Corben is the quintessential air-brush artist of the 1970's and 1980's. And while I'm not in love with everything Corben does, I love his visual style and design sense. Particularly on his Fantagor line and graphic novels and series, the groovy 1970's logos and visual style.
Ninja Turtles creator Kevin Eastman has expressed a great influence on his work by Corben. His love for Corben and work in the Corben vein may have influenced his purchase HEAVY METAL. It's sure not because Eastman made any money with HEAVY METAL, which has become obscure and irrelevant for 30 years now.
But Corben definitely made an impact on comics, and brought a very individual style to the field for 50 years. Among many of the anthologies or companies Corben did work for, his contributions were always a draw for readers, and among the best those titles had to offer.
Although I might add of Corben's 70's and 80's work, for a long time it was hard as hell to find. It was not until the era of Ebay, circa 2005-2007, that I was finally able to get complete runs of all those titles. But well worth it!
