Who is Michael Turner? (Part I)

Will the real Michael Turner please stand up?

Michael Turner, one of the most popular comic book artists of all time passed away on June 27th, 2008, at approximately 10:42 PM in Santa Monica, California, after an eight year battle with a rare form of cancer known as chondrosarcomoa, which is a cartilage-based tumor that effects most commonly the bones of the hip and pelvis or shoulder and chest.

Born in 1971, Michael Turner was 37 when he died.

Michael Turner did artwork for DC Comics, Marvel, and Top Cow.  His artwork is largely credited for Witchblade becoming so popular.

To say that he was an exceptional artist is an understatement. Always humble and friendly, he was class act and a gentleman of the first degree.

Someone once explained to me that the good die young because they have proven they are ready for the kingdom of heaven, and that God allows those who are not so good to live longer in the hope they may show themselves to be worthy.  In this sense, Michael Turner certainly led a life graced by God.

His art was also uniquely his own.  Not quite realistic, and tinged with a hint of Anime, he created some of the sexist female characters to ever appear in comics, Especially, perhaps in the Fathom series.

Michael Turner founded his own publishing company, Aspen Comics (http://www.aspencomics.com/), in 2002, while continuing to work for major comics companies. He continued to develop Fathom at Aspen Comics, but only after having to fight over the copyrights to it for a year.  He created a couple of other series at Aspen Comics, Iron Maiden, Soulfire, and Shrugged.

I am sure there are many Filipinos who are familiar with his art as comics are very popular here.

Michael Turner established himself with the Identity Crisis Series, and then began doing work on the JLA (Justice League of America, DC Comics) and also began negotiating with Marvel Comics.  He landed the work with Marvel Comics, which meant really big money, but Marvel told him that if he took their contract he could only work for Marvel, Michael Turner would have to quit the JLA series for DC.

Michael says to the Marvel guy, “Okay, then I’m out.  Deal’s off.”  It takes some big cojones and a lot of self integrity to walk away from a deal like that, but that’s what he did, because he had made a promise to do the JLA work.

Marvel caved in, agreeing to let Michael Turner do artwork for other companies, and it was perhaps that moment, that kept promise, and the blessings that came from it that marked the man.  He wasn’t just a great artist, he was a great man.

Michael Turner is also a pretty good-looking guy, but he’s not this Michael Turner.  So,if you ever come to my house and see a lot of drawings on the wall with the name Michael Turner on the, you can rest assured, I’m not the one who drew them.  The “other” Michael Turner” did that.  I just printed them.

See my full photo gallery of Comic Book Artist Michael Turner here.

So, from one Michael Turner to another, may God rest your soul, and I hope to meet you on the other side, I just hope it’s not any time soon.

Maybe one of the reasons I like this Michael Turner Comics Artist so much is that many of his drawings look a lot like my wife, Marissa.  Coca-cola body, pretty face, small nose, blood on her sword, like the one above.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 at 9:17 am and is filed under Who is Michael Turner?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.