One of the first things I remembered after reading the news was that fake pitch that McDuffie wrote. A really smart social satire, like you said, Brian.

My condolences to his family and friends.

Oh no! I just gasped reading this. Man, that’s terrible.

Truly terrible news.

This is so abrupt, and it makes me sad. What a smart, talented, and influential writer he was. My best thoughts of comfort to his wife and the rest of his family.

[...] Dwayne McDuffieGeeks of DoomPioneering Comic Creator Dwayne McDuffie DiesComplex.comComic Book Resources -Baltimore Sun (blog) -News Oneall 179 programme [...]

Sorry to hear the news. I was late to the party, but I’ve enjoyed picking up the old Milestone books at comic-cons. He definitely brought a unique and interesting take to super-hero comics.

Wow, that is nuts. Wasn’t he just doing press for All-Star Superman within the last week? How sudden. The family must be devastated. My sympathies go out to them.

This is what I left on my social network pages:

“Rest In Peace Dwayne McDuffie! Thank you for your comics, animation, and for being a true example for all ethnic comic book hopefuls to follow…. Damn..I just got punched in the gut…..”

I could think of no other way to express my feelings.. My heart and thoughts go out to his family and friends, which having met him and spoke to him, I know there are lots of.

I can’t even verbalize how sad I am over this. He was a talent who is just irreplaceable.

Dwayne McDuffie was a unique writer with a ton of talent. He will be missed.

Fuck!

That’s so horrible.
I was just reading an interview with him yesterday, where he hinted at upcoming projects – which had me quite excited.

RIP Mr. McDuffie – your comics and cartoons have brought me much enjoyment, and I am sure they will continue to do so.

Terrible news he’ll definitely be missed.

I’m sorry for his family’s and friends’ loss. McDuffie was one of those creators whose names when observed on the credits almost always guaranteed a good experience.

RIP Dwayne McDuffie.

Jesus, this is horrible. I salute him for his excellent body of work in comics and animation, as well as his efforts to make comics more diverse. However, my sympathies go out most to his loved ones, given how much of a horrifying shock this must be for them

This was quite a shock.
We graduated from the same high school and he was only about 8 years ahead of me.
Many of the characters in his “Damage Control” series were almagamations of real people that we grew up around. He was able to capture character so well.
His stance on equality for minoritiesin comics was HUGE!
My prayers and thoughts are with his friends and family.

Articulate, passionate, intelligent, and wildly creative, he was one of my favorite comic book creators. His name on a project always assured me it would be a good one. From Damage Control to Milestone to Static Shock to JLU to JLA and so much more, he always delivered the best damned story he could. This is a real blow to the industry.

Man, this was a gut punch. I haven’t followed everything in his career, but some of his stuff is just great. I dug Deathlok back in the day. His Milestone stuff was enjoyable.

I remember his PROfile from a Bullpen Bulletin, and an oblique reference in “what he does when no one’s looking” about not going blind from it. It was a while before I realized what he was referring to, and I’m surprised that it got printed…

Great talent who will be missed. Wow.

This sucks. The man was too young.

Sadly, Dwayne McDuffie is one of those writers that I’ve heard a lot about, but somehow I missed all of his noteworthy works.

Wow. That’s…. wow. That’s awful. I’m still in the “This HAS to be a joke” phase. He wrote basically all my favorite superhero comics of the ’90s.

I feel really bad about this. Although I never read any of his comics, I admired the man’s intregrity in his outspoken (yet restrained) views of the comics world. He was one of the few openly diversive voices out there who fought hard to bring the kind of creative comics he hoped to tell, and wasn’t afraid to shy from doing Black S-heroes. After the recent whitewashing of the DC universe, his loss will be even greater than felt before.

Wasn’t there a Shortpacked strip that showed how much trouble Dwane had over doing the script for JLA when he had to constantly rewrite his story because it contradicted with an event-wide continuity or something?

Wow, I just can;t believe it.

My condolences to his family, he was a great writer and seemed like such a genuinely great person.

Wasn’t there a Shortpacked strip that showed how much trouble Dwane had over doing the script for JLA when he had to constantly rewrite his story because it contradicted with an event-wide continuity or something?

There was a CBR Lying In The Gutters which reprinted all his web posts on the matter – which was the reason given when he was fired off the book.

I think you just need to read his JLA to see all the problems he’s having – one story literally stops for an issue, so a bunch of characters can quit, and new one’s come on, and then goes right back into the story the next issue.
God knows what editorial thought they were doing – I don’t think anyone would have minded if stories were allowed to finish before reshuffling the deck.

I’ve only read a handfull of his stories, and the only one I really liked a lot was the Captain Marvel one-shot. But still, this is very shocking and sad news.
He was the first Black comic-book writer that I knew about (I’d read some James Owsley, but I didn’t know he was Black until a couple of years ago). And when I started buying comic-books again a few years ago, after more than a decade, his was only the second name I recognised among Marvel’s writers. I was very cautious with my purchases at the time– I didn’t know which series might still be good, and which ones may’ve changed beyond recognition. I bought a couple of his Fantastic Four, because I knew that his writing would at least be competent.

Man, you can’t even get surgery without dying :/

Awful, awful news.

A great, great writer. I just read his recent Fantastic Four run and it was masterful. Justice League Unlimited was the best superhero team cartoon ever and a stirring, epic finale for the DC Animated Universe. So sad to lose him so young.

This was one of those deaths that when I read the headline, I actually said “Oh no!” out loud. A true loss to the entertainment industry, taken from us much too soon. My sympathies to his family and friends…

I miss this guy already, one of the best behind the scenes writers that was never given enough credit. I loved his humor, immense talent and I wish I had met him, the way everyone sings his praises, we lost a good person today.

So very sad; he was one of my favorite writers.

Was there also a Comics Critics strip that dealt with the JLA stuff? I’m thinking there was. It’s a shame that editorial can’t step back and let a guy loose on the big team book that shouldn’t HAVE to be connected to continuity.

Most of his stuff came out after “my time,” but what I have read and seen I’ve liked. Regardless, what a shock and tragedy. Sincere condolences to his family and friends.

That is some terrible news.

I’m wondering if anyone can tell me (us) what surgery he had that lead to this? Was it an emergency procedures, or something elective?

I was a bigbig fan of Damage Control, and I hope [if the] property continues [it'll be] in the hands of creators who understand it.

BTW: Can anyone tell me if he wrote any of the DCU Andventures/JLU/Batman/ect COMICS? You know . . . not the regular “in continuety” ones, but the ones based on the animated stuff, because I absolutely love those.

Also, not that this matters, but it’s made me reflect a tiny bit on race, in regards to comic creators.
As a kid it never occured to me to wonder what race McDuffie was. It wasn’t until the late 200? that I saw a picture of him. Of course, my reaction amounted to “Hm, he’s African-American.” and that’s about it.

I think the best remembrance has come courtesy of The Beat.

Fly, parakeet, fly.

Found the tribute comic I was thinking of. It wasn’t Shortpacked like I thought, so it took me awhile to find it.
http://comiccritics.com/2009/06/16/the-sad-strange-tale-of-dwayne-mcduffie/

We lose another great creator… RIP, Mr. Duffy.