Hello you out there im speaking to you,
have you thought today at David Emmett Cockrum? If not, take a minute at work at home or whereever you are right now-to lean back and do so.Because its a special day. The man who literally change not just my life. (I know he would kill me say so, but I cant deny it.Sorry Dave)
Dave was born a in Oregon as the son of an Airforce lieutenant colonel. In early years he fell in love with comic as many children do and dreamed of a career as artist. But his family was not that amused. So dave went- as his father to be a soldier but he went to the navy. While these days he worked for some fanzines. In later days he quit the army and got later a job as assistance Inker of Murphy Anderson, who Inked various titels like for Example Superboy. his first own Series was DCs Legion of Super-Heroes, what he redesigned to a brand new look and feel. When he left DC and went to Marvel he worked together with Len Wein to give the at this point kinda unsucessful X-Men a new Face. He Invented together with Wein Nightcrawler and Storm and many of the other new Uncanny X-men we still find in Comics Movies love and was the penciler even when Wein was replaced by Chris Cleamont til 1977. After freelancing for both two, he came back to X-men for issue 145-165. In 1983 he left Marvel to do his very own series, the futurians.
Dave died nearly 3 years ago at Nov. the 26th 2006 in his new home in Belton, South Carolina.
Today would be his 66th birthday.
Years ago, I did an Email Interview with Dave. I actually planned to translate for a german magazine. But this never happed unfortunately. So I reviewed the Interview post the best of here:
ME:Why did you went into the navy? (what did you do there?)
DAVE:I was bored with college. I dropped out during my third year and
enlisted in the Navy because I wanted to serve on a battleship. The Navy had just reactivated the battleship USS New Jersey for the war in Viet Nam.
I applied for duty on New Jersey, but I think every other man in the Navy must have too.They had plenty of people to choose from, and I wasn't one
of them.
I became a Yeoman in the navy. I was in administration, usually working
in the ship's office or other administrative facility. Basically I was a clerk-typist. I kept officers' records, I wrote official communications,and occasionally I had custody of classified documents.
ME

id you like it? (the navy)
DAVE:Some of the time. There was a lot going on that was interesting--one of my duty stations was at a Naval Air Fighter Squadron based at Miramar,California, another was aboard a submarine tender--USS Proteus, stationed at
Guam. But there was also a lot of boredom, and also, I tend to want to rebel against authority, so I knew I could never make a career of it.
ME

id you ever study arts (or design) or did you lern most by your self?
DAVE:I took as much art as I could in high school, and I majored in art in college. However, school didn't really train me for a career in comics.While in the Navy I bought anatomy books and taught myself comics style figure drawing. Then, once I was discharged, I found work inking backgrounds and assisting other artists. I learned a lot from them while doing it.
ME:What was your first comic you ever read?
DAVE:Hard to recall. I think it was a book called 'Boy Crimebuster which my father--then a teacher--had confiscated from one of his students who was reading it in class. This would have been around 1952-53.I also had early exposure to Captain Marvel (the original, the one who says 'Shazam'

,and Bugs Bunny (my folks got me a subscription to 'Loony Toons and Merry Melodies'

.
ME:Have you got some Comic Character, you liked most in your childhood?
DAVE:Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family. There was also a funny ghost book I liked very much. It was called 'Spencer Spook'. A bit later I discovered Atlas Comics' (now Marvel) book, 'The Black Knight', drawn by Joe Maneely.
I really loved it. It was set in King Arthur's court, and the Black Knight was a Zorroesque character who spent his time protecting the king from the plans of the evil Mordred. Great fun!
ME:When did you start to draw?( Wich age, or some reason for starting...?)
DAVE:I don't know *why* I started drawing, but I guess it was when I was about eight years old. My guess is that I wanted to draw the characters from the comic books.
ME:Is there some artist you took for example in this days...? Some favor Artist?
DAVE:I didn't really start studying with art books until much later. My
first anatomy book was 'An Atlas of Anatomy for Artists', by Fritz Scheider.
Later, once I moved to New York, there were many more books available, and I built up a large collection of books about anatomy and figure drawing.Probably the best ones for someone who wanted to draw comics were Burne Hogarth's series: Dynamic Anatomy, Dynamic Figure Drawing, Drawing the Head and Hands, Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery, and Dynamic Light & Shade.( ME:These books are really good folks ^^)
ME: What is a "GOOD"(made) comic to you?
DAVE:There are too many variables to pick something like that. To me, a good comic is one whose writing, art and coloring all come together to make a pleasing picture and an exciting story. To me, comics are still entertainment. That's how I judge. One example of a 'good' comic, if you'll forgive the immodesty, is my Futurians graphic novel. Another example: the Sandman series written by Neil Gaiman, which ran at DC several
years ago. His two 'Death' miniseries. The six Brave & Bold issues of Hawkman, by Gardiner Fox and Joe Kubert. The '60s series by Tower Publishing, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.To name a few.
ME:Speaking about workflow..are there difference betweet Marvel and DC?
DAVE:Surely. Marvel's artists generally work from a plot outline (the'Marvel style'

while DC generally works from full scripts. Also, DC is more editorial oriented than Marvel--at least when I was working there.Marvel's editors are primarily paper shufflers. DC's editors seem to be more acquainted with story content and how to present their characters.
ME:Why the people always know you did Nightcrawler and they forget Ororo or Colossus...I think thats a little unfair.. same to very famos Wolverine....(He was created but as Villain for the HULK he and Wein/Cleremont overworked him)
DAVE:It's not that, really--it's just that I'm so thoroughly identified with Nightcrawler. [b]I mean, he was *me* in the X-Men books. He was my alter ego.[/b]
As for Storm and Colossus--nobody from my era forgets I created them, it's just been so long ago that the current crop of readers don't know. Many of them never heard of me.
I also asked at this days about his feelings about the whole "Orgin Project" and how he felt with seeing Kurts Orgin defined.
DAVE:I don't know what they're doing with Nightcrawler's origin, but I suspect I won't like it. Not that it makes any difference, but they've rarely gone in directions I'd have explored with my characters.
So Dave once said that Kurts Birthday is at the November 11th like his. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIGHTCRAWLER
The club I am in:

The very special friends:





My family on DA:

