Dec. 11, 2020
Richard Corben, a titan of visual storytelling, has died at the age of 80. The news comes from his wife Dona Corben, over at the Corben Studios Inc. Facebook page:
It is with great sorrow and loss that I must share the sad news that Richard Corben died Dec 2, 2020 following heart surgery. He will be missed tremendously by his family, his friends, and his fans.
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.
Corben was a supremely talented artist who could also spin a hell of a yarn. He was, in a way, the heart and soul of Heavy Metal. Corben’s Den was the first story in the first issue of Heavy Metal, and in those days when so much was imported from Metal Hurlant he and Vaughn Bode (who died before Heavy Metal began publishing) were the only Americans in the magazine. Corben was, maybe, the most interesting comics artist in America at that time; one of a very few who could be published alongside Moebius, Druillet, Caza, Mezieres, Voss, and other French artists who were challenging the medium in ways Marvel and DC wouldn’t. For a look at Corben’s career in the early ’70s, titles like Slow Death, Grim Wit and Hot Stuf’, check out “Corben Before Heavy Metal.”
Issue 301 of Heavy Metal includes an interview with Corben, conducted in the summer, and it is certainly among the last interviews of his life. “I rather enjoyed my time drawing comics for Warren Publishing,” he told Matt Medney. “Then when the undergrounds appeared, I embraced the freedom of their rebel efforts. I was invited to contribue to the French adult magazine Metal Hurlant. I was happy to be associated with their slick sophisticated appearance, and be showcase with some of the greatest cartoonists who ever lived.”
Corben contributed much to Heavy Metal — “Den II,” “Bodyssey,” “Rowlf,” “The Beast of Wolfton” and more — through the late ’70s, the ’80s, and into the ’90s. After a leave of absence in the early 2000s, Corben returned to Heavy Metal to serialize his story “Murky World,” which concluded in issue 301 with its 15th and final installment.
Though his art is strongly associated with Heavy Metal, and often tagged with the label “adult” because of the abundant nudity of a series like Den, Corben did eventually gain entrance to mainstream comics — he had to, as the market for comics as he drew them had contracted. “I found I had to change my ways or forget the idea of being a cartoonist,” he told us. “Luckily, Mark Chiarello, a senior editor at DC, asked me to do a Batman story for his special Batman Black and White series. I did it and more work followed for DC, Vertigo and Marvel. After I drew some Hellboy stories for Dark Horse, they allowed me to do some of my own projects. Now, I’m independent again, and produce my own comics all of the time.”
For more Corben wit and wisdom, see the interview with him in our August 1981 issue.
Nobody could draw quite like Corben, and there was no mistaking his stories — you didn’t even have to look for a byline. His unique style impressed many contemporaries and inspired even more young artists.
MOEBIUS: “Richard Corben, stands among us like an extraterrestrial peak. He has sat in his throne for a long time, above the moving and multi-coloured field of world comics, like an effigy of the leader, a strange monolith, a sublime visitor, a solitary enigma.”
H.R. GIGER: “People like the American Richard Corben… are, in my view, maestros.”
FRANK MILLER: “In general I would not say the underground made that big of an impression except for Corben… His science-fiction stories, those almost primitive black and white comics he did back then. I was very struck by the visceral punch they had, by the unusual artistic point of view. And also by the unabashed exaggeration. It’s as if you wanted a woman to have big breasts, you drew it. There was something just so joyously excessive and erotic about his stuff, that I just ate it up.”
WILL EISNER: “Corben’s work is singular in its humanity. He works with towering technical skill… …the wondrous thing of it all is that underneath all that technical tour-de-force is the sound of a beating heart.”
As news of Corben’s death spread, many of today’s leading comics artists have shared their own theoughs and praise over social media.
MIKE MIGNOLA: “His work was larger than life (in every way) and totally unique. 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.”
DAVE GIBBONS: “His vivid, thrilling work opened the junction between underground and mainstream comics.”
ERIC POWELL: “Richard Corben was a giant in the world of indie comics. Influential to so many artists. And an innovator. From ink to oil to airbrush to being one of the first digital painters in comics. He worked in every medium. His work was always weird, always interesting.”
ROB ZOMBIE: “Sad to hear of the passing of a comic legend Richard Corben. Can’t even picture the 1970s without his art front and center. From his icon Bat Out Of Hell album cover to his insane work in Heavy Metal Magazine no one came close to matching the power he put on the page. Needless to say it was an honor to have him illustrate my Bigfoot comic in 2005. Another master gone.”
STEPHAN FRANCK: Richard Corben’s art was dangerous, visceral, insanely sophisticated to the point of superhuman, yet boldly naive when it wanted to be. The humor, the horror, the sex obviously. It took the reader to incredible places, and to the rawest, deepest inner depth of the human experience. And let’s not forget the insane clarity of Corben’s storytelling which is not talked about often enough, because it is transparent—as the best storytelling is. Few artists are able to truly make the reader EXPERIENCE the moments in such a real way.
NEIL GAIMAN: “I never got to work with or meet Richard Corben. His ‘Unprovoked Attack on a Hilton Hotel’ remains one of my all time favourite comics stories. I was 14, staying in Paris on a French Exchange, and I used some of my precious francs to buy Metal Hurlant #6. I encountered Moebius, Bilal, Tardi and Corben in the same hour.”
KLAUS JANSON: “A brilliant artist who never compromised his unique vision. … He leaves a world of art from which to learn and enjoy. Sometimes I wish heroes would live forever.”
KEVIN NOWLAN: “We’ve lost a giant. Richard Corben was an original. He redefined comic art over and over, creating new coloring/ color separating techniques, drawing expressions and movements that most of can’t begin to equal and producing a body of work that is still grossly under appreciated.”
FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA: “Saddened to hear of the passing of Maestro RICHARD CORBEN. He was an art visionary and I became instantly a fan of his work very early on, marveling at his comic pages in magazines like Heavy Metal, 1984, & Creepy. His inks had a tridimensionality I haven’t seen anywhere else.”
Apart from his comics work, Corben’s most famous creation is undoubtedly the cover art for Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf, one of the best selling albums of all time. Jim Steinman, the songwriter and Meat Loaf collaborator who wrote the entire album, posted his thoughts about the cover and Corben’s art to Twitter:
“The sexual richness of Richard Corben’s work is overwhelming – this is a world that is endlessly horny for wonder and magic. The intertwining of light and dark forces here, of love and decay, of unknown altars and inescapable tombs, of unchained gods and insatiable demons, of unending dreams and unyielding nightmares – all this is dazzling. With Corben, not only is anything possible – it is inevitable”
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