In Memoriam: Richard Corben

Comic artist and illustrator Richard Corben died on December 2, 2020, following heart surgery. His wife, Dona Corben, made the announcement. Corben was 80 years old.

Within comics, Corben covered the gamut of the creative process as a penciller, inker, colorist, editor, letterer, and publisher. He was known for comics that appeared in Heavy Metal magazine.

“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,” Dona Corben wrote on the Corben Studios Inc Facebook page.

Corben was born on October 1, 1940 in Anderson, Missouri, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Kansas City Art Institute. He worked as a professional animator then moved on to underground comix like Grim Wit, Slow Death, Fever Dreams, and his own anthology, Fantagor.

In 1970, he started working with Warren Publishing on their slate of horror and sci-fi stories, with work in Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella. He started submitting work to the French magazine Métal Hurlant in ’75, and once the American version, Heavy Metal, was introduced, he started writing for that publication. For the magazine, he continued his creation, Den, the fantasy series about a young nerd who ventures to Neverwhere, which took inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard. The story was adapted for the Heavy Metal animated film.

Corben operated Fantagor Press, his own publishing imprint, from the mid-‘80s to mid-‘90s. Titles included Den and Den Saga, Rip in Time, Horror in the Dark, and Son of Mutant World.

In 2000, Corben teamed with Brian Azzarello on Hellblazer #146-150 and a year later they collaborated on the four-issue miniseries Startling Stories: Banner and Marvel MAX’s Cage miniseries about Luke Cage. He joined Garth Ennis on The Punisher: The End one-shot, then bounced to IDW for a Bigfoot project with Rob Zombie and Steve Niles. Some of his other later work included the Haunt of Horror adaptation of classic horror works by Edgar Allan Poe and Lovecraft and drawing Hellboy.

Outside of comics, he created movie poster art for Phantom of the Paradise, album cover art for Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell and Jim Steinman’s Bad for Good, and VHS box cover art for the B-horror film, Spookies.

Corben received accolades throughout his career, including a Shazam Award for Outstanding New Talent in ’71, a Goethe Award for Favorite Fan Artist in ’73, multiple Warren Awards, two Eisner Awards, induction into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, and induction into the Ghastly Awards Hall of Fame.