Lost another friend, damn it. Alan Kupperberg died last night at the age of 62 due to thymus cancer, a condition he'd been battling for many months. He was an artist, letterer and occasional writer of comic books with credits that included The Invaders, Justice League of America, Star Wars, Marvel Two-In-One, Blue Devil, National Lampoon and Spider-Man. And he wouldn't like it if I didn't mention that he created, wrote and drew Obnoxio the Clown.
Alan got into comics in 1974 working for Neal Adams at Neal's studio, Continuity Associates. He was kind of a utility infielder and his hand is evident in many of the comics and commercial jobs that came out of that studio then. Not long after, he began working for Marvel where, again, they deployed him as a "he can do anything" kind of guy, assigning him often to fill-ins and emergency jobs on a host of comics. At times, he drew the Hulk and Howard the Duck newspaper strips and later, away from Marvel, he became the artist of the Annie strip, aka Little Orphan Annie.
I doubt anyone — including Alan — could itemize all the different comics and strips and art jobs he did during his career. He was really a prolific, versatile talent.
I last saw Alan…oh, maybe two years ago. He had moved his life to Palm Springs to kind of "start over" in a new environment and we had a mutual friend, Geoffrey Mark, who lived there. He and Geoffrey were making field trips into Los Angeles to visit folks so the three of us had dinner. We talked about comics and other topics — and if he knew then that he was sick, he certainly didn't let on. I learned about the cancer later via his Facebook posts and followed what appeared to be a brave but losing struggle.
Alan was a good man and a good talent…and while the news this morning was not unexpected, it still comes as a shock. Good thoughts to all his friends and family.