Dwayne McDuffie – Storyteller – 1962-2011

Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Author: C3 Stories | No Comments »

So who was Dwayne McDuffie? During his short time on this earth, he was a friend to many both in and out of his industry of comic books and animated series; a husband, a writer, producer, story editor, and notably, an entrepreneur.

Dwayne McDuffie was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and attended film school at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

He was a co-founder of Milestone Media founded to create African-American and other diverse superheroes, to bring more overall diversity to a comic book industry that, at the time, and depending on whom you ask, arguably today still, severely lacked diversity.

Dwayne created characters such as ICON, and most notably, STATIC, to which an accompanied animated series on the former WB network, was created and honored for a Humanitas Award, (see under Children’s Animation) in an episode featuring the consequences of gun violence.

Milestone merged universes with DC Comics, and Dwayne stayed on during this time to finish off a pivotal storyline to finish the smooth transition of worlds. He created DAMAGE CONTROL, a mini-series for Marvel Comics that looks at a company who cleans up the disaster caused after epic brawls between some of Marvel’s best and worst.

He worked on animated works such as BEN 10, STATIC SHOCK, JUSTICE LEAGUE, TEEN TITANS and as of late, the animated movie, ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, based on the DC Comic trade.

 

 

 

 

Dwayne was an artist and storyteller, in a field that is often marginalized as “for kids”. But it is to be more than noted that adults all over the world use both comics and animated series as a reminder of what it is to dream and what childhood for them use to be. It’s also bonding for parents as they raise their own children, on many of the comics and animated shows they themselves grew so fond of. He was also in two industries that in the last decade alone, have seen growth in the many adaptations of properties into animated series, live-action television series and cinematic releases, with overall grosses in the millions!

As artists we all find the medium that best serves our storytelling. For Dwayne, comic books and animated series were his. He helped to bring notoriety to different stories that would otherwise go unlooked, on a demographic that has often gone overlooked.

Dwayne died far, far too soon. He would have had scores of credits to his name, had a still yet to be known medical accident, not occurred. He didn’t didn’t just do “kid’s stuff”; he was a businessman, he was a storyteller, he was an artist, who, using his talents and unique eye for diversity and story, left a body of work to admire and hopefully, be inspired by. Rest in peace, Dwayne. His final official work released thus far, the trailer to the DC Animated Movie, All-Star Superman.

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