Canadian Cartoonist from Toronto Darwyn Cooke (1962–2016) always dreamt of making comics for a living, but it was not economically viable for him for a long time. He instead worked as a magazine art director, graphic and product designer until finally going back to his first love during the 1990s. He answered an ad placed by Bruce Timm that led him to work as a storyboard artist on Warner Bros. Animation shows like The New Batman Adventures, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond (he created the opening sequence), and Men in Black: The Series (as a director).
Cooke’s pitch to Timm, a Batman story that got him a job in animation, was later discovered by DC Comics art director Mark Chiarello who hired the artist to make a graphic novel based on it. That became the 2000 graphic novel Batman: Ego. Cooke officially transitioned to the comics world.
Despite a short career in comics, Darwyn Cooke’s distinctive artistic style became highly influential as well as his stories. He found popular success with some of his now-considered classic series and gained industry recognition with his work, winning 13 Eisner Awards, 8 Harvey Awards, and 5 Joe Shuster Awards.
Darwyn Cooke’s list of credits is not as long as some of the other legendary cartoonists but contains some unmissable titles every comic fan should at least try to look at. Here is our little introduction guide:
The Must-Read Comics by Darwyn Cooke
DC: The New Frontier
One of this century’s masterpieces of the superhero genre, DC: The New Frontier is a six-issue limited series that explored the DC Universe in 1950s America, revisiting the end of the Golden Age era and the transition to the Silver Age through a rich narrative.
This was a world without the Justice League, but things were about to change. “The masked mystery men who fought for freedom in the Second World War have been outlawed. The soldiers and spies who conducted top-secret missions into the unknown now work in the shadows. And those icons who do still fight on — Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman — operate under hidden agendas and dueling ideologies. Yet this America needs its heroes more than ever. With darkness gathering on the horizon once more, only a bold new generation of adventurers — young, daring, and dedicated to the better angels of our nature — is equal to the challenge of the New Frontier.”
You can find DC: The New Frontier in our 50 Best Comic Books To Read: Our selection of the best Comics and Graphic Novels of All Time.
Richard Stark’s Parker
The adaptation of Richard Stark’s Parker books could have been a footnote in any other artist’s career, but Darwyn Cooke took eight years to complete four graphic novels–writing, drawing, and designing the books–that became instant classics in the genre.
The Hunter introduces us to Parker as he returns to New York to settle the score with his wife and partner in crime after they betray him in a heist gone terribly wrong. After evening the field and reclaiming his prize, the Outfit decide to do some score-settling of their own… and learn much too late that when you push a man like Parker, it had better be all the way to the grave.
You can also find Richard Stark’s Parker in our 50 Best Comic Books To Read.
The Spirit
Darwyn Cooke didn’t usually work on ongoing series, but with The Spirit, a modern take on Will Eisner’s character, he took on the challenge for one year (leaving due to some changes in DC editorial staff). Everything started with the delightful crossover Batman/The Spirit developed with writer Jeph Loeb, then Cooke wrote and drew the ongoing series.
“Follows the efforts of Denny Colt, a private detective who survived death to continue his fight against crime as The Spirit, as he fights Octagon, a network of criminals, and other villains with help from such characters as P’Gell, who wants revenge on her husband’s murderer, and CIA agent Silk Satin.“
Catwoman: Selina’s Big Score
Working with writer Ed Brubaker (Criminal) in 2001, Darwyn Cooke helped relaunch Catwoman (working on vol. 3 #1-4), reintroducing one of DC’s forgotten characters, private detective Slam Bradley. This collaboration led Cooke to write and draw the graphic novel Selina’s Big Score, a prequel to that Catwoman story about an out-of-money (and presumed dead) Selina Kyle who returns to Gotham City to set up a daring robbery from the mob. It’s one of Cooke’s personal favorites and an essential for amateurs of crime stories.
Other Notable Comics by Darwyn Cooke
Beyond those four books, there are more of Darwyn Cooke’s work to read!
Batman: Ego – The Batman story that gave Cooke his career in comics is short but memorable. In it, Batman and Bruce Wayne talk about what they are doing, an exploration of the Dark Knight’s psyche.
Before Watchmen: Minutemen – This miniseries set in the world of Watchmen goes back in time to tell the tale of the Minutemen, how the assembled to fight evil in a world spinning out of control. Cooke also co-wrote the Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre miniseries that Amanda Conner illustrated.
Solo #5 – Solo was a DC anthology offering one-shot stories from singular artistic talents. Darwyn Cooke’s issue is focused on Sam Bradley and work as a companion to his Catwoman’s work, in a way.
Jonah Hex (vol. 2, #50) “The Great Silence” – Another one of Cooke’s own favorites, written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, this was his opportunity to do a western story, and it was set up in Canada. The team reunited to complete this tale in All-Star Western #34.
The Twilight Children – As the story goes, Vertigo editor Shelly Bond suggested to Darwyn Cooke that he should do a collaboration. He proposed working with Gilbert Hernandez (Love & Rockets) who accepted the offer. This led to this beautiful book mixing two distinct sensibilities to tell the story of three children investigating a white orb that washes up in a Latin American fishing village. When it explodes, they go blind but gain psychic abilities.
Wolverine/Doop – Darwyn Cooke did some comics for Marvel (he worked on Spider-Man’s Tangled Web #11 & 21), most notably the two-issue miniseries Wolverine/Doop (and also the Doop back-up story in X-Statix #1), a fun improbable team-up full of pink and green.
Superman Confidential (DC, 2006–2008). Darwyn Cooke is most celebrated for his art, but he didn’t draw everything he wrote. For the first arc of the Superman Confidential series, the “Kryptonite” arc, he work with another talented artist Tim Sale, to tell an early tale of the man of steel, his first contact with the green Kryptonite, and the discovery of the limits of his powers.
A lot of the one-shots, short stories, and other back-up stories he did for DC have been collected in the Graphic Ink: The DC Comics Art of Darwyn Cooke, a must-have for the fans!