Dwayne McDuffie

To try and pretend that I knew much about Dwayne McDuffie would only be a cruel disrespect of the man. I can’t say that he was my favorite writer ever. I can’t say that I followed him so devoutly as others have stated in recent memorials. But what I can say is that he made an impression on me. The biggest was, it seemed that every DCU animated show that I watched in the last few years always had his name appear somewhere on it. Either as writer, producer or just about any other creative-executive job one could have. He touched many of the shows that I watched and enjoyed.

When I came apparent that this guy was popping up a lot I seemed to remember the name. I went back and discovered that he was around for the comic boom in the ‘90s but was a key person in the Milestone comics, which brought minority characters to the forefront of comics. Again, I bought and read some of the stuff from back in those days but was never overly impressed. Then again, I was mainly looking at the pictures during my comic book development years and never really focused on knew what the writing had to do with comics.

What is true is that Dwayne McDuffie touched and shaped what I was learning to love. Whether I knew it or not, he was part of what I know as comic book lore. Sadly he may never get to know his impact nor the will the people who where impacted by his work know him as well as they should. He may be the reason why you’ll see a black Nick Fury in the upcoming Avengers movie. He may be the reason that DC animated shows and movies are generally better than the competition. His impact will be far greater in the long term than he may have ever realized during his life.

For all of this and including his long work in the industry that I do love, a simple thank you is what I can offer. Thank you for leaving this world with something better than it had before. There are many that work but few that impact. Thank you, Dwayne McDuffie, for everything you’ve meant to comics and the surrounding mediums.