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Comic Book Legend John Paul Leon Passes Away at Age 49
Legendary comic book artist and storyteller John Paul Leon has passed away at the age of 49 following a 14-year battle with cancer.
Born on April 26th, 1972 in New York City, NY, Leon first began working professionally at the age of 16, with a series of black and white illustrations for TSR's Dragon and Dungeon magazines.
While majoring in illustration at New York's School of Visual Arts studying under such artists such as Will Eisner, Walter Simonson, and Jack Potter, Leon received his first professional comics job, illustrating the Dark Horse Comics miniseries RoboCop: Prime Suspect. By his junior year he was given the job as the inaugural artist on the DC Comics/Milestone ongoing series Static, which Simonson decided would serve as his course work for that semester. Leon received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from SVA in 1994.
He would follow this with work on Superman titles such as Superman: Unchained, Superman: Red and Blue, and Superman: Secret Files & Origins as well as Batman: Shadow of the Bat, Batman: Creature of the Night, Logan: Path of the Warlord, The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, and Challengers of the Unknown.
His other career-defining works included the 12-issue miniseries Earth X, written by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross, which depicted a dystopian future of the Marvel Universe; and the miniseries The Wintermen, which was written by Leon's SVA classmate Brett Lewis.
Leon also provided artwork for a number of style guides for feature film adaptations of comic books, including "Superman Returns", "Batman Begins", "Green Lantern", and "The Dark Knight". He also contributed artwork to a pair of "Superman Returns" children's books for Meredith Books.
He was survived by his wife, daughter and older brother. Leon's colleague, Tommy Lee Edwards, set up a GoFundMe page to create a trust fund for the education Leon's then-17-year-old daughter, and help fund her education in engineering.
The staff of the Superman Super Site extends our deepest heartfelt condolences to the Leon family and loved ones during this difficult time of mourning.
Photo Credit: Luigi Novi
