Michael Layne Turner

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Born on Apr 21, 1971, Crossville, Tennesse, Michael Turner was an American comics artist. He has worked with DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Witchblade in Top Cow. Marc Silvestri met him during a convention and soon had him hired.

Besides being a comics artist, he was an award-winning water skier and held instructor-level red sash in martial arts. And was an avid gamer.

In March 2000, Michael Turner was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, a type of cancer. In late 2002, after leaving Top Cow, he started his own comic publishing company, Aspen MLT Inc, at Santa Monica. The release of comics from Aspen got delayed due to the lawsuit with Top Cow on the rights over a couple of unreleased titles. It was later settled in 2003, in an outside-the-court settlement.

Turner worked a few covers in DC Comics in 2004, of these, Identity Crisis (Covers: #1-7), Superman/Batman: Supergirl (Interiors/Covers: #8-13), and the Justice League of America (Covers: Vol. 2 #0-12) are a few. He also made the cover art and co-wrote, Superman: Godfall. Later in 2005, he worked on the variant covers of Marvel titles like Wolverine: Origins (Cover: #1), written by Daniel Way, and Civil War (Cover: #1-7), and a few more. He also worked on Witchblade (Interior art: #1-8, 10-23, 25, Covers: #1-25, 27, 50, 86, 100, 103), Darkness (Covers: #7, 11), Tomb Raider (Interior Art: #25, Cover: #1, 9, 25, 46), Witchblade/Wolverine (Interiors: #1), Witchblade/Elektra (Interiors: #1), Tomb Raider/Witchblade (Interiors: #1), Witchblade/Tomb Raider spl (Interiors: #1), Fathom (Interior art: #0-14, Covers: Beginnings, Prelude #0, 1–4, 7–8, 10–11), and Soulfire (Interior art: #0-7, Covers: Preview, #0-10).

Turner’s work was sort mainly for special editions and similar projects.

Turner also created the online comic adaptation of the NBC series, Heroes.

Death & Tributes

Unfortunately, due to complications from bone cancer, he passed away on June 27, 2008 at Santa Monica Hospital in California. He is survived by his mother Grace Crick, brother Jake Turner, and his fiancée, Kelly Carmichael.

Fathom vol. 3 which was published later in Aug 2008, paid respect in the form of a stylized blue ribbon on upper-right corner of the cover with a memorial to Turner in the first page. Aspen MLT released ‘A Tribute to Michael Turner’, a collection of writings from people who knew Turner, and a cover by Alex Ross in Nov 2008. The Boys #21 had a page dedicated to him in Aug 2008. And in Dec 2008, Wizard published a Tribute Edition, ‘Michael Turner Tribute Edition’, collecting the work of the comic master.In Aug 2021, Aspen released ‘Michael Turner Creations’ showcasing Fathom, Soulfire, and Ekos, three of Turner’s gems.