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Herb Trimpe Passes Away, Aged 75

Glen Baisley, a cousin of legendary comic book artist Herb Trimpe, posted on Facebook.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing my cousin, Herb Trimpe, in action doing what he loved – meeting fans and drawing comics. I was there capturing video and interviews about his life and work with Marvel for a documentary that we were planning to work on.

Little did I know, this would be the final time I would get to see him. I wanted to share some very sad news with everyone. Monday night, Herb passed away.

He was a legend in the industry, co-creator of Wolverine and penciled some of the most iconic characters ever. He will be greatly missed.

As Glen said, Herb Trimpe stayed very much active on the comic book scene, recently drawing a strip for Savage Dragon. But he will be best remembered for his run on The Incredible Hulk, where he was the first artist to draw a comic with Wolverine in it.

Graduating from the School Of Visual Arts in New York, he began work at Dell Comics working with To  Gill on comics such as Journey To The Centre Of The Earth and a number of Westerns. Enlisting in the US Air Force, working in meteorology, when he left he joined Marvel Comics for Sol Brodsky, first in production, then as a freelance penciller and inker, working on Western comics much as he had at Dell, co-creating the aviator character The Phantom Eagle, soon to be revived by Marvel this summer.

But it was his run on The Incredible Hulk he is best known for, drawing the comic for seen years straight from 1968 to 1975, and often co-plotted he book as well. Dyring which he co-created characters such as Jim Wilson, Doc Samson, the Hulkbusters and the first appearance of Wolverine.

He drew many Marvel comics  during his time at the publisher, from Captain America to Spider-Man Thor to Iron Man even to Fantastic Four Unlimited – drawn in the mid nineties in a style closer to that of Rob Liefeld.

After Marvel's bankruptcy around that time, he returned to college to finis his degree and graduated with a BA Honours from Empire State, passed a master's degree program and then taught art.

He kept working in comics, with special projects such as BPRD and the recent Savage Dragon #200, demonstrating his versatility, while keeping a strong comic book convention presence and appearance schedule.

I have been asked to mention that Herb's family is still making arrangements but asks that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Hero Initiative, an organisation that Herb strongly supported.

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