by Mike Favila, Senior Editor

Steve Dillon, co-creator and artist of Preacher with freqeunt Garth Ennis, died today at age 54. In addition to his many contributions to comic art, he is also quite well known as having defined and launched the recent revival of Punisher.  It is a huge loss to the artistic community, and to his fans everywhere.

I was first introduced to Steve Dillon’s art when I first bought a TPB of Preacher through CBLDF.  With Ennis, the combinations of themes relating to God, doubt, the angels, vulgarity made a uniquely potent mix.  That being said, a lesser artist could never have brought those stories to life cohesively.  Dillon’s efficient line work portrayed this crazy world through his simple, but direct, art style.  His clean lines could tell you the character’s internal world without a million hash lines.  Though you’d find little details that framed his pages perfectly, as a reader, you never lost track of the emotion that was meant to come through.

We here at ComicsOnline will sorely miss him, and will have to content ourselves to imagine the never told stories that could have come from his pen.  RIP Steve Dillon.