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Comic, Manga Letterer Dave Lanphear Dies at 58
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Dave's sister Tera Lanphear first shared the news on Facebook on August 22.
Lanphear was an award-winning cartoonist, comic book and manga letterer, art director, and story producer. He was born on June 5, 1968 and worked as a newspaper illustrator from 1985 to 1989. He joined the Comicraft studio in 1994 and according to Bleeding Cool helped advance digital lettering techniques. He left Comicraft in 1999 and led the lettering department at CrossGen Entertainment. He later co-founded Artmonkeys Studios and also worked as a freelance letterer.
His comic credits included comics for Marvel, DC, Image, Valiant, Malibu, Dynamite, and more. His lettering credits include Batman: The Long Halloween, Superman '78, Mighty Avengers, Wonder Woman, Thunderbolts, Danger Girl, X-Men/WildCATS, Fraggle Rock, and more.
In manga, Lanphear worked as a letterer for Beyblade, Bleach, Densha Otoko, and Oyayubihime Infinity.
He was nominated as Best Letterer in 2012 and 2014 for the Harvey Awards, and won two Eisner awards in 2011 for Best Graphic Album for his work on Return of the Dapper Men and for Best Anthology for his work on Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard.
He also worked on television series such as Dragon Tales and Ultimate Spider-Man as a storyboard artist and storyboard revisionist.
Comic-Con International posted on Thursday:
Comic-Con is saddened to hear of the passing of comic book letterer Dave Lanphear, best known for his prolific work for Marvel, CrossGen, Valiant, DC, and others. Dave's lettering also appeared in “Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard” and “Return of the Dapper Men,” each winning an Eisner Award in 2011. Our condolences go out to his sister Tera and fiancee Laura Bee.
Lanphear's portfolio can be found at Coroflot.
Sources: Tera Lanphear's Facebook page, Bleeding Cool (Rich Johnston)
