Richard Corben

Richard Corben was an American illustrator and comic book artist born on November 1, 1940, who built one of the most distinctive bodies of work in the medium over more than five decades. He died on December 2, 2020.

Corben's career, which stretched from 1968 well into the 2020s across some 380 credited issues, found its widest audience through Heavy Metal magazine, where his science-fantasy series Den became a defining feature of the publication. The character's profile grew further when Den was adapted into a segment of Heavy Metal's 1981 animated film. His work also appeared extensively in the horror anthology titles Creepy and Eerie, and he contributed to Shadows on the Grave later in his career.

Corben's visual style was immediately recognizable — voluptuous, heavily rendered figures, richly painterly coloring, and an atmosphere that blended pulp horror with dark humor. He worked across multiple roles, serving as artist, colorist, inker, letterer, and writer, giving him unusually tight control over his finished pages.

The breadth of his influence earned recognition on both sides of the Atlantic. He received the Spectrum Grand Master Award in 2009, was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2012, and was awarded the Grand Prix at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2018 — among the highest distinctions in the medium.