Artist Steve Erwin, who is best known for his work at DC Comics in the 1980s and 1990s, died on October 25, 2023.

Erwin was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1960 and studied commercial art at Oklahoma State University Tech in Okmulgee.  His first published work was an eight-page backup story in Grimjack #18, one of a series of backups set in Munden’s Bar; the story was written by John Ostrander, with Erwin doing the pencils and inks.  Two more stories followed, and then Erwin took over as artist for Shatter, a dystopian sci-fi series created in 1985 by Peter B. Gillis and Mike Saenz.  Saenz drew the art using a Macintosh Plus computer, making Shatter one of the first comics to be produced digitally.  However, he left after two issues and Erwin took over for issues #3-7, drawing the artwork in the traditional way, after which it was scanned in and manipulated digitally.

Erwin’s first work for DC Comics was issue #48 of The Vigilante, which was scripted by Paul Kupperberg.  That series was cancelled with issue #50, but Kupperberg and Erwin went on to create the antihero team Checkmate, which first appeared in Action Comics #598 in 1988 and then got its own series, which ran for 33 issues.

In 1991, when DC launched Deathstroke the Terminator, Erwin was the artist from the first issue, working with writer Marv Wolfman (who had co-created the character with George Pérez) and remained the lead artist until 1994.  He also co-created the character Gunfire with writer Len Wien; the character first appeared in Deathstroke the Terminator Annual #3, in 1993, and then headlined a five-issue limited series by Wein and Erwin.

Erwin’s other DC work includes stints on The New Titans, Hawk and Dove, New Gods, Superman, and the official adaptation of Batman Returns.  He also drew several Star Trek comics, including the graphic novel Ashes of Eden, which was based on a novel by William Shatner.  He also worked on a handful of single issues for Malibu Comics and Marvel Comics and drew several issues of Mikey Spillane’s Mike Danger for Tekno Comix.

In the late 1990s, Erwin left comics for a position as Art Director of a company that manufactured promotional items, working on well-known properties including DC Superheroes, Looney Tunes, and Rugrats.  He launched a freelance graphic design career in 2001.  However, he did not leave comics behind entirely: He drew several history graphic novels for children’s publisher Capstone Press in the mid-2000s and penciled the three-issue miniseries Citizen of the Galaxy, based on the Robert Heinlein story and published by IDW Publishing in 2015.