Dave Cockrum

David Emmett Cockrum was born in Pendleton, Oregon, on November 12, 1943. He grew up loving comic books with the ambition to become a comic-book creator himself, and later become a professional comic book illustrator who in the mid-1970s helped invent a dynamic new look and intriguing new characters for the moribund “X-Men” comics, paving the way for what became America’s most popular comic books and a billion-dollar movie empire.

Following his school graduation, Cockrum joined the United States Navy for six years…