Darwyn Cooke was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on November 16, 1962. He was an illustrator of numerous heroes in the DC universe. He began as an animator on two key cartoon series in the 1990s: Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series, before joining the print medium. His breakthrough performance in print came with Batman: Ego, which was published in 2000. He won the 2006 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue for his work on DC's Solo #5 and also was recognized five times by the Joe Shuster Awards for achievement by Canadian comic book creators. He died from cancer on May 14, 2016 at the age of 53.