Dwayne McDuffie known for being behind cartoons like Static Shock and The Justice League animated series. McDuffie died Monday after complications from surgery he had that evening as reported by Eurweb.

I was first introduced to the work of McDuffie as a child in the early 90s while he was heading Milestone media. Milestone media was started in 1993 by a coalition of African American comic book writers and artists. They felt that minorities were under represented in comic books. Their most notable comic was static shock that eventually became a cartoon on the WB for kids. Not only did Milestone make comic books with characters that were ethnic minorities, they also cover topics that were normally not addressed in the DC or Marvel Comics at the time. They covered not only racism, but drug abuse, abortion and homosexuality. Milestone did not last and it fell apart in the end for various reasons, some internal and others external. After Milestone, folded Static Shock was turn into a cartoon and McDuffie wrote 11 episodes for the series. He went on to write for the Justice League, Justice League Unlimited and Teen Titans cartoon series to name a few.