Newsarama reports James Lee Rochelle, a comic book colorist and video game artist who worked at WildStorm and CrossGen, died on Saturday, February 2, 2019. He was 48 years old, and the cause of death is unknown.
Rochelle began working in the comic book industry in 1994 after receiving an Associate of Applied Arts degree from the Art Institute of Seattle. He was first hired by WildStorm, and worked for three years at their offices in La Jolla, San Diego, on titles such as “Gen13,” “Backlash/Spider-Man,” and “Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty.” He left in 1997 to pursue work in the video game industry as a texture/shading artist: his first games credit came with 1999’s Star Trek: Hidden Evil.
However, he continued working as a comic book colorist on titles like “Strangers in Paradise,” “Mage: The Hero Discovered,” and “Steampunk.” In 2001, he joined the Tampa-based CrossGen Comics on a full-time basis, coloring books like Tony Bedard, Mark Waid and Paul Pelletier’s “Negation,” “Route 666,” and “Forge.” After the company filed for bankruptcy in 2004, Rochelle returned to games and became a Lead Artist at Sony Entertainment Online. Most of his work came with Sony’s EverQuest series: his last credit on IMDb lists him as a senior artist on EverQuest Next, the development of which was cancelled in 2016. He continued to work freelance on comics for some time, contributing to “Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Out of Reach,” the Target X-Men Encyclopedia, and 2007’s “Tales of the Fear Agent: Twelve Steps in One,” and “End League.”
Jim Lee, the founder of WildStorm, tweeted he was “saddened to hear of the unexpected passing of WildStorm alum color artist James Rochelle. As gifted as he was good natured, kind and brilliant — James was one of the great colorists who defined the look of our studio. No job could properly contain his many talents. RIP, buddy.”
