It’s not overstatement to say the comics world was taken completely unaware today with news that legendary (and very active) writer Dwayne McDuffie died yesterday of complications from surgery. You can head to the link to read a little about his accomplishments, which include breaking racial barriers and stereotypes of black characters in the comic industry. Making it worse? McDuffie wrote the animated adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel All-Star Superman, which debuted on DVD TODAY.

I wish I had time to do a proper digital portrait of McDuffie, but my workload this week is nuts. Instead, you get the above photo that I shot when McDuffie guested at the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival in ’08. Suffice to say he’ll be missed.