Comic creator Art Nichols, known for his work in Magnus Robot Fighter and Night Thrasher, has died following a battle with cancer. He was 63 years old.

Several comic industry pros have commented on his passing including Ty Templeton who wrote on Facebook: “Aw darn it. Art Nichols gone. Nothing but fond memories of our twenties together, working at the young person section of DC, crashing at his NY apartment amongst carefully arranged shelves. Whipsmart individual who also had a little martial arts training, and who could toss me around like a ragdoll for self amusement. Introduced me to Neal Adams when it meant the world to me.”

At one point he was Neal Adams’ personal assistant and worked with Joe Quesada early in his career. Nichols co-created The American comic series about a reporter investigating a superhero and learning unpleasant things about his boyhood hero. He co-created Rose Wilson, Deathstroke’s daughter, and developed the look of Astro City for Kurt Busiek’s superhero anthology.

Nichols is known for penciling and inking well known titles across several publishers, including Justice League of America, Spider-Man, Punisher, Teen Titans, The Ray, Conan, New Mutants, Robocop III, Sleepwalker, Neil Gaiman’s Mr. Hero, Deathstroke, and Mecha.

Throughout his career, Nichols did plenty of commercial design work, including the Star Wars cup toppers at Pizza Hut, the DC superheroes toys for Jack in the Box kids meals, and the DVD holders for Blockbuster. He was also a storyboard artist for projects like G.I. Joe: Valor vs. Venom, Transformers Prime, Scooby-Doo movies, Ultimate Spider-Man, and the Oscar-winning short film, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. He was also a background designer on Wolverine and the X-Men and created character designs for Small Soldiers.