Comic artist Steve Lightle died on Friday, January 8, 2021 after suffering cardiac arrest. Lightle’s son, Matthew made the announcement on his father’s Facebook pages. He was 61 years old.

Lightle worked primarily as a penciller and cover artist, known for his work on runs of Legion of Super-Heroes and Doom Patrol. He was born on November 19, 1959 and attended Johnson County Community College outside of Kansas City. His comic career began with a story in Black Diamond #4 (1984) at AC Comics.

He moved over to DC by drawing a 10-page story for New Talent Showcase #4 (April 1984). Lightle’s next step at DC was as the artist on Legion of Super-Heroes, where he worked on interiors and covers in the mid-1980s. During this period, he co-created Tellus and Quislet and worked on the story in which Legionnaire Karate Kid died.

In ’86 he worked on the DC Challenge limited series and contributed to Batman #400. A year later he joined the revival of Doom Patrol as the penciler on the first five issues. He was cover artist for Classic X-Men in ’89 and ’90 then he would go on to create covers and frontispieces for reprinted stories.