Steve Lightle (November 19, 1959[1] – January 8, 2021)[2][3] was an American comics artist who worked primarily as a penciller. He was best known as the artist of DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes and Doom Patrol titles.
Steve Lightle was born in Kansas City, Kansas[2] and attended the Johnson County Community College in the Kansas City metropolitan area.[4]
In 1984, Lightle followed Keith Giffen as the penciller of Legion of Super-Heroes.[8] Lightle described it as being a "dream assignment" to work on the title.[9] One of Lightle's issues featured the death of longtime Legion member Karate Kid.[10] Although Lightle's tenure as interior artist was brief, he continued as cover artist until 1988.[6] Lightle co-created the characters Tellus and Quislet, whose unusual appearances contrasted with the humanoid appearances of the other Legionnaires.[11]
In 1986, Lightle was one of the contributors to the DC Challenge limited series[12] and drew part of Batman #400 (Oct. 1986).[13] The following year, he was the original penciller of the revival of Doom Patrol,[14] but he left after the first five-issue story arc due to creative differences.[15] Much of Lightle's work after that was as cover artist, typically inking his own penciled artwork. In 1989 and 1990, Lightle was the regular cover artist for Classic X-Men[6] (later retitled X-Men Classic). He produced new covers and frontispieces to accompany the reprinted stories.
On January 8, 2021, Lightle's wife Marianne and son Matthew announced through social media that he had died suddenly from a cardiac arrest caused by COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Missouri. He was 61 years old.[2][3][16]
