Lobo Co-Creator Roger Slifer in Critical Condition Following Hit-and-Run Incident

A veteran comics writer/editor and animation producer, Roger Slifer is best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Lobo with Keith Giffen. We learned this week that the 57-year-old Slifer is in critical condition after being struck by an automobile in a hit-and-run incident. He remains in a medically-induced coma while authorities continue their investigation, which would seem to hinge on help from the public.

According to KABC-TV in Los Angeles, California, Roger Slifer was struck just before 1 a.m. last Saturday, at the intersection of 5th Street and Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica. Witnesses said that a late 1990s or early 2000s white sedan struck Slifer while he was in the crosswalk, and continued north on 5th. A witness called the police and Slifer was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center with broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a broken shoulder and a head injury that necessitated placing the writer in a chemically-induced coma and removing a portion of his skull s as to relief pressure on his brain.

Slifer's prognosis hasn't been explicitly stated, but his sister-in-law Emma has provided some updates via Facebook, writing, "A feeding tube has been installed with an Ensure type nourishment. His intercranial pressure is within the range that they want." Additional updates are also coming from longtime comics editor Jim Salicrup on his Facebook page.

As noted by Robot 6, Roger Slifer was part of the CPL Gang, a group of fanzine creators who would go on to become major comics pros. Named after Contemporary Pictorial Literature 'zine, the gang included Roger Stern, Bob Layton, Duffy Vohland, Tony Isabella, Don Maitz, Michael Uslan, Steven Grant, and John Byrne.

Slifer wrote and edited for Marvel and DC Comics in the 1980s, but he is probably most fondly remembered by longtime readers for his work on DC's The Omega Men series, in which he introduced with artist Keith Giffen the character who would become one of the publisher's major breakout stars of the 1990s: Lobo. Slifer found a larger audience in television animation, where he worked on Transformers and Jem and the Holograms.

Anyone with information that could help the police with their investigation into Slifer's hit-and-run are advised to contact the Santa Monica Police at (310) 458-8427. Salicrup has also set up an email hotline, of sorts, at helprogers-at-gmail-dot-com.

Our best wishes are with Slifer and his family as he recovers from this terrible ordeal.