Mark Evanier passes along the sad news of the death of comics and animation artist Ric Estrada after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 81.

Estrada was perhaps best known for his work on Amethyst: Prince of GemworldKarate Kid, Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes and numerous DC war comics, including G.I. Combat, Our Army At War, Weird War Tales and Unknown Soldier. Later in his career, he moved into animation with such 1980s TV series as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Jonny Quest and Bionic Six.

Estrada is the subject of an upcoming feature-length documentary, produced by his son Seth. You can read more about it here.

Just last week Estrada was profiled by the Mormon arts and culture website A Motley Vision, which referred to him as "the Father of Mormon Comics" (a title bestowed upon him by artist Sal Velluto). Estrada, who converted to Mormonism at age 40, apparently was uncomfortable with the honorific. He and his wife finally decided that "trailblazer" would be more accurate.