On Thursday, the official social media page of comic book artist Tim Sale announced that the renowned illustrator had passed away.

Here’s the official announcement:

It’s with a heavy sadness that I must announce that Tim Sale passed away today. He passed with the love of his life beside him, and loves all of you very much.

Earlier this week, DC Comics Publisher and Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee announced that Sale had been “admitted to the hospital with severe health issues.” No other details of his passing are available at this time.

Over his career, Sale worked for multiple publishers and had the chance to put his unique visual spin on a number of characters, including Daredevil, Hulk, Spider-Man and Superman. However, Sale is almost certainly best known for his work on Batman, particularly his collaboration with writer Jeph Loeb on The Long Halloween.

On a personal note, I’ve never made it a secret that The Long Halloween is my favorite Batman story. Despite my growing up more of a DC Comics fan than a Marvel fan, I also unreservedly picked up Daredevil: Yellow, Hulk: Gray and Spider-Man: Blue books upon their release years ago. Not only are they some of the few Marvel books that I still own, but they have the pride of place on my bookshelf alongside my other favorites.

When DC Comics published Detective Comics issue #1000, I decided that was just as good a time as any to say goodbye to the company, characters and universe that I had grown up loving (a tale for another time). The point is, as soon as I saw that Tim Sale would be contributing one of the book’s variant covers, it was a no-brainer for me to choose it as my DC Comics send-off.

However, now we all have to say goodbye to Sale himself, and for me, albeit only as a fan, this one stings.

May God speed Tim to a brighter, better place, and we pray for God’s comfort and peace for Tim’s family and friends as they mourn his passing.

Do you have a favorite book or a special memory of Tim Sale? Share it with us in the comments.