On October 22, the artist Don Ivan Punchatz died of a heart attack. He was 73. Punchatz created the artwork on id Software’s Doom.

Punchatz also did illustrations for Playboy, National Geographic, Boys Life and Penthouse. He suffered a heart attack on October 11 and never regained consciousness. After eleven days of tests the doctors concluded that there was no chance of recovery and the family took him off life support.

“He never wanted to be kept alive like this,” Greg Punchatz, Don’s son, reported, “so we are respecting his wishes.”

Punchatz is described as a humble and self-effacing man. He listened to others more than talk about himself. Spectrum Fantastic Art talks about how when he was hired to do the packaging for a new video game startup the owners offered to pay him a fee or give him a percentage of the profits. He took the fee. “So how was I to know this thing called DOOM would make a jillion smackers?” he laughed years later.

Read more about his life and artwork Spectrum Fantastic Art.