The Beat and this brief Bellingham Herald obituary confirms Drew Hayes’ passing at 37.

Considered a maverick comics creator, Hayes self-published 20 of his Poison Elves series before it got picked up by Sirius Entertainment, which published the series until 2004.

The fantasy series is unique for its character-driven dark humor, and centers on the misadventures of Lusiphur, a crazed rogue elf, who, according to a fansite, possesses “more knives and daggers than Tammy Faye has coats of mascara… a black sphere of death/annihilation that he doesn’t know how to use… more registered kills than Rambo and Jack in the Box combined, the disposition of Henry Rollins on a bad day, sarcasm like acupuncture with a blunt object… Basically, a real bad dude whose beer you wouldn’t want to spill.” You can read a little bit more about Hayes’ creation here.

During the pre-blog and livejournal era, fans of the series got a chance to know about Drew Hayes’ life and views through his “Starting Notes” which he included with each Poison Elves issue. In these “uncut, uncensored, unplugged” essays, he updated people on his life and ranted about various topics that amused or infuriated him.

Newsarama has a full obituary written by the folks at Sirius Entertainment. Meanwhile, Hayes’ fans remember him on boards and communities across the internet: Comicon.com, Livejournal Poison Elves Community, Jinxworld.

-Elizabeth Chou