Pulp and comic writer and historian Will Murray died on August 24, 2026. His passing was announced on August 28, though a cause of death was not given. He was 73 years old.

Murray is best known for writing pulp novels and short stories, and for co-creating Squirrel Girl for Marvel Comics.

Born on April 28, 1953, he grew up in Boston and graduated from the University of Massachusetts. Murray’s career began in fanzines as a writer and editor of Duende and Skullduggery. From there, he worked with a publisher that specialized in reprinting pulp novels, and he was the literary executor for Lester Dent, the creator of Doc Savage. Murray wrote prose books about Doc Savage, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, and the Spider, and pulp magazine articles about creators like Dent and Walter B. Gibson.

He wrote The Destroyer novels, and then the tie-in comics in 1989, 1991, and 1992, which led to more work in comics. Murray and Steve Ditko co-created Squirrel Girl in 1992. She made some appearances in the early ‘90s, but was not heavily featured until she joined the Great Lakes Avengers in 2005. Murray would write her again in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #16 (March 2017) and Marvel Comics #1001 (December 2019).

Murray contributed to The Punisher Summer Special #1 (August 1991), Alter Ego, and The Jack Kirby Collector.

On the prose side, he wrote the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Empyre novel, the Untold Tales of Spider-Man and Ultimate Hulk anthologies, and the introduction for the Golden Age Marvel Comics Omnibus.

Murray also wrote prose for DC, including short stories in The Further Adventures anthologies that appear in The Joker, Batman Vols. 2 and 3, Superman, and Wonder Woman.