The worlds of pop culture art and animation have lost two important figures.

Mars Attacks creator Len Brown died on August 11, 2026. He passed from arteriosclerosis at a memory care facility. Brown was 84 years old.

Voice actor Peter Cullen, who voiced Optimus Prime across many Transformers shows, movies, and video games, passed away on Wednesday, August 26, 2026. His agent, Kevin Motley, announced that he died at his home surrounded by family. Cullen was 85 years old.

Len Brown

Brown was a writer, editor, comic creator, and radio personality best known for creating Mars Attacks and co-creating T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York and began working for Topps Chewing Gum after he graduated from high school. As the creative editor in their Product Development Department, Brown developed concepts for sports and non-sports trading cards. Brown spent 41 years with Topps where he worked on Garbage Pail Kids, Wacky Packages, and Civil War News.

He pitched Mars Attacks in 1962, after he drew inspiration from Wally Wood’s work in Weird Science #16 (November 1952). Topps hired Wood to produce rough sketches, then Bob Powell penciled the designs, and Norman Saunders painted the 55-card set. The trading card set was a big hit for Topps and was adapted as a feature film by Tim Burton in 1996.

Brown’s work at Topps put him in contact with a lot of comic book artists who provided art for the cards. He and Wood started a creative partnership in the mid-1960s. It started with superhero concept designs that grew into the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents bimonthly comic series. Brown’s concept came from his appreciation of Captain Marvel and the Thunder Riders in The Phantom Empire serial. Wood fine-tuned Brown’s idea and the series was born.

Brown contributed to Topps’ The X-Files and Mars Attacks comic series, and he wrote for Creepy magazine. He also wrote several books about trading cards, country music, and rock music. Brown became DJ for country radio stations in New Jersey, and then in Dripping Springs, Texas.

Peter Cullen

Cullen voiced Optimus Prime for the first time in 1984 for The Transformers animated series based on the Hasbro toy line. His deep authoritative voice and the character’s heroic leadership made Optimus Prime a favorite with fans. When the hero died in The Transformers: The Movie, fans were so vocal about their displeasure that the producers quickly put out the direct to video movie, The Transformers: The Return of Optimus Prime. Cullen earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for voicing Optimus Prime in Transformers Prime in 2010-2013.

He also voiced Optimus Prime for live-action, starting with Michael Bay’s Transformers movie in 2007. Cullen returned several times to voice him in live-action in Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon, Age of Extinction, The Last Knight, Bumblebee, and Rise of the Beast.

Cullen was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on July 28, 1941, and graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1963. He studied acting with operatic coach Bernard Diament, performed Shakespeare plays in Stratford, Ontario, and was a member of The Crest Theatre in Toronto. He was a radio announcer and performed in the radio comedy show, Funny You Should Say That.

Early in his career, he did live work on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.

Cullen voiced King Kong in the 1976 remake, the villainous K.A.R.R. on Knight Rider, Coran and Hutch in Voltron: Defender of the Universe, and Ramrod in the Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs anime series. He voiced several characters in the Ghostbusters cartoon, Sergeant Havoc in the Rambo animated show, and created the intimidating clicking sound that the Predator makes in Predator.

He started voicing the gloomy Eeyore in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh animated series from 1988 to ’91. Cullen voiced the pessimistic donkey in Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year and many other projects set in the Hundred Acre Wood.

He voiced Monterey Jack in Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, Bludgeon and Basher in The Savage Dragon, Councilor 1 in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and his final role was voicing Thaedus in the Invincible animated series.