Award-winning Canadian comic book creator Darwyn Cooke has died at the age of 53.

An update posted to Cooke's official blog on Saturday said he died of cancer at his family home in Florida. He had been moved to palliative care the day before, according to an earlier post.

Cooke, who was born in Toronto, worked with DC Comics for several years as a cartoonist on the television show "Batman: The Animated Series," and as a writer/artist on such comic books as "DC: The New Frontier," "Catwoman" and "Batman/The Spirit."

He won the Eisner Award (the comic book industry's version of the Oscars) in 2007 for Best Single Issue, for "Solo #5." He was also named top cartoonist, writer and artist at the Joe Shuster Canadian Comics Awards in 2007.

Several prominent comic book creators from around the world, including Canada, took to Twitter to mourn Cooke's death.

In a statement posted on the DC Comics website, co-publisher Dan DiDio called Cooke "both compassionate and combative, approaching everything he did with a tenaciousness and temerity that is now unheard of in a world afraid to offend.

"Darwyn Cooke lived life like a character from a Micky Spillane novel, a throwback to a bygone era that was, more than occasionally, reflected in his work."

RIP Darwin Cooke--A great cartoonist gone way way too soon. https://t.co/yl4ue60ZHX — Mike Mignola (@artofmmignola) May 14, 2016

Darwyn always showed me so much support including his wonderful intro to Essex County. One of my favourite cartoonist. — Jeff Lemire (@JeffLemire) May 13, 2016