William Ruzicka, Invincible and Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight Director, Dead at 46

William Ruzicka has passed away at age 46. The storyboard artist and director was known for his work in animation, including the recent shows Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight and Invincible . According to Cartoon Brew , Ruzicka passed away suddenly after suffering from cold and flu symptoms for about a week. Ruzicka's colleagues shared that he tested negative for COVID, but his symptoms were getting worse and he was struggling to breathe. According to the report, Ruzicka decided to go to urgent care but fell on the way to his car and the paramedics were unable to resuscitate him.

Ruzicka graduated from the animation program at California State University Northridge, and began his career in the industry as an intern at Marvel Lionsgate in 2008. He worked in the animation department and art department on various projects, including Transformers Prime as a storyboard revisionist/artist, Ultimate Spider-Man as a storyboard artist, and Invincible as a storyboard artist. He also directed the Invincible episode "Where I Really Come From."

Ruzicka's other directing credits include Bunnicula , High Guardian Spice , and multiple episodes of Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. His animation credits also include The Legend of Korra , Batman Unlimited , Justice League Action , DuckTales , Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Onyx Equinox , Scooby-Doo! The Sword of the Scoob , Star Trek: Lower Decks , and more as well as the "G.I. Jeff" episode of Community. Ruzicka was also credited as a visual effects artist on G-Force (2009) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). You can view some of his work on Vimeo .

A GoFundMe has been set up by Ruzicka's family. "We want to make sure that everyone has a chance to gather together to celebrate his life and share stories of love and laughter with Will. We all loved him dearly! Donations are needed to cover the related expenses, memorial venue, dinner, and drinks. Excess funds will be donated in William's name to a charity to be named later. Details on the Life Memorial event coming ASAP. Tentative date is in March. Please share this with anyone who may be able to help. Thank you," the post reads.

Our thoughts are with Ruzicka's friends and family at this difficult time.