Ben Potter, a YouTube personality who built a following of millions with his dramatic readings of comic books, died on Saturday. He was 40.
His wife, Nathalie Potter, confirmed his death in a statement on social media, saying that Mr. Potter had “passed away in an unfortunate accident.” She did not provide details or say where he died.
Mr. Potter, who posted under the account name Comicstorian, built a dedicated fan base of more than 3 million subscribers on YouTube by editing together still images of comics and narrating feats of superhuman strength and battles between nemeses, like Batman and the Joker. Some of his videos focused on short story lines; others spanned entire series.
His most popular video, uploaded in 2018, features the Injustice comics, and narrates an alternate reality where Superman descends into villainy. The dramatization lasts more than two and half hours and has had more than 20 million views on YouTube. Throughout the video, Mr. Potter’s voice rises and falls with the action, imbuing an energy that the written word alone could not.
In the statement, his wife added that the Comicstorian channel would continue, run by her and a team.
Mr. Potter bridged competing universes, like Marvel and D.C., with his curiosity and attention to the minutiae of the genre. He brought a high level of craftsmanship to his videos, and introduced many of his fans to a world of comics that they wouldn’t have known about otherwise.
“If you love superhero movies but never got into paperback comics or couldn’t afford them, like myself, then his YouTube channel is perfect for you,” one person posted on Reddit under an article about Mr. Potter’s death. “His enthusiasm was always contagious.”
Ben Potter was born on May 18, 1984, to Arthur and Michelle Potter, and grew up in Rhode Island.
Comicstorian began in 2014 as an offshoot of Eligible Monster, another YouTube channel run by Mr. Potter and his team that focused on video game lore. In his first post on Comicstorian, Mr. Potter explained that creating separate channels would allow for more content on a wider range of comics and detailed analysis of the fictional universes.
“We didn’t want to flood our video game channel with it, and scare away all the video game nerds, so we wanted to bring a channel for the comic book nerds,” he wrote. “We’re video-comic nerds, and we want you to be, too.”
In addition to Comicstorian and Eligible Monster, Mr. Potter contributed to a podcast and a YouTube channel that covered manga books, among other projects.
A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.
In his last video, posted on June 7, Mr. Potter discussed his newfound appreciation for D.C. comic reboots — an unpopular opinion in some corners of the internet. He went on to announce a new channel, Comicstorian Classic, which he said would focus on stories that might not reach as many people because the characters were not as popular. Still, he said, they deserved attention just the same.
“I do want to cover those because I just enjoy the world of comics,” he said.
