Remembering mike "mynki" brennan

Published Oct 18th, 2024

Remembering a Dear Friend, Colleague, and Warframe Pioneer

Peacefully at home, surrounded by his family, Michael “Mynki” James Brennan passed away on October 15th, 2024 in London, Ontario, shortly after celebrating his 50th birthday. Forever loved by partner, Tanya Deaville; and stepson, Miles Carter. Proudly remembered by his parents, Joan and Terrance; his sister, Mary; and his uncle, Bill. Fondly remembered by Elaine, Jason & Kim; best friend, Justin; family dog, Lulu; several friends and extended family.

Born in Nepean, Ontario, Michael displayed a natural talent at a very young age when it came to drawing. Throughout his life it was not uncommon to find Mynki with a pencil and sketchbook in hand, honing his illustration skills. Initially, he completed an education in Graphic Design at Algonquin College, and later returned to the same school to pursue a diploma in Animation.

Not too long after graduation, Mynki moved to London, Ontario to begin his career as an artist at Digital Extremes (DE). Here, his talent stood out and he quickly became the Art Director on a few of the company’s projects. In 2012, Mynki was given the opportunity at DE to work with a small team to develop the artistic style and art direction for the video game, Warframe. His ability to dream up truly weird, wonderful creatures and worlds helped the project become a great success for the studio. Mynki’s work on Warframe was his professional crowning accomplishment where his ideas, influence and artwork can still be found to this day. In 2016, he left DE to pursue his own interests and happily illustrated two book covers for Hardcore Gaming’s guides to shmups and also took time to create a cute, little indie game called “Animals in Buildings”.

Michael was a brilliant, humble artist with a gentle and kind soul. He loved video games – mainly shmups, RPGs and retro platformers. He voraciously read any art book, comic or graphic novel that piqued his interest, and he loved listening to music. In Mynki’s memory, we invite you to take some time to look at a handful of the things that inspired him most: Artists Moebius, Katsuya Terada and Takayuki Takeya; Novelist Gene Wolfe; and his favourite movies “The Thing”, “Alien” and most Studio Ghibli films. 

Michael had a quiet resolve which allowed him to valiantly fight a battle against cancer for the past several years. We would like to thank Dr. Vincent’s team at LHSC and Dr. Achtar & Rosalyn for keeping Michael comfortable during this time, as it gave him the chance to pursue his passions right up until the very end.

Cremation has been entrusted to Northview Funeral Chapel with plans for a small, family gathering to take place at a later date.

The Digital Extremes team mourns the passing of Mynki, an amazing artist and colleague who in his time at the studio as art director had a profound impact on Warframe. In the immediate future, Digital Extremes will be planning the first of many tributes on its scheduled Oct 25 Devstream.