another death
Four days ago I got a call telling me my mother had died. I've had quite a few calls since, particularly from family, consoling me and making arrangements for getting to the funeral next Friday and so on. The phone went last night, and my assumption was that it was probably another of these. In fact it was one of my best and oldest friends, telling me that another of my best friends, the one I have known second longest, had died earlier - coincidentally on the way to hospital, as my mother had.
Some people on my flist were among Steve's and my best friends. The three here who spring first to mind were all introduced to me by Steve, just over 25 years ago. I met most of my best friends through that circle, and I simply can't imagine my life without them. Most of the people I know here on LJ came through ILX, which came through
giddyoldgoat pointing me at that message board - and
giddyoldgoat was one of that trio that Steve introduced me to. Steve was on LJ himself, under the name
stickismyfriend. He used it to put up his art.
Some of you will know his work to some small degree - a fine if unproductive comic artist (he drew a comic for me when I was a pro editor, and the last volume of the Judge Dredd Case Files ends with some of his work with Brendan McCarthy), and a tremendous colourist (best known for V For Vendetta). He contributed to my old comics magazine in various ways too. I remember our interviewing Will Eisner together. His GN The Dreamer had just come out, a tale of his early life with all the names changed. Steve was checking a couple of identities with him, and Eisner's jaw literally dropped. "How can you even have heard of that man? How can you know that? I thought I was the only person in the world who would know that was." I have never met anyone who knew more about comics than Steve, no one to compare to him at identifying artists. I remember getting together after comic marts, and someone would have bought something like some random romance comic from the '50s - most of us would never have so much as heard of the publisher or title. The art was uncredited and looked rather anonymous, generic. We'd hand it to Steve and almost always he would take one look, and tell us penciller and inker, where they worked, who they worked with...
But that's all what he did. The main point is that Steve was one of my best friends through virtually my whole adult life. I learned a vast amount from him and I loved him and will miss him enormously. I can't believe I'll never see him again. Maybe it's that it comes on top of my mother dying, before her funeral even, but this has hit me even harder than her death - maybe it's that I have had a lousy relationship with my mother, and never had anything but a good one with Steve, and even since he moved out of London to take care of his dad I saw him far more frequently than my mother - he's been an important part of my life, and I expected that to continue, where my mother was really part (albeit a huge one) of my past.
Some people on my flist were among Steve's and my best friends. The three here who spring first to mind were all introduced to me by Steve, just over 25 years ago. I met most of my best friends through that circle, and I simply can't imagine my life without them. Most of the people I know here on LJ came through ILX, which came through
giddyoldgoat pointing me at that message board - and
giddyoldgoat was one of that trio that Steve introduced me to. Steve was on LJ himself, under the name
stickismyfriend. He used it to put up his art.
Some of you will know his work to some small degree - a fine if unproductive comic artist (he drew a comic for me when I was a pro editor, and the last volume of the Judge Dredd Case Files ends with some of his work with Brendan McCarthy), and a tremendous colourist (best known for V For Vendetta). He contributed to my old comics magazine in various ways too. I remember our interviewing Will Eisner together. His GN The Dreamer had just come out, a tale of his early life with all the names changed. Steve was checking a couple of identities with him, and Eisner's jaw literally dropped. "How can you even have heard of that man? How can you know that? I thought I was the only person in the world who would know that was." I have never met anyone who knew more about comics than Steve, no one to compare to him at identifying artists. I remember getting together after comic marts, and someone would have bought something like some random romance comic from the '50s - most of us would never have so much as heard of the publisher or title. The art was uncredited and looked rather anonymous, generic. We'd hand it to Steve and almost always he would take one look, and tell us penciller and inker, where they worked, who they worked with...
But that's all what he did. The main point is that Steve was one of my best friends through virtually my whole adult life. I learned a vast amount from him and I loved him and will miss him enormously. I can't believe I'll never see him again. Maybe it's that it comes on top of my mother dying, before her funeral even, but this has hit me even harder than her death - maybe it's that I have had a lousy relationship with my mother, and never had anything but a good one with Steve, and even since he moved out of London to take care of his dad I saw him far more frequently than my mother - he's been an important part of my life, and I expected that to continue, where my mother was really part (albeit a huge one) of my past.