'Ringo doing what he did bestJust before hitting the sack after a Sunday of traveling and a Monday full of training, I decide to hit one more site (Heidi's Comics Fairplay) before hitting the sack. That was at 11:30 PM and it’s now 1:30 AM and I still can't believe what I've read tonight. Mike Wieringo passed away over the past weekend from an apparent heart attack at the age of 44. It's unfathomable that someone with such vibrancy and vitality as ‘Ringo possessed could pass away so suddenly. My overly glut of verbosity is more than compensating my inability to say something meaningful that would make the shock of this news disappear.
I just can't believe how someone as young at heart as Mike was betrayed by that very same organ. From the few times that I met him, he was extremely personable and sincere to this old-looking and socially inept person that I had to wonder if he was just humoring me. But I was wrong. He was class from the word go. And in a world where that kind of currency is becoming harder and harder to come by, hearing this kind of news makes it that much hurtful.
In the end it's hard to imagine someone passing away at 44; especially for someone who had much more to offer. When I get back to Florida, I’m gonna kiss my kids until they tell me to stop and hug my wife until my arms fall off. And before I go to sleep, I pull out those old Tellos books out of the longbox and re-read them. Probably with a box of tissues close by. Just in case.
I just can't believe how someone as young at heart as Mike was betrayed by that very same organ. From the few times that I met him, he was extremely personable and sincere to this old-looking and socially inept person that I had to wonder if he was just humoring me. But I was wrong. He was class from the word go. And in a world where that kind of currency is becoming harder and harder to come by, hearing this kind of news makes it that much hurtful.
In the end it's hard to imagine someone passing away at 44; especially for someone who had much more to offer. When I get back to Florida, I’m gonna kiss my kids until they tell me to stop and hug my wife until my arms fall off. And before I go to sleep, I pull out those old Tellos books out of the longbox and re-read them. Probably with a box of tissues close by. Just in case.
And for those who would want to contribute to something in his memory, his family have made the following request (via a post on Mike's website by his brother Matt):
Though we haven’t ironed out the details of how we plan to honor
Mike, I’d like to suggest that, in lieu of cards or flowers, anyone who is so
inclined please donate to the ASPCA or the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in his
name. I have a feeling Mike would like that.
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2 comments:
Britt:
Yeah, this was some shokcingly sad news. I never met the man, but I always liked his art.
I even did a tribute to him at Cover-By-Cover (inasmuch as you can do one, on a blog without much in the way of commentary). Even this week's theme I chose, "There In Spirit", seems to have an ironic twist to the whole thing.
Jim,
Thanks for sharing, my man. As I told Heidi in my email to her, this type of news does makes one look inward towards his/her own mortality. It just kills me that a guy who was only six years older than me passed away by a heart attack. There by the grace of God go I, I guess.
And your theme this week must have been preordained. Solid work as usual.
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