AWOL

I'll be AWOL from my blog o' terror for a few days due to a death in our midst. The son of one of Sparky's oldest work friends died unexpectedly and we're attending the various services and helping her out where we can.

Her late son, who's name was Jeremy, was also a friend to Sparky. She baby sat him at work many times when he was 8 and 9 years old. The thing Jeremy loved to do most was to draw and create cartoons. He had been into comic books and superheroes all his life. As he grew his passion for creating never left him. He went on to graduate college and then got an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design, or SCAD. For many years he worked for the newspaper in Savannah doing their graphic art stuff and he did web work on the side. A little over a year ago he got his dream job, teaching cartooning and the comic book arts at his alma mater. He loved teaching and his students loved him.
That photo was taken just a few weeks ago at the end of the academic year. By all accounts Jeremy would have made teaching at SCAD his career, and he would have been great at it. But on a hiking trip in the Catskills with his girlfriend he slipped and fell off a high ledge. His girlfriend made it down to where he was and he lasted long enough to pass away as she held him. He was only 32 when he died in that freak accident.

Sparky loved him. She told me about him many times in our years together. She'd tell me how proud of him she was and what a great artist he was and how she'd watch him draw when she watched him while her mother went to meetings at work. She'd watch him amazement as young Jeremy would come up with all kinds of stories to go with his drawings, and he do all the different characters voices as well. It made her so happy to hear about his climb through his profession. Understandably then his death at so young an age has been devastating for his family and for all their friends like Sparky. I never met him but I feel like I knew him from all her stories about him.

Anyway, like I said, we'll be attending various memorial functions for Jeremy that will prevent me from blogging for a few days. I'll be back on the interwebs sooner than you think. I know times are tight and money is in short supply but if you can spare a buck or two then please consider giving it to the scholarship fund his family has set up at SCAD. Here's the address and phone number:

Jeremy Mullins Sequential Art Scholarship
Savannah College of Art and Design
P.O. Box 3146
Savannah, GA 31402-3146
(912) 525-5868

Also if you like you can see some of his art and comics by Googling the words Jeremy Mullins.

I'll see you all in a few days, be sweet and kind to one another while I'm gone because you never know when death is going to come to you and yours.