The webcomics blog about webcomics

He Has Done Comics Some Service And We Know’t

I didn’t know Mike Wieringo and I wasn’t overly familiar with his work, but people that I know and trust thought the world of him. With deepest respect to his friends and family, Fleen offers condolences for your loss. Reports are that Wieringo suffered chest pains and that emergency responders didn’t make it to him in time. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a volunteer EMT, and I know better than most people that response time = life. There’s no way of knowing what may have been different if Wieringo had gotten quicker care, but if you liked Wieringo’s work please take the very few hours required to get certified in CPR.

Let’s only talk about good things today, okay?

  • HB Comic Blog is back; thanks to Michael Kinyon for the heads-up.
  • Comic with which I was not previously familiar that looks good: Paul Spencer’s Make With The Funny.
  • Webcomics via graphic novels: until September 30th, each person who joins The Ambrosia Publishing Network community will receive a free digital copy of the horror-action graphic novel Smuggling Spirits: Book One by Ben Fisher, Mike Henderson, and Adam Markiewicz (serializing online now, print publication coming soon). Think The Untouchables meets Land of the Dead. Sign up and specify the format you want (PDF or CBZ) in an email to Ambrosia publisher Wesley Green.
  • Still shy on entries for the Win Scott McCloud’s Shirt Contest, so get yours in if you want a shot. And speaking of McCloud, we at Fleen hope that he and family stay safe and dry in the face of Flossie.

I am truly saddened by the loss of Mike Wieringo. I had not met him personally, but I became a fan through his daily sketch blogging. He was a omic artist in a very true sense. He loved the medium since he was a kid and lived the dream of becoming one. He got to draw Flash, and the Fantastic Four, and Spiderman for a living.
I always enjoyed reading his insight and marveled at his drawings. His style throws back to the days before the Mcfarlane/Liefeld era of roided-up superfreaks with a clean. realistic, almost wholesome appeal. My favorite of his bloggings was a series of sketches he did that reinterpreted original drawings he did as a kid. To apply the creativity and wonder of his youth to his adult abilities I think encapsulates what his craft was all about.
I’ve never met him, but I will miss him.

Mike was an astounding artist, and from what I could tell from the fleeting interaction I had with him, a hell of a nice guy. It breaks my heart that there will never be another Wieringo daily sketchblog update. It was his art on Fantastic Four that drew me back into collecting superhero comics for the first time since I was ten.

I loved his stint on the spider-man comics. Even the Talos work was amazing. Sad sad day.

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