as many of you would have heard by now, mike wieringo passed away at age 44 on sunday 12 august 2007. no doubt, like everyone, it came as a big huge shock when i received the news on monday night.

i met mike only once in heroes con back in 2000. along with sanford greene, bob layton, todd dezago and many others, mike was one of the artists and creators that kick started my drive to pursue a career in comics. after looking at my work he encouraged me to try even tho at that point, i lived on the other side of the world back in australia. i was a designer back then, and i would never have dreamed of doing comics due to logistic reasons. but on that day, mike and the other creators introduced me to the possibilities via the world wide web.

so seven years later, i now work full time in comics drawing two of comics beloved characters, spiderman and batman, and have also dabled with other famous icons, like he-man, tmnt, bloodrayne to name a few.

i've always collected mike's stuff without conciously knowing it. the first time, i ever took notice of knowing the name of 'ringo' was through tellos. i found his work completely awe inspiring and flawless. i thought that he was a new artist coming into the scene and blowing everyone away. then one day, as i was sifting thru old comics, i discovered i had bought issues of the flash and spiderman that mike had done and i was floored. just to note, i pick comics up base on the art first and foremost.

now i don't know mike personally and i doubt he would have remembered me as i probably would have been one of many artists he would have encouraged to get into comics that day.

but i've always said to myself that one day, after accumulating enough work in my portfolio, to see mike again at a con and personally thank him. i have already managed to thank sanford many times as after the 2000 con, we have kept in contact and caught up a couple of times.

just recently, i discovered an art forum named drawingboard.org. i posted some new spidey pages there and lo and behold, mike replied with some more encouraging words. selfishly, i'll always regret just not pm-ing him that day to say, 'thanks, u're one of the guys that started this. look what u've done. '

so mike, u'll always be remembered and forever missed. thanks heaps for the inspirational work and the kick start.

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