My friend Bill passed away last Saturday.
He was much loved and touched many with his wit and artistic
genius.
We talked weekly (often daily) about what we were working
on, pop culture, how our dogs were doing and whether it was pronounced “Toeth” or Tawth” (we never figured
out how to pronounce Alex Toth’s name).
He had an encyclopedic knowledge of cartooning, theater and
pop culture, would draw whatever he wanted with ease, wrote on a professional
level and performed regularly in local community theater productions - he had professional-level chops in
that department as well.
Whatever he touched he did – extremely - well. One of “those” guys.
He was also funny.
Jaw-hurts-from-laughing funny.
Three people made me cry and nearly lose my breath from laughing –
Richard Pryor, George Carlin and Bill (good company).
I’ll never forget when he mentioned meeting Sharon (again) –
he knew of her from the neighborhood when they were kids. She was the light of his life, lending
a skip to his step that was noticeable in many ways including the new projects
he was producing.
My wife and I were blessed to attend their wedding - which was, as expected, very sweet and packed with hilarity.
I had the good fortune to travel with them to New York Comic
Con last year – Bill kept us both in stitches the entire trip. A loveable goof who could point out the
funny in anything.
He was a magician with a pen. I remember him scribbling out a “Thank You” image (his dog Rocco, I believe) for the hotel
maid that blew my mind. No pencil
necessary. He had a “direct line
from his head to his hand”. A cartoonist
super power that was the envy of those of us in the field who actually have to "work" at it.
He was a fantastic artist and had worked on many titles for
Harvey Comics among others. A good
handful of his work and wit can be viewed on his blog:
Here are a couple of pieces I’m blessed to have in the collection
We often discussed Darwyn Cooke’s work. Bill raved about the animated “Justice League: The New Frontier” and often quoted
Batman’s line to a then disguised Martian Manhunter:
“I have a $70,000 sliver of radioactive meteor to stop the
one from Metropolis.
With you . .
. all I need is a penny for a book of matches.”
It was a line Bill wished HE wrote – high praise.
He was a great friend and encouraging teacher who always
kept on me to produce more.
This blog is a result of our chats and forever dedicated to his memory. He
will be dearly missed and always remembered.
My heart goes out to Sharon and family -
