The Passing of an Artis

Tom Artis isn’t exactly the most well know comic book artist out there. In fact, I'm not really aware of much he's done in the past 15 years at all. I know I have several books drawn by him from the early 90’s, most notably a terrible written but beautifully drawn Green Arrow annual with Denny O’Neil and an excellent run on the short lived DC Impact title The Web.

Tom Artis died last week. I haven’t heard how and why but I have heard this from the folks at Silver Bullet:

Tom Artis, a former penciller for both Marvel and DC Comics, passed away recently. His family is in dire financial straits due to his death, and are unable to take care of themselves nor pay for his funeral expenses. A fund has been set up for donations. All donations can be sent to the following address:

The Tom TC Artis and Family Memorial Fund
Marine Bank
Attn: Gale Krueger
1401 North Dirksen Parkway
Springfield, IL 62702

I lived in Springfield for 5 years. I never met Tom Artis, much to my regret. But Mr. Artis happened to over hear a conversation my wife had with one of her girlfriends while out at a restaurant. They were apparently talking about how I wanted to be a comic writer. Tom was nice enough to introduce himself and give her a signed photocopy of a book he was working on for me. It was a cool day for me, coming home from a hard night at Mickey D’s to find a piece of art signed by an actual creator waiting for me.

It inspired me to actually start getting my butt in gear with this whole writing thing. The result: Champion City. And eventually, Metahuman Press itself.

So thanks, Tom. I owe you a lot.

And please everyone, give whatever you can to Tom’s family. It sounds like they can use all the help they can get.