Artist And Impulse Co-Creator Mike Wierigno Dead At 44

Owenashi

Newsarama wrote:

The comics industry lost a luminary this weekend - Mike Wieringo passed away Sunday of a sudden heart attack. Details are still sketchy as of this time, but according to close sources, the acclaimed artist had chest pains at some point during the day and called 911, but the responders did not make it in time.

Wieringo was 44 years old. He was a vegetarian, and "one of the healthiest ones of us in the bunch," as his longtime friend and collaborator Todd Dezago described him.

http://www.newsarama.com/Chicago_07/Ringo.html

Balefuego

His Fantastic Four with Mark Waid is my favorite ever.

Munch

Oh dude what the fuck. Going off his blog posts and comments over at the Drawing Board, he was an immensely talented, nice guy, who was sorely under appreciated in industry. Not to mention he was probably one of the best Spider-Man artists of all time. Man, first Seth Fisher and now 'Ringo.

Bloods End

oh god.

oh man.

Him and waid made me love the FF.

Tach

Ah, man. 'Ringo was a favorite of mine. He was sooo good.

FeathersMcGraw

Son of a. I loved his work, and he was a super-nice guy to boot.

Garlic Bread

DC should pay tribute by putting out more Impulse/Young Justice trades

Red or Alive

Oh, Hell. Aw, man.

He was such a nice guy, and a great, dependable artist.

wwtMask

Man, this sucks. I don't know much of his work, but I enjoyed his run on FNS and Spider-Man/Fantastic Four recently. From what you guys have said, I expect to be regaled with accounts of how cool this dude was to fans and what not.

Sars_Boy

Fuck

first thing I saw this morning

I always wake up to this kind of news

Furu

Keith wrote: »

DC should pay tribute by putting out more Impulse/Young Justice trades

Oh for fuck's sake, the guy dies and this is the first thing you choose to say about it? Give it a fucking rest.

Blankspace

DMAC

This is so sad.

He posted regularly on the Drawing Board forums and I would excitedly point out his comments on my work to my friends: "Look, Mike Wieringo said my piece was awesome!"

I still can't wrap my brain around him being gone. No new 'Ringo art, ever.

Balefuego

blank that is beautiful

Blankspace

I can't take credit for it.


It's from the Newsarama Thread.

So is this:

The Muffin Man

This guy was one of my favorite Spidey artists.
Sucks to lose him

Garlic Bread

Furu wrote: »

Keith wrote: »

DC should pay tribute by putting out more Impulse/Young Justice trades

Oh for fuck's sake, the guy dies and this is the first thing you choose to say about it? Give it a fucking rest.

Shut the fuck up you stupid fucking faggot.

wwtMask

The more I read the comments on the intertron, the more it seems that Wieringo was pretty classy dude, not to mention a great artist. It really sucks to pass on so early, with so much ahead.

The Lovely Bastard

well this is just depressing.

Calamity Jane

Really dug his art, and the light hearted tone a lot of his stuff had.

Man this shit is terrible.

DarkCrawler

This really sucks. He, together with Waid, made me love the FF.

R.I.P Mike, you were one of the best.

Balefuego

Those of you who haven't.. you really, really should check out his Fantastic Four work with Mark Waid. It is absolutley phenomonal.

joshmunkey

coming out of lurkmode to say this

mike wieringo had a huge helping hand in making me appreciate comics and strive towards being a professional in the industry. his guest spot in Wizard magazine's Crash Course drawing tips section years and years ago showed me a whole world of kinetic action set-ups when i was very young and impressionable, and his 90's marvel run showed me that spider-man books weren't just lame plot devices and never-stay-dead characters, but rather it was a book full of energy, vigor, and life. i'll certainly miss him and his impact.

DJ Eebs

It's nice to see Gabe make mention of him on the front page.

DarkPrimus

Sad to hear he passed away.

Man, 44 is not an age anyone should die at.

PhoneBone

So sad to hear about this.

Wieringo was probably one of the few Spider-man artists in recent years whose style has always been extremely memorable for me.

It's just mindboggling to think that someone who made a conscious effort to live his life in good health, should die at 44. After all the things I've read today, it seems 'only the good die young' seems to be very appropriate here.

Now I'm gonna be depressed for the rest of the day. Try explaining that to your co-workers.

JCM

http://www.pvponline.com/

Kurtz wrote:

In the summer of 2005, my friend Mike Wieringo invited me to stay with him at his North Carolina home for a week. In the middle of this visit, we would drive up to Charlotte for Heroes Con. Mike slyly rented a mini-van for the trip, insisting it was because he feared his POS car would not make the trip. I suspect he did so because he was worried I wouldn’t fit comfortably in his compact for the long trip. If that was the case, Mike would never admit it.

On our way to Charlotte we listened to a comedy album I had on my ipod. At one point, the comedian said “You know you’re drunk when you get pulled over by the coast guard. Sir, turn off your windshield wipers, it’s not raining. SCREW YOU SEA PIG. Friendly Dolphin. I was saved by a friendly dolphin.”

Mike and I were laughing so hard, that we had to slow down and pull over to onto the shoulder. For the entire con, I would sneak over to Mike’s table where he would have his head buried in a sketch and belt “FREINDLY DOLPHIN” out of the corner of my mouth and just watch him crumple into convulsing laughter. At one point, I drew a picture of the friendly dolphin and had a fan bring it over to him. Moments later, from across the con hall, I heard Mike’s deep belly laugh.

I first me Mike at a small con in Houston, TX. I was sitting at a table, eating lunch with the other guests. Mike was seated next to me alongside, Kurt Busiek, Mark Waid, Todd Dezago and Frank Cho. I felt like a fraud. Like a didn’t belong. But Mike was the first guy to almost angrily insist that of COURSE I belonged there and then he went on to tell me how much he loved PvP. He told me to start charging for sketches “That’s your time. You should be paid for your time.”

We talked for hours about comics at the bar that night and I still have, framed forever, the program cover to that con with everyone’s signature on it.

When I gave my Eisner speech, I talked about all the people in comics who have been kinder to me and more inviting and welcoming to me than I feel I deserve. I felt myself getting emotional but held it together until Mike’s smiling face popped in my head.

Mike and I would talk for hours on the phone while each of us worked. I would inquire about his Marvel work and he would always deflect. “It’s the same boring stuff. I’m just drawing some other guys words. I’m more interested in what you’re doing. What’s next with PvP?”

Mike refused to eat meat because he couldn’t bear the idea that any animal would experience grief to provide him sustenance.

Mike never judged me. When at one point, I had difficulty walking due to my weight he casually matched my speed. When I embarrassingly apologized he looked at me with a shocked look and said “My God. Why would you apologize.” I told him not to let me hold him up. “Where do I have to be? I want to hang out with you.”

That year at Heroes Con, Mike got up at 5am to draw an incredible spider-man piece for the show auction. His back pain prevented him from working at the table. Instead bailing on the promise, he just got down on the floor and drew it lying flat.

I am so blessed to be able to say that I talked to Mike last Thursday. We caught up after months of not talking. I asked him last week if he had been upset with me. “Why would I be mad at you?” he asked me.

“Well, I’ve been calling for a month or so and you didn’t answer or return my calls.”

“Yeah, I was feeling a little down and when I get that way, I’m not very good company. So I just stay away from the phone.” Thank god I got to talk to him, because if we hadn’t had that conversation, I would have spent the rest of my life wondering if he died upset with me.

Mike loved comics. He loved drawing them and writing them. He was tired of his contract work I think because he had grown weary of just being an “art monkey” as he would put it. “I want to write my own stories. I want to do more like what YOU do.”

And we would SCREAM at Mike. Why not just DO it? People would eat it up. Do your Saturn Kid book. “Nah. I gotta pay the bills. When am I going to draw it? I have deadlines People don’t buy westerns.” There were always a number of excuses. Always more time in the future to get that figured out.

I’m just so god damn angry today, and empty and heartbroken because I don’t get to talk to Mike anymore. And I’m worried about his cat Charlie because I know that what happens to Charlie would be the most IMPORTANT thing to him.

I called Oliver over at Fanboy radio frantic this morning because I couldn’t find the MP3 of the episode I did with Mike and Kirkman. And I thought “Oh Christ, what if I can never hear that again.” Oliver posted it for everyone. I tried listening to it and I was okay until I heard myself say “Hi Mike.” and Mike lyrically said back “Hi Scott.”

I’ve never lost a friend this close before. I have no point of reference. I’m a huge-obese asshole and I have no heart problems and Mike did everything right and he’s dead. How the hell do I reconcile that? How do I ever look at his brother or Todd or Craig?

Mike, I am so sorry. I am sorry I didn’t call more. And I’m sorry you don’t get to draw all your stories. And I’m sorry I can’t call you and make you laugh anymore.

Thank you for making me feel like I wasn’t me. Like I was one of you guys. One of the cool kids. Even if it only lasted until I got back home. I can never repay you for that.

I miss you terribly.

DMAC

A little tribute for Mike.

There's a thread over on the Drawing Board forums where Mike was generous enough to share both his artwork and his time.

Calamity Jane

That's really cool DMAC!

wwtMask

More love for 'Ringo: http://www.newsarama.com/general/Ringo/RememberRingo_01.html

DMAC

It's nice too see all of the tributes from other writers/artists. As an artist, knowing that he'll never get to do all of the projects he talked about on his blog really gets to me. It feels like there's a future full of amazing work that died with him.

DMAC

Just thought I'd mention that Project Rooftop did a week-long tribute to Mike by having people submit redesigns of Bart Allen as Impulse/Kid Flash/The Flash. They reviewed a bunch of the designs and just finished posting a big gallery of all of the other entries they received.

I submitted this Kid Flash design which is actually based on a piece of mine which Mike was nice enough to comment favorably on a couple of years ago:

devoir

That's freaking awesome. I love the way the face 'plate' looks, kinda like Optimus Prime.

Edit: After looking through all the ones on that site you linked to, yours is by far the best, cleanest and highest quality there, imo.

Garlic Bread

yeah, i was looking through them a couple of days ago and went "wait, that looks like DMAC's art"

good job on it