(click the pic to visit full-size version and the archive of Darryl’s Super-Sam and other John-of-the-night strips. Art ©2008 Darryl Cunningham; if you want permission to reproduce any part of it you should ask him)
Darryl has asked me to tell readers that he wishes to dedicate this week’s cartoon to his fellow artist Steve Whitaker who died suddenly at the end of last week, shockingly young (only 52 as John Freeman noted sadly). A number of folks have paid tribute to Steve, including, as Darryl pointed out to me, D’Israeli:
“Anyone who was around the London comics scene in the 80’s and early 90’s will remember Steve; at 6ft 4in he was hard to miss in his trademark long dark overcoat. He was a world-class colourist who will probably be remembered professionally for his work on the DC Comics edition of V for Vendetta, but he was far more than that; a brilliant draughtsman, painter, teacher and historian of comics, raconteur and ace punster. He was also my best mate.”
And on a related note Tony Keen has announced a plan to revive the British Amateur Press Association for a special memorial edition to celebrate Steve’s life, work, influence and friendship; I must admit I like this idea of doing something positive in the face of something awful: “Steve Whitaker was one of the stalwarts of the comics British Amateur Press Association. I’m pretty sure that he was always in the apa whenever I was, from about 1990 onwards.
B-APA was wound up in 2004. However, there was a special in 2005, a commemoration issue when Andy Roberts died, to which Steve enthusiastically contributed. We can hardly do less for Steve. So I will be editing a commemorative special of B-APA, to be available at CAPTION, a convention Steve always supported. Obviously, I’d like as many ex-B-APAns as possible to contribute. But I don’t want to restrict contributions to ex-B-APAns; I’d like anyone of Steve’s friends who wants to be part of this to feel welcome.
If you want to contribute, please contact me at keentony at hotmail dot com. I’m looking for contributions of 1-2 pages, by mid-July, preferably as camera-ready copy. Thanks to those who have already agreed to be involved.” (thanks to John Freeman for passing this on; John has also put together links to and quotes from a number of people who knew Steve as well as his own personal recollections)
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