foodone

This was a good day. Digging for comics, a stroll through Hollyweird for a delicious feast at Hunan Cafe, and then a quick walk up the street to my Melrose Place-style apartment building at 1545. Looking at original art, music bumpin, talking shit. I was working on my new Grrl Scouts: Magic Socks series at the time and Ed was super responsive to what I was showing him. Always a huge boost to get an immediate positive reaction from a fellow creative soul in real life, in real time. Ed showed me all these incredible layouts he was working on for a new project called X-Men: Grand Design.

Fantastic!

One thing I've realized is that most people never got to know the real Ed. They only knew Eddie P, the sunglasses-wearing character who appeared on the Kayfabe YouTube show.

The real Ed was generous, chill, hilarious, sharp, talented, and full of excited energy. We would chat on the phone or connect at a con and he would get me so fucking pumped about comics. And after each chat I would always be ready to get back to the drawing table with a quickness. His unabashed, pure enthusiasm for the artform of comic books was quite infectious. It was awesome.

When I went to Japan for the first time he hooked me up with all of his friends and connections there. He told me the best places to go. He wanted to make sure I fell in love with the place just like he did. And it worked! I had the greatest adventure of my life there. It was a game-changer. It was like having lightning strike me in the cranium and rearrange my creative brain in the best way possible. It was the journey of a lifetime and Ed helped make it possible. I'll never forget that.

I recently moved back to the midwest to be closer to family and I told Ed about it. He was excited for me. He was always close to his family and would go over to his folks house every Sunday night for dinner. Neither one of us has kids but we were both the 'cool uncles' in our families. The art weirdos as it were. But not weird enough that we were estranged from our loved ones.

I feel crushed and destroyed by all of this. My condolences go out to his family and Jim Rugg and his family. I can't even imagine what they're going through right now.

I'm bummed that most people never got to know the real Ed. He was an awesome guy.

Safe travels, brother. Thanks for the friendship. Thanks for the inspiring and comedic phone chats. Thanks for having me on the show with you and Jim to always pimp and promote my new stuff. Thanks for introducing me to Kaze Shinobu. Thanks for always being uniquely you.

I’m blasting some Public Enemy in the studio at an extremely high volume right now.

Seems appropriate.

Rest in Peace.

Rest in Power.

Rest in Funk.

👑👑👑