Comic book artist, Mike Wieringo, passed away last weekend from a heart attack at 44. If you don’t follow comic books, you may not know who Mike was; however, if you are surrounded by good people, you may know someone like him. Mike was the kind of person who would take the time to help people — this in spite of his stature in his profession. He always treated people with respect and seemed to inherently see the potential in everyone he met. I recently used a quote from Mike that is typical of how he showed genuine concern for people. He exemplified so much of what I believe about mentorship and set an example worthy of emulation. I think if more of us were like Mike, the world would be a better place.

Artist, Jason Latour, wrote a nice article on how Mike encouraged him early in his development as an artist. This comes as no surprise to those of us who participate on Drawingboard.org, as Mike would give similar support and inspiration to budding artists.

He will be missed.