Checked my email at work this morning and got a link to this. There's been a glut of birthday greetings for 2000AD over the UK comics blogosphere these last few days, but Joe Gordon, Matt Badham and Richard Bruton's gentle and empathetic tribute to Brett Ewins has been among the best. When I read it I had a few customers with me, and I had to struggle manfully not to tear up a little. Here's Edmund Bagwell's contribution, which celebrates Brett's impact upon multiple generations of British comics as an artist, a creator, a publisher and editor, and a supreme spotter of talent. I remember my cousin Geoff coming back from UKCAC 1988* with the first issue of DEADLINE, and his anecdote of buying it from Brett himself, and being very impressed indeed. Not just by the comic, but by the second-hand glamour of Geoff meeting one of my all-time favourites. A guy whose Rogue Trooper strips I'd traced as a kid until they were bas-relief.
*UKCAC '88 was the comic convention that famously scared Alan Moore off cons for life. I sent Geoff off with my copy of WATCHMEN, which he dutifully brought back signed, but only by Dave Gibbons and John Higgins. Perhaps it was Geoff who was the fan who, as legend has it, hammered on the cubicle door of the toilet Big Al was using, demanding an autograph, sending the Magus off screaming, swearing off such close contact with the massed ranks of fandom forever. I joined Geoff at UKCAC '89, where I almost killed VIZ's Graham Dury in a bizarre fan-hurdling accident at an event celebrating their tenth anniversary. A story for another time, probably.