Jeremy Dale died on Monday night, way way too soon. He was only 34, and he had a lot more stories to tell and pages to draw. I met him and his wife Kelly at Heroescon years ago. At least I think I did. They’re those kind of people that, once they were in your life, it seemed like they were always there. We went out to dinner one night, and then kept going so many nights after.
We shared a ton of hotels over the years, and did show after show. We even split a studio for a week one time before DragonCon, when he and Kelly were kind enough to put me between shows. We both loved The Last Starfighter and 1776.
It still doesn't seem real that he’s gone. I can’t imagine what the next MegaCon or DragonCon will feel like without him there. And I can’t imagine what it’s like for Kelly. She and Jeremy were so close that you rarely saw or mentioned one without the other.
I lettered his Skyward book and if nothing else, I’m glad that he finished his first piece of that story and that I got to be part of that. There’s still so much left untold, and it doesn’t make the loss any less, but it’s good to know that there’s a complete piece of Skyward out there for people to enjoy. I think he would have liked that.
One of my favorite moments with him was when we drove back from FanExpo. Jeremy and Kelly flew into Buffalo (because it was cheaper than flying to Toronto) and I picked them up on my drive so that we could cross the border and bring them back. He taught me that mentioning you worked on G.I. Joe sometimes makes those crossings easier, since so many people working now grew up on those books and toys. Especially helpful since Kelly famously can’t cross the border without looking suspicious.
That Sunday night after the show and back in Buffalo, we all went out to dinner even con-tired as we were. We weren’t ready for the trip to end. We went to one of the places that takes credit for inventing Buffalo wings. Jeremy and I got some barbecue wings that were quite tasty, but barely spicier than ketchup. Kelly had one and reacted like the wing was one you had to sign a waiver before you ate. It was like something out of a sitcom, which was pretty appropriate because that seemed to be the relationship that Jeremy and Kelly had.
That’s what I’ll remember more than anything: laughing so long and so hard with my friend.
It’s tempting to try to find some meaning or lesson from these tragedies. I don’t know that there is one. Mostly it just hurts. But it does make me conscious of the fact that we don’t know how long we have to tell our stories or enjoy our friends, and we should do as much of that as we can.
That and, as my friend Eugene told me a few years ago when Dwayne McDuffie died, take more pictures with your friends. You may not like the way you look, your hair may be messy and you need to lose a few pounds, but it doesn’t matter. You won’t regret it. I went back through my photos and I don’t have enough of those.
The photo at the top of this is Jeremy photobombing me while we were at the Georgia Aquarium at DragonCon and I was trying to take a photo I could use for my next author picture. When I saw the photos, I was actually a little irritated that he did that.
Now I’m so glad he did.