Cool.

I also wanted to point out that the gentleman pictured at the far left of issue 2 of Midnight Tales – the man with the puppy at the veterinarian’s office – is a self portrait (which I asked him, and he humbly admitted). I think he told me the dragon on the cover of issue 12 was in part inspired by our conversation about The Hobbit and Smaug. I am grateful to the internet for allowing me to find his unique artwork once again so that I could be sure who that gentle, funny, kind, intelligent person was whose acquaintance is a treasured memory in my life. I only regret that when I finally ‘found’ him, he had gone beyond my ability to thank him personally.

I still think of him daily, and I know this sounds cliche and cheesy and everything else, but I feel like he’s watching over me, sometimes, so I try to make my decisions as if he’s advising me – or just telling me to let something go. I hope to continue learning good stories about him for a long time to come – I really can’t get enough.

I “met” Wayne in the mid 1960s when I bought a fanzine titled “Action Hero” from Wayne and his brother Sherman. I sent them a fan letter, and that started a few years of correspondence. Wayne, via the US Postal Service, taught me how to letter, encouraged my art and writing, and became one of my best friends, even though we never met and too soon lost touch.

Everything that has been said about him was true when he and I were teenagers (he was a few years older than I am). We lost touch when he went off to college.I finished up high school and went to art school. I stopped drawing, writing and collecting comics, became a graphic designer. Once in the 1980s I came across one of his comics. This was before the Internet and it was hard, if not impossible, to get back in touch with people.

So now I’m sitting here feeling the loss. I wish (hindsight…) I would have googled him a few years ago, gotten back in touch, reminded him of that friendship. We all have been enriched my this good man.

Thanks Wayne.

I met him several years ago while searching for another Irc channel. The first thing he did when I arrived on channel was say hi and offer me a cup of coffee. He was like that with everyone. There were times I would be up late working on one or two of my fanfics trying to work my way out of nasty plot holes and he would tell me

‘Calm down KW, you’ll figure a way to work yourself out of those holes’.
and then he offered me his trademark, a cup of coffee.

I considered Wayne such a friend that one day as I sat around working on another story, it hit me, create a character based off of Wayne to be kind of a father figure and friend to my main character. I remember the day I told him about that. I was nervous about how he would react. When he read what I had sent, he laughed and told me he liked the way I portrayed the character I created. Every time I finished a chapter, Wayne was the first person to read it and he always gave me good tips on how to make my scenes better. In his typical way, Wayne wouldn’t come out and just tell me how, he would make suggestions and subtly direct me in a way so that my work would be better. More often than not, his suggestions were better than what I had come up with on my own.

Wayne, I’ll miss you with all my heart and soul but I’m not sad, I know I’ll see you again sometime in the future and I know you’ll be there waiting with a smile on your face, a grin in your eyes, and of course……

that ever present infamous cup of coffee.

Farewell my friend.

Knightewolfe

I met Wayne through the IRC chat channel that he had created some twelve-thirteen years ago. I was there since the beginning. I was only a kid when I came in, Maybe 12 years old, dreaming of cheating in a video game.

Wayne was one of the most humble people I have ever met, but at the same time he loved people. He genuinely was interested in the things going on in peoples life, and was incredibly fun to talk to. When it came to relationships or career decisions, Wayne was the first person I turned to. I knew that he would help me. He was like a second father to me. As well as an incredibly good friend.

If I could end my life just being a fraction of what he was, I would die a very happy man.

I will miss my conversations with him.

God Bless You Wayne.

There was never a feeling of a “clique”… each person was accepted for who they were. This was an amazing feat in itself… but to top it off, we all learned to react in the same way. Wayne was not just a friend to us, he was a best friend, a mentor, a father. He kept us on the straight and narrow with his common sense, down-to-earth advice, and he kept us off-balance with his wonderful gentle and candid sense of humor.

He made every one of us feel special in a way we’ve never been treated before. He was the most intelligent, kind, gentle, and honest man I’ve ever met in my life. And I don’t think anyone in our game channel would argue that. To most of us, he will always be remembered as the person who made the greatest impact on our lives, the person we most want to model our lives after. He taught us how to think, how to share, how to love unconditionally.

These words might sound hollow and euphemistic to most people reading them… but to the people in our channel, he was all things and more. He ran that channel with love and humor, and we will continue it in his tradition. He’s a part of every one of us, and there isn’t a person on this earth that could fill the place he has left empty. He’s in heaven now… the one place he wanted to be more than anything. May he have every joy, peace and love that he didn’t have on this earth.

We love him dearly and forever.

Your friend,

-David

Thank you for sharing your memories.