My dad in his office in the mid-80s
For my dad.
I lost my dad in February of 2023.
If you notice a gap in my work it's because I was going through the grieving process and his death took me a while to get over.
My dad was one of a kind. I've yet to meet anyone with the kind of swagger that man had. An absolute rock star. No one could outwork my dad either. I got my hard-working work ethic from both my dad and my mom.
The photo above was gifted to me by my mom on Christmas of 2024. Seeing him working at his desk really was the kick in the butt I needed to be like “maybe I should go all-in on this art and design thing” after daydreaming about it for decades.
My dad was very instrumental in my art career. He would always support my work. Even at an early age, supporting me by hanging up all of my grade school doodles and paintings in his office. It got to be a little over-the-top at times with his displays of my works. For instance, one time he had a visitor pop in and say “what, are you running a fuckin art gallery in here?”. One of my earliest memories when I was getting into drawing was drawing with my dad when we'd have baseball games on. He'd always encourage me to keep at it and keep pushing my skills. One of my first memories is drawing logo designs for him to use.
When I was showing work at the local art museum as a part of their Summer camp program, he was there to brag to the other parents. He'd hang my pieces in his home office from when I was in high school, one of my first pieces is still on display to this day.
He bought me my own drafting board when I got into drafting class. That same board I used all the way through high school and in both of my runs in college, using it to create comics and art. I still use that same board to this day. I always had his support all the way through college, bouncing illustration and comic ideas off of him as I produced work for my first portfolio and the college newspaper.
He also encouraged my mom to buy me comic books when I was a kid, because he enjoyed them himself. I was immediately hooked and began collecting and trying to emulate the artists and wanted to draw comic books for a career. That love for comics didn't totally land in that industry, but it lead to quite a few gigs and jobs where I could use my illustrative talent.
It's hard not having him around. He was always my biggest fan. We would text back and forth and I'd always send him my comics and art and get his feedback and approval.
Not having him around to share work and see how he liked it has been tough, I had a reflex to immediately copy paste a new work into our ongoing text thread so he could hopefully get a kick out of it and my little comics.
His favorite comic was my Helpful Spider series, which I hope to keep going here soon.
To my Dad, my site and art are in tribute to him.
I love and miss you, Dad.
~Nick