Yesterday while picking up my new books, Popa text me that Josh Medors had passed away. I knew of Josh's long battle with cancer and how hard it had been. I also knew he recently had been back in the hospital due to additional problems, however it still struck me pretty hard.
I first met Josh at the infamous Screaming Tiki Convention in 2008. Pretty much every creator there was looking for something to do, so when I asked Josh if he was doing sketches he was more than happy to take one on! We talked about his run on GI Joe: America's Elite and it was very obvious he was a Joe fan! I couldn't believe he had pages from his run and was pretty psyched to pick up two. As a matter of fact, I was kicking myself later for not getting more! I let Josh pick any GI Joe character he wanted to draw and after he told me he liked to give some of the second tier characters a shot, I wasn't surprised to see him drawing Barbeque in my book. What I couldn't believe was the amazing amount of detail he put into it! Like I said, the show wasn't a huge success, so Josh told me that as long as I left my book with him he would keep adding detail, and he did!
Being from the same general area, we had the chance to see Josh at quite a few shows. Popa and Andy picked up sketches from Josh the next time we saw him and I had a chance to buy a few more of his GI Joe pages. Josh and his wife Charlotte were always great to talk with at shows and his name on a guest list was a reason to be more excited for a convention. Josh was just as much a fan as he was creator. I last got to see Josh at the 2012 Pittsburgh Comic Con. He put on a friendly face and chatted as much as he could but it was clear he wasn't feeling his best. I didn't get to talk with him as much as in the past but I will be always be glad for the visits we did have.
Josh had to cancel his most recent appearance in Akron, but I was glad to see his pal Sean Forney. Sean remembered me from shows and let me know that Josh really wasn't doing well. It's so terrible that anyone should go through what Josh and his family have, made even worse by him being gone now. As little as I knew him, he was a fantastic person and as you can see, he was an amazing artist! I'm thankful that because of his artist abilities I had the chance to know him.
The above sketches are all by Josh Medors.
ReplyDeleteBabeque is from my GI Joe book.
Death Adder is from my Captain America book.
Pinhead is from Popa's Monster/Horror book.
Black costume Spider-Man is from Andy's Spider-Man book.
Scalphunter is from Andy's X-Men book.
I remember at Tiki, since we all knew the show was dead, he said something to the effect of 'just leave the book and I'll keep working on it all day,' which is pretty much what he did!
ReplyDeleteWith my Pinhead sketch he drew the puzzle box from memory, it wasn't on the reference.