Rory. If it wasn’t for you, brother, the road would have been a lot tougher for us all, but particularly for young artists in the Bay Area who wanted to produce and sell difficult work. Josh Petrin bought my first zines off of me, but it was your store. And when we first met you said, “Oh, you’re that Sirk guy. Great stuff. Keep ’em comin’. We’ll buy ’em all.” When one is nineteen and only a little sure of one’s self, let alone one’s work, these are incredibly encouraging words. Like Marc Arsenault said, if it wasn’t for Rory, a lot of us wouldn’t be here at all. I wish I could write out some warm heartfelt story about how it’s all gonna be OK, but I can’t, won’t, cuz this just sucks.

See you on the other side, man. And thanks. Really. I couldn’t have gotten this far without your help.

Labels: comics titan, great comics stores, Rory Root