From Zach Rabiroff's 10-21-24 COMICS JOURNAL obituary for Bernie Mireault, creator of THE JAM and the artist of such important graphic novels as GRENDEL: THE DEVIL INSIDE (written by Matt Wagner):
It is bittersweet that as quintessential an outsider in comics as Bernie Mireault should be so widely and sincerely mourned. Mireault’s work had always projected the passionate fascination of someone standing just outside the comics mainstream without ever totally entering it. The Jam, Mireault’s magnum opus and the work which occupied the better portion of his career, was like an outsider art interpretation of Jack Kirby – Marvel Comics by way of a prodigiously talented cargo cult. Mireault, to be sure, was never the sort of artist likely to make the front of a Previews catalog, but it is wholly possible to imagine the sort of alternate world where he might have been, and where anyone with verve, talent and tenacity for the art form might do the same.
That this future, and all of Mireault’s futures, are confined to the realm of the hypothetical is now a tragic fact. On Sept. 2, 2024, Bernie Mireault died at age 64. His death, announced in a Facebook post by his lifelong friend and fellow comics artist Howard Chackowicz, revealed the cause to be suicide. The flood of remembrances was immediate and heartfelt: from collaborators, publishers, and colleagues who knew him; from elder industry statesmen like Paul Levitz who didn't; from fans, stunned and saddened by the loss of an artist most of them — of us — had long taken for granted. It was, in a real and ironic sense, as close to the center of the comics field that Mireault and his work had ever been.
To read the entire obituary, click HERE.
In December of 2022, Mireault's work was featured on Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg’s CARTOONIST KAYFABE YouTube show:
No comments:
Post a Comment