World Enough and Time

wakingowl sent me a message, forwarded from another friend, about the death of Dave Cockrum, which I already knew. But. Tacked onto the end of it was notification of the death of someone else - Jerry Bails, comic book fan and guru, and once a dear friend of mine. We were in several apas together - in fact, we co-founded one! - and we corresponded almost daily for years. This was back when I had a lot of pen pals and wrote to comic books, before I developed an e-mail and LJ habit. Jerry taught at a university near Detroit - he was a man of strong and interesting ideas about comics, life, the universe and everything. Our correspondence was fascinating and delightful. He and his family visited me in Ottawa for a holiday once - good memories.

I'd been pretty much out of touch with Jerry for a decade at least, and I'd been wondering recently how he was, thinking of getting in touch with him again. Planning to write him a note with my Christmas card. Now I can't.

Damn.