Many comic-makers have died during the past year. Moebius, Harvey Pekar, Sheldon Moldoff, Jerry Robinson, Dwayne McDuffie, Gene Colan...But also John Severin.

John Severin was a guy who drew mostly Cracked, Hulk, Rawhide kid, western, war and horror-stories. Well, he inked Hulk, but his inking style was pretty personal looking. Besides, inking is still drawing, no matter what some people say.

I became familiar with his work when I read, guess what, a few of Hulk-stories inked by him (collected to Essential Hulk #3, by the way). His style stood out for me. But I hadn`t heard or read of him before (or maybe I have, but have forgotten that), and I thought that he was a great artist who hadn`t been appreciated enough. Since, you know, I hadn`t noticed that he was appreciated by fans. As usually, I was wrong. But I didn`t find THAT out until later. Later on, I stumbled on to some other Hulks by him and co (they are cool too). But, I didn`t search for other stories made by him, `cause I`m an idiot.

The next time I noticed his work, was when I read a story illustrated entirely (or maybe there was some other inker) by him, in reprinted material of Creepy # 6. In that story, his style was even better. And still I didn`t search for more stories by him.

Then I found out that he made some cool Nick Fury stories, that I still don`t have. But I`ll get those ones eventually.

Then I found out that he`s dead.

I thought of this news as a sad one. Not so much, that I started to cry, but sad, anyhow. An artist whose work I like, but from who I hadn`t read enough stories from, is dead.

Story of my life.

To be honest, I never thought that I would get to meet him. I just felt that it was cool that someone that influential is still alive, far, far away there in the USA.

But everyone has to die some day. Or night. A few weeks ago, that time was for him. And I feel sad for the fact that John Severin has died. That`s the best tribute that I can give for him.