R.I.P. Michael Turner

It's late, I know. Unfortunately, I didn't know the man, but everything I heard about him made me wish I did. During the first year that I lived in the city, I starting working in a comic book store, and the first thing I bought there was a poster-- probably the only poster I've ever bought in my adult life.

Something about the image always compelled me. Maybe it was the symbolic value of having a glowing noose of truth thrust towards me. Noose notwithstanding, it seemed more like a challenge than a threat, with Diana walking out of the shadows and holding it like a lantern.

It's been over my bed -- or in some cases my "bed" -- for years now. It followed me through five moves in one eleven month period, and I don't know how many nights of being lame, lying in bed with my feet up against the wall, staring at it. During some of the most ridiculous times in my life, one of the only consistent things was that I fell asleep to this and I woke up to this.

It's one of the few superhero images that has actually made me feel the way I think superheroes are supposed to-- this idea of someone symbolizing something better, and the implicit challenge in that to try and be better ourselves. I think it's beautiful, and it's meant something to me for a while.

I'm sorry he's gone.