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This is the last comic that Clay Ramskill ever posted. Not long following, he succumbed to cancer. His wife sent a message to some of the more prominent model-airplane websites on the Internet. Within, she noted that Clay was a retired lieutenant commander and a war veteran, having flown several missions over Vietnam. His passion for flight never faded, and after being discharged, he turned his attention toward radio-controlled model airplanes. He shared a wealth of related information on the Internet, and was regarded as someone who never hesitated to lend a helping hand. The message read that "with each endeavor that he pursued, the results were always first class all the way. Everything he did was done with a certain style unique only to Clay...for those of us who were lucky enough to know him, his presence will be deeply missed." The Internet, of course, is quite a young medium, and I believe this was the first time I had viewed a web page built and maintained by someone I knew had died. To view someone's work is to experience a living part of them, and to do so with the knowledge that the creator is dead is quite a strange experience, to say the least. In other media, we have our Mark Twains and Pablo Picassos and John Lennons, so we're a little more desensitized to it. But in a way, a person's work on the Internet is far more personal, because anyone can do it, and it often hasn't been filtered through constant takes and revisions and rough drafts to get there. It's as personally raw as a letter to your grandmother. I'm generally not much of a fan of romanticizing a person once he or she has passed away; the fact that they have passed does not render their life greater or more dignified. But as I came across these and readied myself to bash them to a pulp, I did some research on the creator of these innocuous comics. I didn't decide to be nice because I felt bad for his passing, but when I learned of it, it was enough to give me pause. Pause enough to step back and appreciate something for what it is. He wasn't trying to be a comic genius. He was trying to shed a new light on something he loved, and express his personal feelings on a passion that was 100% cold science. I don't feel that the message here is, "Don't make fun of somebody over the Internet, because they might be dead!" The message here doesn't have anything to do with the fact that he passed away. It has everything to do with the idea that perhaps, when we encounter something we feel is a little senile, silly, or out of touch, we should give it a good laugh, poke some fun, but celebrate it rather than trashing it. A little innocence never hurt anyone. It might even be good for you.
-Jon http://www.mindspring.com/~cramskill/inkclay.htm |