The Death of Two Michaels

I have never really been struck by the death of a famous person. But the death of comic book artist Michael Turner STUNNED me, especially because he had been dead for several months when I found out. Maybe it was because he was my age. His art is a legacy that every comic book fan can recognize and appreciate. Maybe I was stunned because I had spent so many hours of my life collecting and searching for Michael Turner artwork. I had just assumed he would be around forever, like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. I mean those guys are ancient, and the comic book industry is not a dangerous profession. I think Michael Turner brought the comic book industry back from the edge of obscurity and made every title he touched shine.

The recent death of Michael Crichton was also surprising in that I always pictured him as my age. (He was in his sixties actually.) He changed the way I thought about writing, and “Jurassic Park” was one of the texts in my Creative Writing class at Mankato State. I guess he helped me learn why I liked science fiction so much. Crichton’s ability to look just ahead of society and extrapolate our science and create a vision that was real enough to scare people. The social aspect of the future fascinates me, and I understand this because of Crichton.

To know that Crichton’s pen is no longer moving on the page and Turner’s pencil is no longer sketching at the drawing board makes me melancholy. That these two amazing people no longer share this round orb with me convinces me that I need to quit wasting time and make every second count. Thank you, Michael Turner and Michael Crichton for touching my life.