Tom Spurgeon 1969-2019
Thomas Martin Spurgeon
Comic Book commentator, blogger and book author has died
I sometimes talked to Spurgeon through emails. When his site http://www.comicsreporter.com/ was still in its older, less functional format, I would find typos and goofs and send him notes on them so they could be fixed, and one day he joked to me that he'd need to start "cutting me a check" for my effort. His site, especially in the earlier days of the internet, was one of the few places where good writing and lists of indy-comic news was available on a consistent basis.
I have read in a few places that the Global Webcomics Web Archive will be archiving Tom's Comics Reporter in it's entirety.
Tom Spurgeon, age 50, 1969 -2019
Obit at Publishers Weekly
"Best known as an editor and reporter with an encyclopedic knowledge of the comics medium, Spurgeon built a long career as a thoughtful and passionate critical voice on the history of comics and on the medium’s development as a serious art form. Spurgeon was also a relentless advocate for the improvement of the welfare and working conditions of comics writers and artists working in the work-for-hire environment of commercial comics publishing.
He began his career in the 1980s, writing about comic books and editorial cartoons for a variety of publications. He also worked as the managing editor, and later, executive editor of The Comics Journal...
Another obit at Comics Journal:
"Tom had left a decent job in Pennsylvania at a home shopping network to work for peanuts at Fantagraphics, out of a passion for comics..."
More Obits:
Original Page October 2019