Zub Tales

Woke up to the news that Joey Manley passed away last night from complications of pneumonia.
He was 48.

In 2002 Joe was the first person to treat me like a comic professional and the first one to pay me for my comic work. It’s hard to put into words how important that was early in my career. If there’s a metaphorical ‘Zub Shop’, his money is there in a little frame by the register. I won’t forget that.

After I left Modern Tales to pursue other freelance work we didn’t stay in regular contact, but every time we corresponded he was a force of positive energy about art, comics, and storytelling.

My condolences to his loved ones. The industry has lost a friend. I’ll miss him.

SDCC 2002, The Modern Tales Gang
(left to right: Dirk Tiede, Derek Kirk Kim, Me, Jesse Hamm, Chuck Whelon, Joey Manley, Lea Hernandez, James Kochalka)

Some thoughts posted up by other creators/comic sites:
Comics Beat
Shaenon Garrity
T. Campbell