I really wanted to say something about this a few weeks ago, but things got away from me. But no time like the present! August 12 was the two-year anniversary of our friend Mike Wieringo‘s death.  Mike was one of the sweetest, friendliest, most generous people ever to cross the threshold of a HeroesCon, and believe me that’s saying something. 

I don’t want to get into a long thing here, because frankly I liked Mike a lot and it will totally screw up my day if I get all sad. Besides, many other people (including Mike’s brother Matt) have already done a much better job than I could.

BUT I do want to point out something we can all do to commemorate the life of Mike–contribute to the Mike Wieringo Scholarship, the first of which was awarded this June at the HeroesCon Art Auction. It took a little longer than normal, mainly because Matt Wieringo got a loonnnnng standing ovation when he took the stage to present the award:

This is just as people starting to stand up–at that point I had to stop taking pictures because I wanted to clap too.  Anyway, the scholarship is awarded to a student at the Savannah College of Art & Design‘s Sequential Arts program.  The scholarship was set up through contributions and the sale of some of Mike’s original art, and is run by Matt, so 100% of the proceeds go to the scholarship.  If you’d like to donate you can drop your donation off at the store and we’ll get it to Matt, or send you donation by mail here: 

Savannah College of Art and Design
Attn: Office of Institutional Advancement
Mike Weiringo Memorial Scholarship Fund
P.O. Box 3146
Savannah, GA 31402

Make the check out to “The Savannah College of Art & Design” and put “The Mike Wieringo Scholarship Fund” in the memo line.  Be sure to include your name and address somewhere, so SCAD can send you a thank you note. I’m a little unclear on whether the donation is tax-deductible or not.

We don’t make a lot of these kinds of endorsements, but this is something that’s important to us, and we think it’s a great cause, something Mike would have been enormously proud of. And something which we’re enormously proud to be a part of as well!