Umm. Don't quite know how to introduce this. I love p45, it's the best comic shop there has ever been. I thought this was yer standard p45 mailing until I read it.
It's Stephen here.
There really is no easy way to tell you, or even write about this. I could just come straight out with the words but you wouldn't thank me. What I'm hoping the last few sentences have done is in some way braced you for the god-awful truth that Mark, my business partner, comicbook guru, friend of fifteen years and all-round reason for being in this industry, has died.
Completely out of the blue, Mark fell ill last week, and died this Sunday, 31st July 2005.
... Yes, I know...
If we've seen you since then and haven't mentioned it, it's because certain friends had to be informed first, and although Tom and I are pretty fractured, we have a job to do.
I want to reassure you of one thing: that our dream of Page 45 - as a place where everyone can come in, smile, relax, and enjoy comics... perhaps find new titles they'd never encountered before, but which Mark discovered and had faith in - will not falter at all.
That's simply not going to happen.
Mark takes with him a unique aesthetic which can never be replaced. No one is more keenly aware of that than myself.
But Tom and I will be on hand as usual from Monday to Saturday to make sure normal service is maintained, and by "normal" I mean up-tempo and enormously appreciative, as well as professional. There are a few practicalities to sort out, and with just Tom and myself here, I may fall a little behind in answering some email inquiries, so I do hope you'll bear with me.
Also, athough we don't know when the funeral is yet, Page 45 will be closed on that day. We'll try to let you know in advance.
I am absolutely one hundred percent certain that every one of you joins me in wishing his mother, his father, his brothers - all his loved ones including Al, Tom and Dominique - all the warmest in the world. Because I know that that's the sort of people you are.
Bless you to bits,
- Stephen x |
