Uff, this strip hit me. Not because of the truly terrible joke, but because the last panel features a little cameo of fellow comics writer and GWS fan Greg Thelen, who unexpectedly died a few years ago. I'd be lying if I said we were close, but we met a couple of times and he was always very kind to me. He loved GWS.

What really stung was, in searching for something of Greg's to link to here, I noticed that none of his public online sites display any hint that he'd passed away. His last blog entry was posted the year before he died. His final tweets were, painfully, about having a fever and feeling sick.

When I drove to Portland, Oregon in 2019, I remembered that Greg lived in Montana and had encouraged me to add his town to my 2015 Slingshot Across America tour (it was too far north and I couldn't swing it). I went searching for his email address to ask him if he'd like to finally meet up for lunch on my way to Portland, and in the process, found his obituary. I reached out to family, only to discover there was no grave to pay my respects to; his body had been cremated.

In looking through emails from him, I found a GWS guest strip he wrote that I posted back in 2013. I think the most fitting homage I can pay to him is to share it here. It's a cute one about Jameson and Maureen and RPGs. :)

Its was written by Greg and drawn by Marili Ramirez (whom I can't seem to find on social media anywhere!). 

I'll also link you to his comics, in case you'd like to peruse what's up there. Amanda Green, Supherhuman Insurance Agent seemed to be the comic he mentioned to me the most, so if you're interested in reading it, click that link to start from the beginning.

Cheers, Greg. I'm sorry I didn't make it to Billings in time.