It's with a heavy heart I type these words but I know it needs to be done and has to be said so people will know.

My dear friend  DarkZel was killed recently in South Korea, hit by a bus as he crossed the street. I don't have any details other than that, I was sent a note by a friend of his to spread the word. His family and friends are currently having his remains sent back to the US for burial.

I can't describe how much this sucks. It's incredibly cruel, incredibly unfair. But unfortunately, that is life.

I met Zel several years ago on the Radio Comix boards. He had put up a post about looking for a writer to do a comic with. I jumped on the chance, we exchanged e-mails and ideas and the very first Royal Tail story was created. We didn't talk much after that but about a year later when the next Genus Male came around he contacted me again and asked if I wanted to do a sequel. We brainstormed some more and the next comic came out. That was around when we decided to skip e-mail and just chat directly.

And that was the start of a very very long friendship. Every year since then we've made sure to put out a comic into Genus Male, we're in half the damn book now. And we've done work for Rabbit Valley. I'm still very proud of that, Zel always wanted a book to himself, so we created a full Royal Tail story just for that. I know he was happy with it, even if he got down when it didn't sell as fast as we'd hoped.

He was a funny, quirky guy. He didn't have the best luck of fitting in and was always something of a social misfit. In fact he had some of the worst luck I've ever known of someone, it always seemed like he would have to deal with the absolute worst people. He wasn't very good at socializing and always wanted to be a little more popular on here than he was. I know he was happy to have my friendship and I"m very honored to have been a friend of his. He was talented and weird and loveable and sweet, even if we always talked about eating the children he taught english to. We clicked. We rarely hard arguments and even when we did we worked it out quickly.

I never got to meet him in person. I'd hoped to make it to the Atlanta con sometime but time and resources never lined up right and he moved to South Korea to teach english so it was going to be a few years before we'd have been able to do a con together. I know he wanted to though and I regret very much I never got to hang out with him. We did skype a few times, he said it was nice to have someone to just talk english to (as he was still learning korean).

I think the biggest loss is just all the things I will never get to do with him now. We had so many ideas for future books and stories. He was always encouraging me to write and ate up every little tidbit I made. We wanted to do another Royal Tail and, of course, our yearly Genus Male and even try to branch out into non-furry work. And now that will never be. I'll still keep the ideas and the characters, I know he wouldn't want me to get rid of them just because he wasn't around. And I'd like to continue the work we started in his memory.

For now though I'd like to grieve a bit and just remember him for all the fun we had. He was one of my best friends and I will never, ever forget him.

Good bye Zel, you were loved and you always will be.