RIP: BARRY BLAIR

The Indie comic world has lost another soul. Bleeding Cool, The Beat and Barry Blair's own website are all reporting that Barry Blair has passed away from a brain aneurism at the age of 56. Many people today may not be familiar with Barry, but back in the 80s he was well known and helped popularize Manga here in the U.S. as one of the first American books to show that style of art. It was a huge time of growth in the Indie market and Barry was the creator/writer/artist on Elflord (a sort of Elfquest-esque book). The series began print under Barry's own label, Aircel Comics, and was successful enough that Barry was able to publish other creator's titles. Among them was Men In Black . Yup, MIB. Aircel Comics was absorbed by Malibu Comics and I'm not sure of the timeline, but MIB either came right before or after this. Barry continued to work in comics and even worked for Elfquest publishers, WaRP Graphics for a while on different series. But by the time Malibu Comics was bought by Marvel Comics, Barry was gone and had moved on to other things. I never saw any work from him after I remember seeing his WaRP projects. Apparently though, he was still working, but it seems that he got into erotica. Still, Barry was another of the early pioneers (like the late Drew Hayes) who all Indie creators need to tip their hat too.