Kirby Gee passed away yesterday from apparent heart failure, which is a fucking joke since Kirby had one of the biggest hearts I've ever known. I cannot tell you how miserable I am, as are all those who knew him. We didn't hang out like we used to, but it was always a comfort to know that he was just across town.
If you need me, I'll be at the bar.
Kirby's the guy in the center of the last panel. For more info on this shot, read the comments.
For more Kirby memories, visit HumidCity and Ms Mae's.
UPDATE: There will be a second line at 1:30pm Sunday, Nov. 9th from Kirby's house at 520 Lyons to The Club Miss Mae's where a memorial service will be held. All are welcome to attend.
10 comments:
Kirby was the most sweetly funny person I ever knew! I haven't seen him since we had dinner in NO in the Summer of '06 but the stories he told us about Katrina and Miss Mae's still have me laughing!
One image I have burned (frozen?) in my mind is Kirby in Wisconsin in the dead of Winter, freezing his Southern ass off. After a woman in the parking lot asked to borrow lock de-icer and I instantly pulled some out of the glove compartment, Kirby smiled, shivered, and said "What the fuck is lock de-icer?"!
May he rest in peace.
I have many fond memories of Kirb, but the all-time winner happened during the New Orleans Comic Book Show which I think was put on by the Chicago guys.
We went out to dinner at Mulatte's and had a few drinks. Then we wandered the Quarter and had a few more drinks. At one point we walked into a bar that had a photo booth and as soon as Kirby saw it he screamed "Photo booth!!" and dove in… and fell on his ass out the other side. It was priceless. If I can find those shots I'll add them here.
Strike that, it was the Big Easy show. Damn my memory.
I will never forget my very first trip to New Orleans where I spent my 2nd night in the city carousing with Kirby. I was attending a business conference with my bosses who ditched me that night for the table dancers, (sheesh) leaving me to fend for myself in the French Quarter. I called Kirby (who worked for the same blokes at the time) to ask if he was interested in getting together. Gentleman that he was, his first reaction was, those guys left you to walk the streets of the Quarter by yourself?...What a couple coupla b*st*rds! .
He suggested we meet at club near Tulane University - can't remember the name of it- but Cyril Neville was playing. Kirby and I decided to take a break from the club and went out to his car to take care of some other business of a green nature only to find that as we got out of the car some nearby cops had been watching us. They followed us back into the packed club and cornered Kirby in the bathroom. Meantime, I'm thinking, am I about to be arrested on my first trip to New Orleans? Am I going to have to call my husband in Madison, WI to have him bail us out? Later, when Kirby returned, he told me that he spun some story that got us off the hook and acted all nonchalant, like this was de rigueur - which for Kirby, it likely was.
We had a lotta laughs years later when we met up in San Diego while he was with Crescent City Comics. May he rest in peace. He'll be sorely missed by many.
So sorry to hear this. . . what a shocker and a loss for all of us that knew him, and worse, for those who hadn't met him yet. . . great to read all the stories. . .
Kirb got me the job at Capital (well. . . not sure what to say about that!). . .and was just a reliable friend. . . big hearted and easy going. . .
I remember when I broke my foot. . . compound fracture from a climbing accident. . . and sat at the bar with him recovering. . . he had fallen off a bar stool and broke his arm. . . the cure for both, of course, was New Orleans size cocktails!
I met Kirb in 1984, that seems like it was so long ago. I spent many a Sat. or Sun. at his house making tacos seasoned with a bushel of cilantro and three fingers of Charvo, watching Texas kick some other schools ass. We would ride Styb all day long about the Steelers! The old days in New Orleans, watching Skip or Les piss Mary off and Kirb would have to calm her down. Skip was always the first to get kicked out! The Capital City days with Tim and Al arguing over nothing and Kirb instigating it all. The Atlanta days, Kirb would pile us in his car to go see Mojo Nixon or the Rev. Comic-Con and Chicago, those are some of the best times of my life! Hell Kirb, Styb and I followed Lon the whole way to Detroit one year, all piled up in the damn Nissan, getting cigarettes thrown out of Lon's window the whole way. At least it keep us awake, and if I recall correctly, that was the trip with the infamous twin brother retards in coveralls fighting at the truck stop over "choc'alets milks" and me putting my Dr. Pepper in an "Icee cup", who knew it would be such a big damn deal. Kirb laughed so hard I thought he was going to piss himself.
Kirb was just a great person to be around, I miss that, I miss my friend, my brother and in many ways my alter ego. You will be missed!
Dayum... He was a great friend to NOSF3. Oh hells, we be getting old...
I heard he had passed on and had to sit down and take a minute.
Strangely, one of the first memories of Kirby to come to mind was a lunch we had in the middle of the afternoon at San Diego Con from about 10 years ago.
Kirby, John Eaton and I went out to eat lunch at a nice, quiet place far away from the Con. It was about 2 or 3 in the afternoon and the place was empty. We had a good time there, the food was real good and the whole sunny Southern California day seemed to be going by in slow motion. It was a peaceful, golden fragment of time we snatched right in the middle of a crazy, stormy week of the usual convention madness and Kirby was smiling in the sun on the patio of the place. Always smiling, that was Kirby, and i guess that's how I'll want to remember him: our peaceful, sunny, happy boy on a beautiful day, a plate of ribs and a beer and a smoke out back. Yessir. So you keep on smiling old friend and we'll all see you again, all too soon enough, and we'll have another sunny day and some laffs we'll all have some of those fancy boat drinks. Ahhhh yahhh!
--Bob Burden Nov. 4, 08
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Gosh, thanks Ed! Glad you like it! And I'm ever so proud your 'bot chose my memorial to a fallen friend to advertise your bullshit website! Hope it works out for you! I've asked Kirby's ghost to go haunt your website so get ready all sorts of interesting things to happen over there. Imagine the hilarity when cases of wedding napkins arrive filled with 12" double dong vibrators! Oh, if I could see your customers faces!!
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