Rod McKie RIP

My Scottish cartoonist friend Rod McKie has passed away. He had a stroke the morning of March 16th and was admitted to the intensive care unit at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. He passed away ten days later. 

I don't have a birthdate for Rod. We rarely discussed personal things. We always talked cartooning.

While still in school, in the 1980s, Rod began contributing gag cartoons to leading British magazines. Rod became one of the youngest cartoonists in Punch Magazine. He created "Skid Kid" for IPC's "Buster" comic. He didn't stop there. He began submitting to the US markets soon after, with cartoons in The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Business Review, Reader's Digest and others. I got to know him through the cartoonist chat board "The Wisenheimer." He was on top of it all: markets, then-new digital techniques, etc. 

From his Cartoon Fiend blog:

"I started drawing cartoons from a very early age, copying my comic books. Particularly Aquaman, for some reason. I stated submitting work as a teenager and by the time I was 21 I'd started working for the national press in the UK, then Punch and then IPC Magazines - the home of Judge Dredd. So, it was gradual, but I set out to become a cartoonist from the get-go."

 

 

This was a shock. Rod was an Internet pal for many years and I had hoped we would one day meet. He loved cartooning, and was a friend. Many years ago he was telling me about Doctor Who, telling me that the Second Doctor was the best. He then burned a DVD of "Tomb of the Cybermen," complete with his sketch of the second doctor on the disc for me and mailed it to my Brooklyn apartment. My condolences to his wife of 46 years, Lis, and his daughter. Rod was a grand fellow. And he was right that the second doctor was the best. I will drink a toast to him tonight.

The Daily Cartoonist has a remembrance and some good links.