From Tennessee

This is a photo I took in Tennessee last year, in March. Before coming to Japan, I drove from San Diego to a town east of Nashville to visit my grandmother, Ruby Dean. On Friday, two days ago, she passed away.

She was in a car accident the week before and I strongly feel she could have lived at least another twenty years otherwise. She was a strong willed person and throughout my life she seemed inexhaustible. She was also inexhaustibly kind. Whenever I talked to her, which was often--she called me almost every week here in Japan--she was always doing something for someone else, whether it was packing preserves, making gift baskets, or caring for her husband. And certainly I owe her infinitely more than I could ever repay. Throughout my twenties and thirties, it was primarily through her financial support that I was able to work on comics full time without having to gamble on the rapidly shrinking raft of bullshit that is the American comics industry. I had the rare privilege of being able to produce the stories I wanted to tell at the pace I felt necessary. It's for this reason, to this day I believe I'm one of the happiest people I know (I know one guy who I suspect is happier than me but it's tough to measure).

She never read my comics or really understood what I was doing. It didn't matter, she had faith in me and gave me the freedom to go my own way. And when I went to college, she paid my tuition, so I'm not in the situation of so many of classmates and friends who will toil under the shadow of student debts for the rest of their lives. I never for a moment lost sight of the fact that I am extremely lucky, and she's the reason.

Yesterday I went out and bought the genuine Tennessee product I knew I could find in any convenience store and most grocery stores in Japan, a bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey. So, with love, I drink to her and know that she will live on in the life she helped me create for myself.