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Monday, May 19, 2008
RIP Rory Root
When I lived in San Francisco I would occasionally treat myself to a trip to Berkley where I would never fail to visit Comic Relief. I always enjoyed walking up Shattuck Avenue and seeing Rory Root on his stool outside of his store. He couldn't be inside his store. The man lived on a diet of cigarettes and coffee and in California you can't smoke inside any public space. When I'd get near enough he would recognize me (it took him a few times to remember my name but once he did he always made sure to say "hi Ian!") and we'd talk. Well, not quite. He would talk and I would just absorb.
Rory knew me from my journalism days. I interviewed him for a few stories and covered the ComicsPRO meeting at the Cartoon Art Museum, where Rory was a huge presence. Either talking to him professionally or just as friends I was always knocked out by this endless stream of wisdom that came from him.
The last WonderCon was this February. I remember seeing Rory at the Comic Relief booth and figuring that I'd say hello while there's a few minutes left that night of the con. Those few minutes turned into roughly an hour and a half as Rory went from one end of the history of comics to the other, explaining how things had been and where they were going. The guy knew everyone and could put everything in perspective. One moment it would be your usual con floor gossip and the next it would be an expert observation on Marvel and DC's move to more graphic novels and trade paperback collections. Rory would start talking and you just wouldn't want to walk away.
Someone with all this knowledge of the industry had every right to be bitter. But that's the last word I would use to describe Rory. He still knew the power and joy of reading comics. He still loved putting good comics in people's hands. That vast knowledge combined with the far more vast love of the medium is why Comic Relief is this massive, wonderful store.
I think a person's living and professional spaces are reflections of what's inside their head. For examples, my room is a cluttered mess of papers and books, perfectly corresponding to the fact that organization is not my strong suit. I feel that similarly, Comic Relief reflected how great Rory was. Every aspect of comics was covered. You could walk out with the latest TokyoPop book, a Moebius Blueberry album in the original French, the McSweeney's anthology of at comix and all of the Sandman with one just purchase. Rory appreciated every aspect of comics. He communicated that appreciation tremendously.
Goodbye to Rory Root. He was the smartest person I ever met.
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