I met Seth at the 2005 San Diego Comic Con, which is also where I discovered his art for the first time. As I perused the "Fat Naked Rave" booth, Seth was doing karate moves and jumping around like a crazy person behind the tables where other members of the studio were sitting, signing books. I had no idea that he was an artist because in addition to his kung-fu fighting, he was wearing a bandanna around his head, big raver goggles, and a pair of overalls much like a janitor would wear, unzipped to the waist to reveal a comic-related t-shirt.
I walked up to Seth's table, not knowing that it was his (having never seen him or his art before) when he came running over and pounced into his chair, immediately striking up one of the most bizarre convention conversations I'd ever had. Before leaving the booth, he'd convinced me to buy his and J.M. DeMatteis' Green Lantern: Willworld graphic novel, which was well worth the money and is the work that really sent me on my search for more of his art. I also bought a copy of his sketchbook, upon which he did an ink drawing of me.
When a classmate at the Kubert School informed me that he had died, I couldn't believe it. Seth was in his early thirties and based on his demeanor at the show only a few months prior, seemed to be in perfect health. As it turns out, Seth had fallen seven stories from the roof of a club in Osaka, Japan, not far from where he lived with his wife Hisako and their son Toufuu.
The following is from an old article that I found on Newsarama:
"Fisher, a 1994 graduate of Colorado College opted not to use his math degree professionally, and moved into illustration shortly after he graduated. Fisher also moved, literally, to Japan shortly after graduation, where he taught English, refined his art, and eventually married his wife, Hisako, with whom he had a child. Fisher had been currently living in Nagoya, Japan with his family.
Though he moved away from math professionally, it still played a role in his art. In an interview with the College of Colorado Bulletin, Fisher described his view of art as: 'Art is really just problem solving in action. You start with a few lines, then you try to balance those lines with other lines compositionally, then you balance that with trying to explain a certain space or emotion.Perspective, composition, timing, and color theory are technical skills. You have a problem, and you have this toolbox full of techniques that you use to paint a totally unique bridge from an assumption to its implications.'"
Over the last few years I've accumulated just about every comic book that Fisher had drawn, and was excited to discover that his blog is, in fact, still active. Seth's mother Vicki updates http://floweringnose.blogspot.com/ fairly regularly with examples of Seths work and her thoughts on his art and his legacy. The following is a quote from her most recent post, dated January 28, 2010:
"Last year some of Seth's siblings declared January 30 Flowering Nose Day, a day to encourage artists, to take risks in order to do something worth doing, to create something that delights you, to have fun doing whatever you are doing, to do your best at whatever you do, to remember Seth by stretching out your arms and loving what you are doing and who you are with. I am all for it."
So with that in mind, I invite anyone reading this, be it January 30th or any of the other 364 days of the year, to do just that. Be creative and have fun doing so.
