I am going to add my voice to the chorus of people singing Rory Root’s praises. I can’t even begin to express my admiration for this man.
Rory was the first person that bought a copy of XXX LiveNudeGirls, and he was always incredibly encouraging to me. It was Rory who suggested that I visit the WEF, he got me to start posting there by calling me out and through him I met the most important people in my life.
Rory loved doing that - introducing people. Making connections. (That, and talking you into spending way more on comics than you should!) He was so generous with his time and enthusiasm, and he encouraged a whole generation of comix kids. He would host the drawing jams after APE at one of his beloved Indian restaurants, and he made the East Bay feel like a real community. When I worked at Image, every Wednesday the whole staff would end up in his store, spending our paychecks. You’d see everyone there - Dan Clowes and Adrian Tomine, any visiting artists would end up there.. Comic Relief is like Mecca for nerds. He’d put a signing together for you a the drop of a hat - he did that for Image, and once he even did it over a weekend when Ellis was in town, but also for the small guys - kids with their first books and old timers alike. He was just so generous and giving like that, y’know? He’d buy tons of mini-comics from struggling artists, getting them into stores for the first time, and never acting like they were any less important than any of the books from the Big Two. I remember how I felt when he bought my first ashcan, how important he made that feel. And later, he would sing my praises to anyone who would listen - one of the last times I saw him, he introduced me to one of his customers as “the very talented Laurenn McCubbin”. And then, ever the salesman, he said “Have you seen RENT GIRL? Here it is right here. Take a look at that! And, if you like that, you should check out some of the other work she has done…” That poor sucker never stood a chance. But no matter who you were, Rory would talk to you for hours, on any subject you could imagine. Comics, sure. Or beer and how to brew it, whiskey and how best to drink it, cooking, politics… he was an excellent conversationalist. He would just stand outside of his store on University for hours at a time, chatting away with his smokes in one hand and the ever present Giant Cup Of Coffee in the other.
I was talking to my friend Dan about how something should be named after him. Like a scholarship, or a grant for new artists. Or just a really good whiskey-based coffee drink. Something to remember him by, you know?
I regret that I never told Rory how important he was to me, how much his encouragement meant to me. I regret that I never told him how much he meant to all of us.
Goodnight, Rory Root. And thank you, so very much.

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