RIP Chris Rush
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Posted on Feb. 11, 2016, 11:41 a.m. by AgentGreen
One of the first MTG artists has passed away
KIngWiggins says... #3
Three of the most iconic cards I can think of: Black Lotus, Lightning Bolt, Brainstorm ...sad day.
February 11, 2016 12:43 p.m.
One of the most iconic artists passed away :s
He literally was there when the game was released. He made the MtG logo and the mana symbols.
Respct for a man that mastered the art of simplicity. He embodied the old style of drawing before the digital era entered the scene.
Peace sir! You will be missed, but your iconic art won't be forgotten...
February 11, 2016 2:11 p.m.
Serendipitous_Hummingbird says... #5
Oh my god.
Couldn't we have lost Harold McNeil instead?
Seriously, I know it sounds senseless, but we'd all prefer if the Neo-Nazi died before the guy who designed the mana symbols.
February 11, 2016 2:58 p.m.
Serendipitous_Hummingbird I could spend 500 comments saying how completely horrible and asanine it is to say such things like that but in the interest of not developing carpal tunnel I'll just say thats extremely ridiculous to say.
February 11, 2016 4:09 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #7
I stopped by his booth at the Legacy GP in Edison NJ a while ago and got to ask him about something my brother and I have been wondering about for a long time. There's a certain shade of orange (as well as some related reds and yellows) that shows up a lot in his work. Was there anything special or otherwise significant about it? His answer was that not only did it really make the lighting and other aspects of the art pop, but the physical properties of the paint made it really enjoyable to work with. I had never considered something like that and I thought it was really cool.
February 11, 2016 4:43 p.m.
Serendipitous_Hummingbird says... #8
It is a terrible thing to say, and has less to do with Rush and more to do with McNeil.
People die. That's the sad fact of life. And given that we all die in the end, what makes it so appalling to say that I hope the good ones outlive the bad?
Human life has inherent value, but I do believe that an individual's worth should be measured in that individual's contributions.
By this measure, and you can feel free to disagree, I believe Christopher Rush, a man who I know very little about, was a more valuable human being than Harold Arthur McNeil.
With all this in mind, perhaps I should rephrase my earlier statement.
I do not wish death upon anyone. But if I was forced to choose which MTG artist would die first, knowing that all will die eventually, I would have no problem selecting McNeil. He has contributed to the world, not to magic, but to the world, in significantly more detrimental ways than any other magic artist.
His work is the work of hate. It comes from the soul of a man who is in desperate need of psychiatric help. It's pretty clear if you look at his work that he suffers from severe depression. Yet his work is that of hate. Even though it is clearly borne out of deep personal agony, it still propagates the kind of bigotry and violence that is undeniably harmful to human society.
Regardless of whether or not I offended you or anyone else, I apologize. Not for my intention, but for my timing. Ultimately I should have refrained from comparing the value of a dead man's life to the value of a living one's. That was in poor taste, to say the least.
The complicated legacy of Mr. McNeil and the comparisons it invites has no place in a thread to mark the passing of anther life.
I should have kept the philosophical questions out of this and merely noting my sadness.
When Mr. McNeil passes, hopefully far into the future, and after he has found help that eases his pain, we can have this conversation.
I am sorry, really, I am. This was neither the time nor place for this discussion. I apologize to you, to anyone else reading, and to those who personally knew Mr. Rush, who are mourning not the loss of an artist but the loss of a loved one. I apologize from detailing this conversation, and I apologize for detracting from the communal grieving that allows us to process loss and move forward.
February 11, 2016 5:56 p.m.
Unforgivn_II says... #9
Well, hold onto anything signed by him. You all know the saying of artists and their popularity after death
February 11, 2016 6:04 p.m.
KillDatBUG says... #10
What the fuck am I reading, Serendipitous_Hummingbird? Are you saying that he deserves to die because his work depicts violence?
February 11, 2016 7:43 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #11
Harold McNeill is an admitted racist and neo-Nazi, and you need to please stop fucking talking about him in this thread.
February 11, 2016 7:57 p.m. Edited.
InfiniteParadoX says... #12
Serendipitous_Hummingbird He may have had differing opinions than yours, but this is a thread about an artist, a different one for that fact. And anyway McNeil is a good artist, regardless on what you think about his ideology.
February 11, 2016 8:01 p.m.
I wish I could have met him, but life happens too quickly.
clayperce says... #2
Bummer.
Lots of amazing and iconic cards by that guy ...
February 11, 2016 11:54 a.m.