Since Roger Ebert’s unfortunate death last week the interwebs have been flooded with obits/remembrances/tributes. I know it’s not a competition, but the fact is that nothing captured the flavor of the man and moved me as much as this one, on ComicMix.Com:
Roger Ebert, Behind The Screen
by Mike Gold
The multitude of Roger Ebert obituaries were wrong. I knew a different guy.
The Roger Ebert I knew was this kid fresh out of college who, after about a year at the Chicago Sun-Times, was pressed into service helping high school newspaper editors improve their craft. I was sports editor at the Niles High West Word, and the guy painstakingly yet affably showed me a slew of techniques that immediately improved my work, stuff that I use to this day, stuff that, as an editor, I share with others.