Greetings fans Skunkworks Anthropomorphic Modelling Agency;
Like Jim, I get busy with Real Life and don't check the group on a daily basis; subsequently I had quite a shock this morning when I logged into the group and found lots of posts pending approval, some of which give clear indication that James Michael Hardiman does appear to have died.
Reading the obituary
http://barnesfamilyfunerals.com/obituaries/view/307
from what I know of Jim, this is correct with no anomalies other than I was a little surprised that he passed away at home - it could have been he was sicker than he thought (or let on) and the illness caught up with him before he was able to go 'round two' for transplants.
As opposed to everyone just giving condolensces for Jim and his family, eceteras, tell us what James Michael Hardiman did for you - what did he inspire, what enjoyment did he give, what did you like best???
I never met Jim in person, though We did exchange mails quite a few times. We were similar in sometimes scary ways! We both ride and love working on motorcycles, we both draw and have a 'sick' sense of humour and wild imagination. We both wrote stories, play musical instruments and were even very similar age, height and weight; though I'm lucky not to be afflicted with diabetes.
Not too long ago (mid April) Jim was concerned regarding the future of the group - here is an extract from his email.
>I've been dwelling on this for the past few months, and with the recent announcement of Windows XP (and all the programs that work with it) becoming outdated and lacking support after July of 2015, I was curious about your input on what to do.
>
>Would you still want to moderate the group? You and I are the only ones left to do that, and I'll probably be dropping my FA, IB, Weasyl, and e-mail accounts by next summer. By all appearances, I would cease to "exist" for the online community, but I'm not about to go out and drop several thousand dollars on hardware and software just to play "catch-up". I'm getting too old for that shit, and my life is too short to bother with stuff like that.
>
>No rush or anything, but let me know your input on this.
>
>--Jim
>
This sounded like Jim was probably already in 'wrap up' mode back in April; I said I would continue to run the group, but I'm not him and can only answer questions from what I know of the work via this group. I advised that going forward the internet would be a great way to reach and continue to contact fans, but it could be this was over-reaching the plan. In good news, most answers can be found in the archives, but it a pity
http://www.skunked.com/ is only a construction page - it could have at least survived till the listing ran out otherwise.
It has been a long journey, this Skunkworks group - Founded 28 September 2001, I joined in early 2002. A month short of an ill-fated 13 years, with 9396 members who've stopped by to enjoy the art.
Jim inspired me to take up drawing and because of launching that interest, I took up airbrushing, learnt cartoon drawing and met many good people. The group gave me something to work for with stories and other things with days where it felt maybe it was all a waste of time; helped me survive days in 'cubeville' as well.
James Michael Hardiman - we will miss you and your amazing worlds.
Scrapper, Black Dragon, SAMA Moderator, it has been an honour to serve.
Received on Mon Sep 08 2014 - 01:16:18 CDT