Dan Provost (1965-2025)

 

Yesterday was the memorial service for a friend that I have known since high school. It was tough. I'm glad that there were many people there, though. And there were many stories and conversations with some that I hadn't seen in a while. I suppose that is how these things go. But, I was appreciative of all that.

I've always thought that Dan and I had an interesting friendship timeline. Met in a 10th grade drawing class. I'm almost certain that he thought me annoying (somehow this makes me smile) and what made me somewhat tolerable in his eyes was our mutual interest in all things Heavy Metal Magazine; Möebius, Druillet, Caza, etc. I think that he was surprised that I knew just who those guys were. Heck, outside of a few closer classmates, I didn't know anyone else who knew who they were. That and similar pop culture interests, a small group of us clicked together. We had similar skill sets as artists, similar interests in movies, music and such. Art classes were definitely interesting and I was beginning to find my people.

After high school, that same group spent our summers at a friend's cottage, swimming canoeing (getting pulled over in a canoe...), bbq-ing, etc. When that faded away for awhile, we began playing paintball in the woods at various places. Surprisingly and maybe not so surprisingly, Dan joined us. Needless to say, fun was had. We did that for a few years. Then we lost contact with one another for about ten years, or so.

When I quit my day job to become a freelance illustrator and started to do the comic con circuit I met a few people that cosplayed in the 501st, the Star Wars aficionados. There was Dan dressed as a tie fighter pilot. So, back in the fold. We would see each other quite a bit after that.

Below is a contour (not a blind one!) drawing that I did of Dan in that before mentioned drawing class.

Years ago, I was thinking up an idea for a comic and wanted to challenge myself with that. So, my idea was, could I create a story with characters based on people that I know or knew then involving place that I've been. And I do have a character in my comic Second Star based on Dan. Some of the characters are similar in looks to the actual people, some are based on personalities, but Dan's came out a little different. For some reason, I made him short. I have no idea as to why I did this. The character's name? Deepo Prost and you can see him at the top of this post. Why Deepo Post, you might ask. Well, I mentioned Moebius earlier and Deepo was the name of the pterodactyl type bird in The Incal by Moebius. And Prost is just a redaction, or reduction of Dan's last name. Deepo's hat is from Moebius, as well. The outfit that Deepo is wearing is based on a character from the animated Star Wars series, The Clone Wars, Tan Divo. I don't know if anyone else saw Dan in Divo, but I sure did. He somewhat looks like him, sounds like him and the mannerisms were all there.My first thoughts upon seeing that episode, were that of 'do they know Dan?!!' I sure hope that someone else agrees with that! The orange shoes? Again, no idea. Sometimes, I just do things just to see what sticks. 

Here's a couple of panels from issue #2 of Second Star...

I'm currently working on issue #3 and Deepo will be there, as well.

RIP, Dan. Unique, funny and smart.