Bad things come in threes.

Friday, April 19, 2013 is the worst day Vorthos has had in years—maybe ever.

As a reminder, Vorthos cares really about two things: art and storyline.

Some notable events that fired all of us up were:

• TheWeatherlight Saga ending
• The Mending, allowing neowalkers to be created
• Phil Foglio no longer being used
• Rebecca Guay outcry
• Elimination of Magic printed novels
• Stopping the printing of comic books . . . the first time around
• Emmara, as of late

These are minor things, in the grand scheme of things, and are quite spaced out in time. Artists leave the game and come back. We had a major homecoming in Time Spiral, and long-time players loved it. Books cease to exist, but comics, short stories, and a Vorthos community emerges phoenix-like. Doug Chaffee passed away, and while that made me quite sad, many new art collectors came in and were excited to have a piece of his craft on his wall.

Perhaps I can express it succinctly. I survived childhood cancer, and it wasn’t apparent to me why that was important until I volunteered as a Gopher athlete at camp . . . with children . . . who had cancer. It’s much easier to be encouraging when you’ve lived through it. Hope matters more when it’s visceral. My silver lining just took a while longer to find.

Of course I had a Vikings cast from the missing piece of bone.

Why I wave my hand at them is that I see the outcries on forum message boards, between people, and at conventions. Chicken Little, the sky isn’t falling.

As you know, I like mixing chocolate and peanut butter to make a synergy of flavor. Visual storytelling makes a good artwork move from zero, ticking up to being worth a thousand words. We here at GatheringMagic like a holistic view of this game, whereas you might hit tilt or have your god crew on a card. Not all days are good; some days are drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth.

Today, we made a cocktail out of terrible experience—and drank it thrice:

Magic Creative Director Position Eliminated

Brady Dommermuth wrote in his “Ask Brady” thread on the mothership forum that his position was eliminated:

I’m an eternal skeptic, Thomas-like even, so I went around the web to confirm this. His LinkedIn was already changed to ending his position on 4/2013. His twitter account @MTGBrady is shut down.

A ton of forum posts and tweets emerged shortly after the announcement. I know because I was online. It wasn’t good because people didn’t really know what he did.

Vorthos knew.

Now, I understand that design is the pretty girl at the prom. Mark Rosewater has Tumblrs, podcasts, and wire with string that people to ping him, but flavor and storyline? Those are Brady issues. Those are Vorthos matters. Mark works on them, hell, even makes things, but Brady is the lightning rod for that party.

Please notice that Brady was the only creative staffer who was on Twitter. The whole team doesn’t have touch points because, well, Brady just handled it. They don’t have to spend their time working with us, making forum continuity explanations or ghost canon. The work speaks for itself, and when follow-ups are needed, Brady took the soap box.

I’m not sure who will handle this now.

Brady, standing next to a very small man

If you have never met up with Brady, he’s a brilliant man.

He dominates a conversation that’s in his realm because he has thought of why Chandra isn’t a deep enough a character or how examples of how the ret con was handled to start Scars of Mirrodin. He knows. He always knew. There are very few Magic-related ideas he doesn’t think of. I guarantee you he knows about Emmara and is just as frustrated.

The man created the guilds of Ravnica. His work is so ingrained that we now take it for granted—Brady didn’t simply write a weekly column. I recall many Sunday evenings of him being at the office and quipping on his Facebook feed about working late.

Brady gave me my first break into this industry, writing a little flavor text for them. I quickly learned that I was more comfortable with art rather than with words, and I started working for another gaming company as an art director.

Timing was off for me to join as an intern or to even push for a role to get there. I was still in graduate school and felt compelled to finish. During all correspondence, I always felt as though he was just in the right role.

I hope he can find the next trail to blaze ahead soon. There are a ton of companies in Seattle that I’m sure would be delighted to pick him up.

Quinton Hoover Passes Away

From Brady, we move to Quinton. These are both long-time Magic names and pillars of their communities. To explain more about Quinton, you have to learn a little about the current events that led to here.

A sad part of being a freelance artist in the gaming community is the often lack of health care options. Not enough of them choose to have supplemental coverage, Aflac or otherwise.

We had all heard that Quinton was having some health issues, but as the man was only forty-nine, surely he had his ups and downs but would always recover fully in no time at all. He often posted updates on how he was feeling. I had hopes for him that it’d be one of those old-man constant issues, like an old sports injury or something a bit off from a war. I immediately thought of this on Sunday, April 14.

Quinton had his roommate post a status update on Facebook stating this he was rushed to the emergency room.

I knew something was up. In all his previous postings, he posted for himself.

In college, I was on the College of Liberal Arts student board, and our president had a freak accident and passed away. The first post from the hospital was from a family member. Every time I now see someone else posting on a social media source, from Chris to Chaz Ebert to Quinton’s close family and friends, something is up. It’s out first detection in our hyper-digital world.

Quinton’s son then posted a eulogy on Saturday on his own Facebook page.

Jeff A. Menges, fellow Limited Edition Alpha MTG artist, and lead of the Gathering Kickstarter project, wrote on his company’s Facebook page:

Artists who began with us in 1993 are all over forty. We need to keep in mind that with the sheer age of our game, these things will happen. It’s a terrible shame, and I’m quite sad I never was able to meet him. The outpouring of support was incredible and shocked me. This is just a game, and it’s just art. Putting my Vorthos hat back on, yes, it is just art, but art can be incredibly emotional and moving. Quinton’s art representing our youth, our first forays into the game. The next time you see one of his works, the next Legacy game when you cast Hymn to Tourach, give Quinton a moment. He deserves it.

I have but one piece of insight for everyone. After working with Melba Chaffee, MTG artist Doug Chaffee’s widow, I suggest that you please give the family some time if you are looking to purchase a print or original artwork.

Magic Original Art Stolen

I’ll let the Facebook status of Daniel Chang spell out what happened:

As if I didn’t have to worry enough about with my backpack being stolen from under me at a Grand Prix, or forgetting to put a booster box in the trunk of my car, this hit is seriously reeling me.

Original art from Alpha/Beta and Arabian Nights has skyrocketed in the past year. Alphas now have a floor double what they used to, and pieces are being snapped up left and right. I hope this will be the last incident of this ever happening. We can’t put on an art exhibition if art goes missing.

Do not leave your art alone, not even for a minute. Plot out using a restroom and how you will protect your art from minute one at a Grand Prix or con on Friday, to Sunday evening.

Give the art to the front desk of a hotel if you must. They have safes they can absolutely use.

If you have no choice, bring it with you like Linus’s blanket into a restaurant.

For the art community and me, if you live in Vancouver/Seattle/Portland area, please be on high alert for this piece.

Check Craigslist.

Check your local shops.

Check pawn shops.

Let’s hope the thieves unload it quickly.

Having it thrown away or destroyed simply cannot happen anymore. There’ve been enough Alphas gone missing in action or misplaced. Serra Angel is simply gone. Don’t let another one go.

That day was turrible. Not the worst ever for me, but very much up there.

To Brady and Will, a big batch of karma I hope is coming. I’m sending good vibes your way.

To Quinton, I hope you can see the outpouring of love for you. Your work made us all very happy. You will be missed. Rest in peace.

- Mike