I regret to announce the death of John Speidel (1959-2012)

Received from Steven Scharff --

"..,I just received word on the passing of John Speidel (creator of "Kitty Malone").
"He passed away on February 15th at the age of 53. I found out about it when a letter I had sent to him was returned with a note written by his brother.
"His obituary is here: http://bit.ly/H80ACd
"My condolences to all."

(Steven Scharff)

John Speidel was a comics fan & cartoonist, who began to be active in the late 1970s, and had comic strips published in the bi-monthy tabloid newspaper "The Comics Buyer's Guide". One of his comics published there, "Kitty Malone", made a big splash for being a very lively adventure serial comic strip, in a 1930s cartooned setting. It had memorable funny-animal characters and a very 3D-noir style.

"Kitty Malone" also appeared in issues of the GraphXPress independent black & white comic, "Morphs", during the early 1980s, with comic strips in issues 1, 2, & 4. (And with a story character on the back cover of #3) http://www.comics.org/issue/371633/cover/4/ (Cover to Morphs #4 via the 'Grand Comics Database')

John did other comics stories (Chuck Melville mentions "Steppenwolf", also appearing in The Comics Buyer's Guide).
 
He was also a member of the ROWRBRAZZLE anthropomorphic apa (co-op zine) beginning in the 1980s, and contributed to an anthology with a shared setting, "The Furkindred".

I had contacted John in 2000 about reprinting some of his early "Kitty Malone" comics in the Spontoon Island hard-copy zine. He preferred to start up a new story! 8)  The Spontoon Island website has the start of that "Kitty Malone" adventure (which unfortunately remains unfinished) - http://spontoon.rootoon.com/SPwKMCnt.html

My condolences to his family, and to the others who enjoyed his work.

Aloha from the Spontoon Islands, Mr. Spiedel.