I was very sad to hear that artist Adam Adamowicz has passed away.

He was a super-talented painter and conceptual artist and if you’re a fan of Skyrim and Fallout 3, you’ve seen his work.

I never met Adam but years ago, back in the early 1990s, I worked with him.

He was just starting out as a painter and I hired him to do a bunch of covers for various Malibu Comics imprints like Aircel and Adventure.

How did I find him? He found me, the old-fashioned, pre-internet way. He sent in some photos through the mail and I responded immediately.

I thought he was brilliant - he had a vivid, distinct style that I liked quite a bit. I gave him as much work as he wanted.

One of those things was Men In Black. I got him to do the painted covers to the second mini-series and if you look at the one at the top of the page, you can see that even in 1991 he was something to see. He painted all three covers.

I also had him do the covers to Alien Nation: The Skin Trade, a noir-ish 4-issue take on the sf movie/tv franchise that was written by Lowell Cunningham and illustrated by Leonard Kirk and Terry Pallot. I think Adam captured the sensibility of the story quite well.

Adam did great work. He always met a deadline. And he went on to a career that brought him a lot of acclaim and fans.

I only wish it had been longer.

[Artwork: Men In Black (top); Alien Nation: The Skin Trade (bottom)]