Happydale #1 page 15

I haven't written much about Happydale. It was Seth's first comic book. Did I tell how it came about?
Seth was in Japan teaching English, but always working on his art. He met Andrew Dabb on the internet. But I'll just post what Andrew himself wrote about Seth after he heard that Seth had died.
These are Andrew's words:
I first met Seth in 1996 online via Hydraski’s Cesspool, a website that showcased aspiring comic creators' work. He and I started talking, got along well, and decided to do a book together. That book would eventually come out through Vertigo as Happydale: Devils in the Desert.
A little backstory: Based on an initial 8 page short and a basic pitch, Happydale was first accepted by Jim Valentino’s Non-Line (a division of Image which at that time was publishing indy stuff, Brian Wood’s Channel Zero being the most prominent)…which promptly collapsed a few months after we’d signed our contracts. But instead of giving up, or taking our little 8 page pitch around to publishers again (my plan), Seth decided to quit his job, draw all of Happydale (130+ pages) and try to sell it as a complete package. The end result was that a year later we had a publishing deal at Vertigo based pretty much entirely on Seth’s art and his incredibly cool, gracious personality. Not to mention his work ethic; for one panel in Happydale, which showed the undercarriage of a truck, I can remember him telling me how he had actually spent a few hours laying under a truck and sketching. It was that kind of dedication and eye for detail that made Seth stand out.
After Happydale, Seth went on to bigger and better things that allowed him to use his myriad of skills, like Green Lantern: Willworld, and Vertigo Pop: Tokyo. Books which firmly established him, in my opinion, as one of the ten best comic book artists working today. The fact that we won’t get to see what he would have done 5 or 10 years from now is a huge loss. Comics have very few visionaries; Seth was one and to lose him is a blow to the entire medium. In time, I think more and more people will realize that.
Seth was a good friend, an amazing artist, and one of the most charismatic, upbeat, positive people I’ve ever known. We hadn’t talked much in the last few years, but every time we did I enjoyed it immensely. In a very real way, I owe him my career, and so to see him gone at such a young age is a blow on a level I can’t quite describe in words. I can only offer my condolences to his family, especially his wife and young son, and hope that Seth will be remembered as the truly unique talent he so obviously was.

Seth's birthday party

On July 22, Seth's birthday, we are having a birthday party for him at the Coronado Library. We will celebrate his life, the exhibiton of his work at the library, and his artwork in general. The party is from 7 to 9 PM in the Winn Room of the library. All are invited.

July 22 is a Tuesday, the day before people start coming to Comic Con. So anyone who can come to town a day early, come on down! We want to see you!

Artist, age 17

Seth would be horrified that I am posting this for the world to see, but it shows that he saw himself as an artist even in high school. I am not sure what he did with this page (standard notebook size paper), or what he planned to do. He was never shy about selling himself, so it is possible that he actually sent it out to potential contacts.
There was someone the summer after he graduated from high school who asked him to design a logo for a new shoe, I think, or maybe some other article of clothing. The name had something to do with "gnu", but I don't recall what it was. He did three designs, all of them quite witty and interesting as I remember, and sent them off, but never heard back at all. That small setback did not bother him at all. He knew that he could continue to improve, and that he WOULD be a comic book artist.

Ff/Iron Man: Big in Japan 4 last page

Seth's e-mail to his editors says, "So at the end Cory yells, 'Cut, that's a wrap!'
"I hope I got in the ballpark with your guys faces. Make sure Chris colors your hair the right color. Mine is easy.
"Peace. Seth"
On the last page the inside-out apocalypse beast speeds out into the universe, and the pore cannon spits the germinal moloid out into space to wait for another organism somewhere to come by to inhabit. (I guess that is what is happening.) Anyway, Noah the baby moloid, or moloid egg, or something, looks happy.
But the story ending is pretty much beside the point. The monsters were the story, and they have done their song and dance. The interest in this page is entirely the image in the lower half, of the editor Cory Sedlmeier, Seth, Zeb Wells the writer, and Chris Chuckry the colorist, along with the fictional stars of the story and a squad of moloids in celebration mode.
Seth never felt that he was very good at portraits, though he could draw someone who was instantly recognizable. His self-portraits are always spot on, and the times that he included members of his family in his books, they are easy to catch.
This picture is particularly poignant coming at the end of this book, where it serves as his public epitaph.

Ff/Iron Man: Big in Japan 4 page 22

So this is the postscript, as in movies where they say after the story has finished, "John Dewlick joined the Foreign Legion and spent the next 7 years chasing shadows through the desert. He died of a rat bite," ...and so forth. This page, whoever's idea it was, Zeb Wells, or Seth, it is that same combination of metaphysical pondering and goofiness that keeps the readers scratching their heads all the way through.
The moloids are humanoid virus cells. So in the center frame, which is the one and only spot where we see the world they live in, it does appear to be the inside of some organism.
In the bottom frame, the dialogue says, "Load the pore cannon." Now there is a concept that maybe some artists would look at and write back with, "And just what do you mean for me to do with THAT?" But in my mind there is no doubt that Zeb just said, "Well, let's see what he comes up with for a pore cannon." In one of the interviews with him about this book, Zeb said, "I wanted to see if I could outcrazy Seth. I couldn't."

Ff/Iron Man: Big in Japan 4 page 21

The antepenultimate page (It's not often you get to use a word like that. If you've got it, you might as well use it.)

Things are finally calm. It is so calm that the only panel with background is the one where Mole Man is grieving over the loss of his moloids (alligator tears, it would seem to me, as he did not consider them worthy of being named--they were evidently his slaves). This may be one of the most plain and simple pages that Seth did, ever. After such a riot of action, counter action, and counter-counter action, finally here the crisis is resolved, the characters are relaxed, and the lack of background is just another sign of the fact that the story is over except for cleaning up.

But simple and calm does not mean thoughtless. Since the team worked together, all of them contributing skills and effort, each of them is shown in the top panels, side by side. But where they could have been lined up like actors taking a bow at the end of the performance, Seth gives them some action poses, different points of view, and in varied distances from the viewer. It's more subtle, more interesting, and tells more of a story.

The large close-up of Mole Man in the bottom panel leads to the postscript on the next page.

Seth's workspace

This is the photo that is visible in the picture from the Library exhibition, of Seth's workspace in Japan. He had a stool that he sat on, which he moved from the drawing table on the right to the computer on the left. There are a few books on the shelves next to the table, but he had left the greater part of his books here with me. He decided that he no longer wanted to use references, but to draw entirely from his imagination. Earlier he had used reference material to help with clothing styles, architectural styles, mechanical things, and so on, but by the time he had this space, he knew how things worked well enough for accuracy, and he didn't want crutches for his imagination.