R.I.P. Danno

© 2009 - Dan Baker / Tohoscope

With a great deal of sadness I regret to announce that our co-founder Dan Baker has passed.

Dan was a well-traveled and prolific underground cartoonist and graphic artist, whose level of energy and devotion to his craft was almost always extraordinary.  He is familiar to some as "Tohoscope", a handle which he had used for the better part of thirty years, and under which dozens of web-based audio and video albums have been indexed.

In the years since helping to found Psychommu Gaijin in 1992, Dan had added his illustrations and layout skills to countless limited edition print fanzines as well as web-based projects since the late 1990s -- at which point he added audio and video production to his repertoire.

The tireless comic illustrator and zine-maker was a longtime co-conspirator in "Anime Hell" and its myriad offshoot of convention-based reality tweaking and audio-visual awesomeness.  To this end his prolific output was put to good use in blowing minds and tweaking video decks, and long may it filter-out into the great, electronic consciousness of the Net!

But it wasn't just his artistic talents.  Indeed, to his many friends (who knew him affectionately as "Danno") he was a steadfast and true companion, always quick with a laugh or well-timed comedic interjection. 

His influence on all of us is absolutely undeniable, which is why it is so hard to sum-up his life completely and so shortly in the wake of his passing, as well. 

I will doubtless collect my thoughts to add her, on our rather more-active Facebook wall...  or perhaps even in a fanzine?  Danno would've wanted that, I think ;)

Farewell and Godspeed, old friend!  I hope that we shall meet again.

- David Van Cleve