The owner of Comic Relief, Rory Root, died recently following complications from hernia surgery. I consider this significant because I spent 2-3 hours every week in that store while I was a student at Berkeley, and I still consider it to be my "go-to" comic book store. I also like to stop by and say hi every time I'm at Comic-Con.

And now the big friendly hippie who liked to share a laugh or two with the Friday crew is gone. An industry mourns one of its biggest supporters.

Comic Relief won't go the way of Cody's or the Bearcade - his legacy is far too strong and the store itself is still doing pretty well for itself. But it won't be the same without Rory there every Friday making jokes with us.