Another old comics acquaintance has passed, and though I hadn’t spoken to her for decades, the world still seems a little smaller today.

It’s being reported that Michelle Wrightson has died suddenly, apparently of natural causes. And though I did know her last by that name, I first became acquainted with her when she was Michelle Brand, and not in the flesh, but rather through her groundbreaking underground comics work.

This is how I remember her looking when we finally did meet, as seen in a photo of her and her husband Roger Brand taken by Patrick Rosenkranz.

My acquaintance with her work goes back just about as far as my connection with organized comics fandom itself. I went to my first convention at age 15 in July 1970, which was the same month the all-women’s underground It Ain’t Me Babe was published, featuring Michelle’s “Tirade Funnies.” I can’t say for sure that I bought my copy at that first con, but as I did buy other undergrounds such as Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary that weekend, it was either then or shortly thereafter.

You can read more on that important comic at Scans_Daily, and over the next week, I’m sure you’ll be seeing write-ups about Michelle from people who were actually an active part of her life through the years, reminiscences which will be far more enlightening than these few words from someone like me who was was but an acquaintance and only knew her when I still worked in comics and lived in New York during the ’80s.

But having reread “Tirade Funnies” again and been taken by the feeling that it could have (unfortunately) been created yesterday, it seemed worth sharing here, so that you, too, would pause to remember Michelle, even if just for a moment.