was shocked and saddened to learn about the untimely death of my ex colleague, friend and fellow inker of paper mister Dave Cripps earlier this month.

Dave was responsible for probably about 98% of the comments I’ve had on this site over the years. I first worked with Dave at a medium sized printing outfit in one of the darker edges of Birminghams Jewelry Quarter in the early 00’s. He beavered away creating quality advertisements for some of the Midlands premier autodealers and I knocked up the websites for them. I left the job there after a few years but Dave stayed and we kept loosely in touch through the Internet, and mostly, through the comment section of our respective corners of the web.

His comments were always left under the ‘Webaz**t’ moniker. The origins of this were in it being one of the many names thought up for a new venture. I can’t remember whether it was Dave or Stewart who came up with the name now, either way it was perhaps one of the less sensible ones at the time, although we ended up with ‘Webtropolis’ which I think was my idea, so thats not saying much. Who knows, if we’d gone with Webaz**t we could be all be millionaires!

Such as it was Webaz**t took on a life of its own, always a keyword for poor or over priced services and all that is bad in the design world. Several small projects involving Dave and the Webaz**t ‘brand’ popped up over the years, I’ve collated a few of them below so at least I’ll know where they are;

Daves ‘quality’ Box – the recycling box from Daves desk, which we listed and sold on ebay for all of about £3.50 in 2003. We dutifully decided Dave should receive the profit from the sale, less listing fees, as he was now without a box to collect his recyclable paperwork in. I think the money was still sat on his desk when I left the company two years later.

Cripps in Space [Flash adventure game] – Play as Daves alter ego in a badly hacked together text based adventure game, familiar to anyone with a zx spectrum in 1984.

Webaz**t Customer Support – the desk smashing angry computer guy was and early Internet meme, we all thought it resembled Dave with his corner desk setting so…

The Company Stapler on Daves holidays I just found this photo Dave emailed me, funnily enough I was in Barmouth last year and the Carousel Cafe still lacks a letter on its signage.

A very OTT under construction screen in Flash.

About Webaz**t – A page Dave put together himself which probably sums up the company ethos about the best.

I can’t really take it in that when I make a post I won’t have a witty/random/sarcastic/funny comment appear a few days later. It was a pleasure to know Dave and I’m sure going to miss him and his thoughts.

You can take a look at some of Daves drawings and paintings at his page on Elfwood.

Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die indeed my good friend.