Bill Kunkel - the Game Doctor - Dead at 61
It's been a strange weekend. What seemed a toothache turned out to be a mouth pimple.
What seemed like a missed voicemail message turned out to be a big hole in my heart.
We were trying to set up a conference call to talk about a project long in the making. A call that won't ever happen: My friend Bill Kunkel died yesterday.
Because he was such a fine writer, it's intimidating to write about him.
I met Bill because I'd met Barry Friedman and, with Barry involved in my Internet company, landed in Las Vegas with a bunch of Barry's old and new friends in 2000 at a dinner high above the city...and just clicked with Bill. Smart, articulate, funny, and the real deal.
I am not a gamer. I'm not into professional wrestling. It's only as time passed that I became even remotely aware of Bill's influence on both genres. And Bill was a cartoonist? Really?
Bill was one of my few true friends. That's what I know, value, and will remember.
I'm shocked, sad, stunned...and remembering a guy who really made me LMAO.
RIP I miss you already.
-g
