Two years ago we lost the man who, from Day One, had been the Big Voice associated with all of my podcasts. The Fabulous Bill Barrett is a legendary radio figure in the part of the U.S. where I live and his vocal talent, as good as anyone, anywhere, was a key part of the human input that created the recipe for our success.

To understand the difference something like this made, you have to recall what podcasting sounded like in 2005. It was nothing like it is today. The vast majority of offerings back then were beyond amateur. College dorm room stuff. And then you click on our podcasts and the first voice you hear is a guy who could be the number one announcer in New York if he'd wanted to live there. It really made us stand out.

The art and graphics associated with our shows were the same way. The Fabulous Nick Lay joined us in 2006 and added a talent for creating art and imagery and website graphics that looked entirely different from anything else in podcasting. It still looks unlike anything else in podcasting. Almost twenty years later.

Nick Lay passed away Friday September 20^th.

Nick was only 43. I did the math and looking back on it, only now realize just how much of a young dude this guy was when we first started working together. It didn't seem that way at the time. But then again, I was almost twenty years younger myself. You don't expect your friend to die at 43 and the whole thing has caught me completely off guard.

Of course, my loss is nothing compared to his family and loved ones back in his home country of Canada. Nick had a lot of those. I was only one part of Nick's life. They were his whole life. So I feel for them. And I feel for him. There was no time for goodbyes.

But there is good news. He made art. Art outlives the artist. Nick's gift (at least one of them) is preserved in digital stone. It's strange to think about, but it will likely be around, in some retrievable form or another, for a very long time. His creative contribution to the universe continues to enthrall and inspire into the far-flung future. Isn't that what every artists hopes for? He left his mark.

Nick was so much more artistically than what he did for us. When I met him I think he was making movie posters or something. Even in his early 20s he was that good. Just as Bill did, he elevated our look and professionalism to a level rare in early podcasting. And he had the creative flexibility to adapt to any approach. His range was vast and he could suss out whatever vibe, look or approach was needed to best fit the subject. He had many styles.

The one we had for Hardcore History was one hammered out over untold hours of phone calls and emails between us, pulling and tugging and redoing and reshaping each piece of art produced. I am not easy to work with, have very strong feelings about how things are represented and I am very persnickety about my own stuff. I am sure Nick must have been exasperated on many occasions. I did the same to Bill Barrett. Both guys were absolutely beautiful in dealing with my interference. And they both produced genius results.

At first Nick did the art for our website, because that's where we had a need for graphics. The Fabulous Steve Lopez had done the “Angry Eyes” art before Nick arrived, but everything else after that was his. Early on, the individual Hardcore History shows didn't have their own individual covers yet (the “album art” as we call it). This idea hadn't occurred to any of us (I am not even sure if anyone in podcasting did that yet). Then one day, and I don't remember why, Nick came up with art for the Ghosts of the Ostfront series. It really emerged as a fully formed design, and I don't remember having any input into the concept at all. It was an awesome representation of that entire series in a single visual impression. I have a blown up version of it in my office.

I don't remember how we decided to create another unique piece of art for a show but I think Punic Nightmares was the next one we did.

Like Ostfront, it was a single piece of art for the entire saga (rather than each show having it's own unique album art). After that, I think we were all hooked on the idea of each show having its own individual cover art, regardless of the fact that it seemed like a frightful financial indulgence for anyone in the early world of podcasting. You only had to look at the work to realize it was worth it.

Starting with Wrath of the Khans (I think) we began to give every show in a series its own album art too. Nick came up with the idea to have a visual style that would be present in all the art for a given series that linked them together. In Khans it was the clean black background and the popping colors.

In Blueprint for Armageddon it was the foggy blue hue in each show's art.

In Supernova in the East it was the color scheme.

The only series where that approach wasn't used was Kings of Kings. We had a last minute crisis over the art for the first show in the series and had to use a backup design, which changed everything Nick had planned. But it accidentally resulted in one of my very favorite covers.

Since we were ditching our original plan I had suggested a design for the second show's album art based on a style used in Greek pottery and asked Nick for something which visually represented what happens in the story. He came up with this masterpiece:

And I will never forget the fun we had making the Painfotainment cover art. That show was so dark and bizarre that trying to portray the subject matter in visual form took both of us into uncharted artistic waters. Nick was always great about the small details in the background and planting little easter eggs for eagle-eyed listeners to find delighted him.

I'm especially sad he won't be here to do the rest of the Alexander epic. He had only completed the art for the first show before he passed. We had talked forever about the day that we would get to this series, as we both knew it was always on the “must do” list. I never dreamed he wouldn't be here. The full reality of what this means for us is only dawning on me slowly. I have yet to fully absorb it.

This was our friend Nick. We already miss him terribly. I don't know what we will do without him. But we aren't the only ones thinking that.

Love to his family.