I first "met" Fred Kim in the inaugural online beginners writing class for Comics Experience in 2009. I put the word "met" in quotes because it was not a face to face meeting. Rather, my first introduction to this extraordinarily gifted man was through a program known as WebX. Each week, I, along with 13 other students, would log on and see the faces of my fellow creators as Andy Schmidt showed us the secret to writing comics and help us to craft our first "professional" comic book story.
Now, one would think it would be hard to get to know someone by simply meeting once a week through a two inch video window. Not so. This is because we were not simply an anonymous group of strangers passively listening to lectures. Instead, we all poured our hearts and souls into the class. Each week, both on and off line, we shared our work in process and carefully critiqued each other's stories. Over the class, we also began to reveal ourselves and share our dreams. Thinking back, I think it’s fair to say that our collective goal was to become the future of comics, of literature, and, on our bolder days, of pop culture, itself. Fred Kim embodied this dream and understood what was necessary to get there. By the time we had taken the class together, Fred had already had his story, "Forgotten Light," published in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds VII and won awards for teleplays and screenplays. I had previously read Fred’s amazing Borg story before we met in that first class and have to admit I was a little intimidated.
Fred’s story in class was called a science fiction story called “Bugged”. Over the weeks, Fred fleshed out the characters, the concepts, and finally the story that could have been the concept for a television show. When the class was over, we decided to collect our stories into a comic called Tales from the Comics Experience (this practice that has been repeated by subsequent writing classes). Fred’s bio in Tales states that he was “waiting for his Big Break, both in Comics and in movies.” That wasn’t really true. Fred was not simply waiting, he was working to improve his writing and to make inroads in Hollywood.
I finally met Fred face to face over dinner during the 2010 San Diego Comic Con. We continued that tradition every year I was able to attend. On that trip, I also discovered that, in addition to being a talented and gifted writer, he was also an amazing person. I travel a lot for my day job and had depositions in Los Angeles the week before and after the convention. So, I flew out to LA, took a train to San Diego Comic Con, with a hotel in Mission Valley, and then took a train back to LA Sunday afternoon. Amidst the costumes, the exhibitions, and the pageantry, I somehow managed to leave my garment bag with all of my suits in that Mission Valley hotel room. Fred, who had stayed an extra night, was kind enough to volunteer to pick up my bag and deliver it to me in my hotel in Universal City. He drove miles out of his way in California traffic to deliver a luggage to a person he had only just met. That is the kind of person Fred was.
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After that first class, a small group of us continued writing together as Elevator Pitch Press. Fred not only wrote what many considered one of the best stories in the book, “The Dead & Endless Wastes,” for our Great Zombies in History graphic novel but was instrumental in co-editing the graphic novel released by McFarland Press. All the while, Fred pursued his Hollywood dreams with his work on Frankenstein, MD. He was doing what he loved and succeeding. This all ended when Fred collapsed during his writing group as a result of an aneurism and was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Hospital. He passed on June 13, 2016, at 5:30 pm.
I found out about his collapse from a group text that went to the Elevator Pitch Press writing group. For hours, we texted each other about the incident. And despite the fact that we had collectively written thousands of pages of stories about aliens, superheroes, and monsters, for the first time, we simply couldn’t find the words to express how we felt.
Having had some time to process it, part of me thinks that Fred died at a writer’s group doing what he loved, part of me thinks that the world lost a great writer and we will never see what could have been. We should all be inspired by this to pursue what we love because you never know when it will all end. We should also treasure those around us for the same reason. Fred did this without abandon and I would like to believe that he would have had no regrets.
But, really, if I’m being honest with myself, I just miss my friend. The friend who was nice enough to drive me my suit. The friend that I now wish I had kept closer ties with than the occasional emails and annual dinners at San Diego Comic Con. The friend that was taken far too soon.
Rest in peace Fred Kim. You will be missed.
Having had some time to process it, part of me thinks that Fred died at a writer’s group doing what he loved, part of me thinks that the world lost a great writer and we will never see what could have been. We should all be inspired by this to pursue what we love because you never know when it will all end. We should also treasure those around us for the same reason. Fred did this without abandon and I would like to believe that he would have had no regrets.
But, really, if I’m being honest with myself, I just miss my friend. The friend who was nice enough to drive me my suit. The friend that I now wish I had kept closer ties with than the occasional emails and annual dinners at San Diego Comic Con. The friend that was taken far too soon.
Rest in peace Fred Kim. You will be missed.
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