Mark Lombardi

This creator of "narrative structures" sounds like a kindred spirit. His drawings of nefarious corporate/political relationships are beautiful in and of themselves, but also speak to his obsessive need to understand the underlying relationships of things and people.

I found this quote particularly poignant:

"Mark was obviously very obsessive," says Maslon.

"About his work, his career, our relationship. I was involved with him for a year, so I was just getting to know him and really found out a lot more about him after his death. So, with many limitations, I can tell you what I observed. Mark had a lot of dichotomies. Maybe one of them was that he craved a very orderly, safe, and certain environment, but certainly flirted with danger in his work. He completely cut himself off from the outside world when he worked, and he worked intensively for long hours, often not going out or talking to people for two or three days.…He would also fall into deep depressions, but he didn't show them to me—at least not in any obvious way. He would tell me, though, that he had been depressed."

Sigh. Sadly, he hanged himself in 2000, just as his star was rising.

(via the inestimable xblog)