Tom Spurgeon

Thomas Martin Spurgeon (December 16, 1968 – November 13, 2019) was an American writer, historian, critic, and editor in the field of comics, notable for his five-year run as editor of The Comics Journal and his blog The Comics Reporter.

Early life Spurgeon was born on December 16, 1968, in Muncie, Indiana. He was one of three sons of Sandra "Sunny" McFarren and Wiley W. Spurgeon Jr. His mother was a senior manager in the health care industry, and his father was the executive editor of the sister newspapers The Muncie Star and The Muncie Evening Press, a role that included curating the newspapers' comics pages. and graduated with a BA in History and Politics in 1991. Under his tenure, the magazine expanded the scope of its coverage to more regularly include European comics, introducing an English-language readership to the new wave of publishing from France led by the group of cartoonists centered around L'Association. As well, Spurgeon's Journal was notable for the coverage it gave to burgeoning scenes of American comics makers like the Fort Thunder collective.

After leaving The Comics Journal, Spurgeon wrote the comic strip Wildwood with his childhood friend Dan Wright. The strip, initially launched as Bobo's Progress, was syndicated by King Features from 1999 to 2002 and ran in about 80 newspapers.

With Jordan Raphael, Spurgeon co-wrote the biography Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book (Chicago Review Press, 2003). He was also the coauthor of The Romita Legacy (Dynamite, 2011). The book was released, with references to Ellison omitted, in 2017.

In 2014, Spurgeon became the executive director of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, an annual free four-day celebration of cartooning and graphic novels in Columbus, Ohio.

Personal life Spurgeon described himself as "a big, fat guy", standing at six feet three inches tall and weighing at times over 400 pounds. In 2011, he underwent emergency surgery that placed The Comics Reporter website on hiatus. He wrote an essay about the experience. A year later, he posted a second essay detailing his change in perspective, lifestyle modifications, and significant weight loss following his surgery. In it, he explains, "I wasn't sick because I was overweight. The weight was a factor in my recovery...My desire to lose weight greatly intensified because of the new health realities I faced."

Spurgeon died on November 13, 2019, at age 50, in Columbus, Ohio. and 2013. The site was also awarded the UTNE Independent Press Award for arts and literature coverage in 2002. Spurgeon sat on the 2019 Ringo Awards Professional Jury.