Jerry Nelson, Puppeteer (1934 - 2012)

Over the past five years, I have likened my comic to Sesame Street in that I've mixed human characters with talking "monsters", which in this case are a bunch of numbers. Also, it was a standard to strive for as well as a way to share my own childhood memories.

Jerry Nelson, the puppeteer, was a part of those memories as the voice of Count von Count, who loves to count, and Sherlock Hemlock, the world's greatest detective.

I'd like to think that maybe it's not an accident that I have two characters that draw upon the same two sources for inspiration. (Granted, my Count could count on his fingers the number of times he has appeared -- er, if he had fingers, that is.)

His work will live on, and he won't be forgotten. And right now I have to wonder if he's not looking down to us and saying softly,
"That's one! One blog post memoriam! Ah, ah, ah!
Two! Two twitter tweets! Three! Three Facebook shares!"
... as he's counting the stairway to heaven.