Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Batman, Comics, Diabetes, entertainment, Necronomicon, Tommy Castillo

Batman Artist Tommy Castillo's Health Has Taken A Turn For The Worse

Published Thu, 15 Jun 2017 19:06:12 -0500

Last updated Sat, 17 Jun 2017 09:56:34 -0500

I first met Tommy Castillo back in 2003 at the world's worst comic convention, the Extrosion in Las Vegas. He was mentoring my friend Chris Moreno. He was doing sketches while there but what caught my eye was an old Time Life book on Egypt that he hand turned into a version of the Necronomicon. It was the perfect gift for my then wife but I didn't have enough cash. Tommy let me take it and mail him the money when I got back to L.A. That impression stuck with me. I would see him on the convention circuit in L.A., Dallas, San Diego and Seattle. We'd catch up, grab lunch or dinner and laugh. I couldn't have been happier for him when he started drawing Batman for DC. He worked on Batman: Legend of the Dark Knight, Detective Comics, Green Arrow and Toe Tags.

Tommy is a diabetic and his health started to deteriorate and his vision started to fail. He did his best to get healthy, but his time at cons became less and less. It was hoped that things were starting to turn around, but that no longer is the case. After an amputation due to his diabetes, Tommy has gone into kidney failure and now has other organs failing as well. His wife, Sammy, posted a video to his Facebook pages giving more details. You can watch it below. But the end result is Tommy is at home in hospice care and is, as his doctor called it, actively dying. How long he has is unknown… it could be quick or it could be months or years. He is no longer a viable candidate for a transplant because of the other failures. The fund to help him is still going, but now it's to make him comfortable and cover his medical needs.

Watch the video, donate if you can and keep Tommy and Sammy in your thoughts and prayers. I'm going to post some of his work below the video for anyone who isn't aware of his talent.