Joe Sarno Hospitalized

By | Wednesday, March 17, 2010 2 comments
Maggie Thompson passed along this note from Jim Engel about Joe Sarno, the founder of Chicago's Comic Kingdom and Comic Universe...
Joe as you may know, has had health/dementia problems over the last couple years. Sunday morning he had a severe fall, and has been in the hospital since then, in a coma. He has a lot of blood pooling around the brain, and the doctors feel he would not survive an operation. In short, his condition is such that he could pass away at any time, and Joan and his kids are preparing for that.

I visited the hospital last night. Joe's on a morphine drip, and appears as if he's simply sleeping. He's not in pain, and in fact looks so 'normal,', it was hard to realize how bad things are. I got to spend time with Joan, who as you would expect has a lot on her shoulders, but seems to be doing as well as anyone could, and has their kids around for support as well. She was very glad to know his friends have been getting the word out, and said that if anyone wishes to visit the hospital (Northwest Community in Arlington Hts) they were welcome."

As are prayers. I've known Joe for years and was glad to see so many people pay tribute to him at last year's Chicago Comic-Con. Joe is a treasure - and so is Joan.
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2 comments:

Robert Troch said...

Was sorry to hear about Joe passing away. I hadn't seen him in many years but I did correspond with him via e mail a few years ago.

I knew Joe during the Nostalgia shop days and even worked at the first couple of conventions in the 70's.
I sure got a LOT of comics from him. Even some of the legendary "collection" which I eventually sold in NYC in the 80's. He was a great guy and was certainly kind to that young teenager back in the 70's. PLUS he was nice enough to buy much of my collection when I moved out of Chicago back in 1980.

RIP Joe.

Steve Pusec said...

Steve Pusec
I also knew Joe. I used to go to his shop on Lawrence Avenue in the early 70’s. I was teenager who loved comics. I remember buying Conan #1 from him. He taught me a lot about comics. I lived all these years in Arizona. I just moved back here and learned of his passing. Thank you Joe for the memories.