ANGEL & INSECT

ANGEL: Adam Adamowicz Odds are you never heard of Adamowicz, a 43-year-old artist who died of lung cancer on Feb. 9, but if you’ve ever played Fallout 3 or Skyrim, you’re familiar with his work. As the lead concept artist for the games, he was instrumental in making them the cultural forces they are today. His visuals and ideas were genre-defining: from the Pip-Boy 3000 (pictured), the Fat Man, naked mole rats and Super Mutants of Fallout 3, to the dragons, Frost trolls, Nordic warriors and Dark Elves of Skyrim, in landscapes that ranged from a nuclear-ravaged, 1950s-era Washington D.C. to a sprawling fanta­sy continent. But The New York Times aside, Adamowicz’s passing received next to no mainstream media coverage. Strange, considering the impact his work had on tens of millions of people.

INSECT: The beatification of Gary Carter Last week’s passing of former Expos catcher Gary Carter was sad and certainly came too soon. But is it too soon to start thinking what street or building Montreal is going to name after him? Carter was hands down the best catcher the team ever had, he was well-liked by fans and his induction into the Hall of Fame was deserved (although the disagreement over which cap he’d be wearing wasn’t pleasant for anyone; he fought to wear a Mets cap). But the weird outpouring of grief by city politicians and their perhaps overly-hasty determination to name something, anything after him this week borders on unseemly. Especially considering that it took the city a decade to finally, begrudgingly honour Mordecai Richler—who stayed in Montreal even after he made his money.

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