I woke to bad news today. My wife got up first and dashed in to tell me. Jane Goodall had passed away.
For those of you who have followed my Irregular Webcomic!, you’ll know that Jane inspired an alternate reality version of herself as a character in the comics. She first appeared in this strip, from 2003:
Jane Goodall served as a foil to the comic versions of Steve and Terry (no surname mentioned, but it’s obvious who they are). My Jane Goodall character was nothing like the real one. She was crass, egotistical, snarky, and duped the world into believing she knew a lot about “monkeys”. (Despite all this, she was still sensible enough to fight against Nazis, though.)
In 2006 I got to meet the real Jane Goodall. I attended a public lecture that she gave here in Sydney, and I stayed afterwards to get an autograph and talk to her. I’d printed out some of my comics featuring the Lego version of her, and showed her. Her response:
Oh yes, I’ve seen these. They’re funny.
I asked if she would mind posing for some photos for me to use in my comic. She was delighted to agree.
My original idea was that she would punch me in the last panel. But she suggested a chimp-slap instead. Which of course worked beautifully.
Thanks Jane, for the inspiration, for appreciating my humorous version of you, for doing good in the world, and for contributing to this humble author’s webcomic.
My first thought when Dame Goodall passed away was a documentary film I saw at the Minnesota Science Museum where she was talking about the hope she had for the world and gave examples of conservation efforts that are working.
My second thought was for your “chimp slap” comic.
That’s great. In honour of her passing I walked across the stage where my university gave her an honorary degree several years ago. (I wonder how many of those she had?) It was the only time I ever saw her in person.
Very sad. What a great contribution to science. Though admittedly I was only dimly aware of her and her work before Irregular Webcomics highlighted her work.
Brilliant that you met her DMM and doubly brilliant that she knew about, and liked, the comics.
RIP Dame Jane Goodall
Irregular Webcomic was the first thing I thought of when I read the news. A sad smile hit me as I remembered the strip where you met her.
Sad times, but life.