Clydene Nee, the organizer of Artist Alley at the San Diego Comic-Con and comics colorist died this week. She passed away peacefully in her sleep. The news was announced by SDCC:

It is with deep and profound sadness that we announce the passing of Clydene Nee. A member of the Comic-Con family and long-time volunteer, Clydene was instrumental in overseeing Artists’ Alley. Her advocacy and promotion of independent artists resulted in thousands of friendships with those artists and anyone who knew her. We extend our heartfelt condolences to her sister Sarah, her brother John, the rest of her family, and all those who were fortunate enough to call her friend.

Nee was universally known as a kind and giving person, instrumental in running SDCC’s Artist Alley, the launching pad for many careers. In recent years she underwent many health issues, including, most recently, partial amputation of her leg.

Her work in comics included a colorist for Wildstorm, and a letterer on various projects. She worked closely with her brother, John Nee, a longtime comics executive, on the early computer coloring at Wildstorm. As the person who ran Artist Alley, she helped find sponsors that helped keep the area going. It’s important to remember that although SDCC’s Artist Alley is a relatively small area now, when Nee started it was an even bigger part of the show floor, so organizing it was no small task. 

Social media was filled with tributes, so many speaking of how she went out of her way to support artists, and give newcomers a start.  

 

Jackie Estrada: 

 

Cully Hamner: Just getting this heartbreaking news about the passing of Clydene Nee. We were friends for almost 35 years (next year would’ve been that milestone). She’s well-known as a friend to pretty much all artists in this business, and that was how we came to know each other. In 1991, my first SDCC—I knew almost no one and no one knew me. She didn’t know me at all and had no real reason to cut me a break. I was just starting out and she saw something in me—she reminded me of that many times over the years. She ran Artists’ Alley and gave me a table on the spot (almost unheard of today, I gather) and that single act of kindness arguably gave me a career. Look, I know I wasn’t the only one she did that for, she probably launched a thousand artists’ careers. That was her character the whole time I knew her. But it meant the world to me, a skinny nobody from Alabama who could draw some and just needed that chance.

We always stayed in touch. She loved to send me links to things—books, news stories, recommendations that she thought I might like. She especially loved to talk to me about all the crazy in the world, from politics to the paranormal. She had an eye for that, she appreciated crazy—maybe that’s why she liked us artists so much.
Everyone who knew her knew she had endured a lot of physical hardship for many years, but I never knew her to not handle it like a champ, even recently when she had to lose a leg. She had the most unsinkable attitude of anyone I knew.
I’m sad to see you go, Clydene. You were important to all of us. I was about to say “more than you knew,” but I don’t know if that’s true.
I like to think you did know it.
Sincere condolences to her brother John and the rest of her family, and her many, many friends.
 
Matt Hawkins: I just heard about the passing of Clydene Nee. I met her 31 years ago at the beginning of Image Comics as she brokered computer color services that we used at Extreme. For the last 20 years or so she’s helped me almost every year with some problem at San Diego Comicon as she was on staff there.

To the Nee family and my long term friend John Nee who I love dearly, condolences. The comics community has lost someone who fans wouldn’t know but was integral to the business for a very long time.
Hug your family and reach out to friends. You never know how long you have them for.

 

Leonard Sultana: I’m heartbroken: Clydene Nee was one of the first people in the Comic-Con International family to welcome me as a friend – first as someone who saw my enthusiasm for the event and invited me to join her Artist Alley team as a Staff Volunteer in 2012, and afterward simply as someone who would meet up with her when myself and Caroline were in town. It is with sadness that I have heard that she has passed after many years of medical tribulations which she was always fighting to overcome through the years I knew her.

Clydene was known by many more, however, as an esteemed artist and an incredible, inspiring supporter of others as the manager of Artist Alley for San Diego Comic-Con, curating the vibrant area of the convention floor and also the informative and educational Room 2 sessions during the con. There will be many tributes cast over the days and weeks that follow as many who were brought thru the industry with Clydene’s tutelage learn of this sad news. 
For myself, the news is all the sadder as I felt that Clydene was turning a page and on the mend, even after losing a leg through a recent infection. I now regret not going to see her while I was in San Diego this year, thinking that we would have plenty of time to catch up in 2025. She will be sadly missed. 

 

Brandon Shiflett: Clydene Nee was a relentless advocate for The Shiflett Brothers and Jarrod and I will never forget what she did for us.
She almost single-handedly created our careers in the early nineties when she included us in Artists’ Alley at The San Diego Comic-Con at a time when sculptors just weren’t featured in those aisles. She took a chance on us.
25 years later she would graciously tell crowds at our panels that letting us participate in the Alley back then was the “easy and obvious” choice, but we know she had to defend that decision back when she was making it.
She held a lot of power at SDCC and every time I saw her bring that power to bear, it was for an artist, not for the Con, not for the publishers, not for the man. But for the individual artists.
Just like when she decided to let two unknown young brothers from Beaumont, TX set up clay sculptures in her domain of flat, 2D paper art.
She will be missed so much. All our love to her friends and family

 

I was friends with Clydene in real life and on Facebook, and followed her struggles giving her encouragement when I could. She was just a lovely person, one of those people who keep things going while helping others along the way. Sometimes it’s not the best known names who make the biggest difference, and Clydene made a huge difference for so many at the biggest pop culture event on the planet. It won’t be the same without her. 

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