St. John Jennison
John Jennison (March 16, 1979 - February 4, 2022) was a gay comic artist who I met through his involvement with Geeks Out, an LGBT nerd/geek organization that creates gatherings, events, and community for LGBTQ fandom. John was one of the founding coordinators for Flame Con, the first LGBT comic con in New York City, and also curated a number of events through the city that brought queer artists together, including a number of Drink & Draw events where John would specifically hire queer models, burlesque performers, and drag queens of a diverse range of ethnicity and body types, and frequently with a nerdy bent.
This is the first time I've made a queer saint icon of someone that I knew, personally. I wasn't particularly close with John, we only met a handful of times. But every time he saw me, he remembered my name. He went out of his way to invite me in and include me. When he learned I was an artist, he encouraged me and cheer-lead my art. At the time, I was self-conscious about my art, since I never had any formal studio art training, but he always poo-pooed those self-defeating demons and championed an "everyone gets to play" philosophy when it came to art and life. I remember when I purchased a table at the first Flame Con, to sell some of my art and comics, John would check in with me, several times a day. We'd kiki about the other offerings that other queer artists had brought to the con. And he celebrated my success at the end of the day when I had sold out of my products.
John was open about his journey with cancer, and he never let it dim his light. He always seemed to put on a smile and faced the day with this optimism that I found infectious. I regret that I didn't take the time to attend more of his events that he curated over all these years. He became a fixture in my "I'll get around to it" list of events.
When he passed last month, it shocked me, since he was so public with his cancer journey and I hadn't seen anything from his social media out of the normal. I was stunned how over the next few days, my feeds on the various social media sites I frequent were flooded with posts about John from people from so many different places in my life. I marveled at how he had such a wide network and touched so many lives, in spite of the health challenges he endured for years.
I backed a kickstarter project of John's a few years ago, the Mystical Male Tarot, a deck containing homoerotic representations of the major arcana. I've started using it in my rotation of divination tools in my personal practice and every time I do, I like to think I channel a bit of his infectious, loving energy.
I present to you, St. John Jennison. Patron of creation, optimism, and broken gates. Blessed be his name.
Artist Note
For John’s halo, I chose to use a special breed of lily called the Flame Lily to honor his work in helping organizing Flame Con, and for the fire of inspiration he stoked in himself and others. Rest in power, friend.