StoreJon Eikenberg
1957–2001
Jon Eikenberg was an award-winning Baltimore artist who created the comic strip “The Endearing End of Emmett” in 1995. The strip was syndicated in gay magazines and newspapers nationwide and won first place in the Vice Versa Awards for Excellence in the Gay and Lesbian Press in 1998. Eikenberg worked as a contributing editor and art critic for the Baltimore Alternative and Gay Life newspapers.
This tribute page was created by Visual AIDS.
The following statement was published alongside The Endearing End of Emmett in A&U Magazine:
The Endearing End of Emmett, the ongoing story of a man living with HIV, is the dark and bizarre creation of classically trained HIV+ artist Jon Eikenberg. Emmett emerged from Eikenberg's experiences of living with AIDS and watching its effects on his friends' lives. "It seemed very timely to put an HIV+ character in print who's going through the same things as a lot of other people," says Eikenberg. "I'm not alone, you know? [...] The strip has been a great creative outlet for my frustration with having HIV. It's also a wonderful way to pass on my own experience, lots of general information and a well of twisted material associated with the disease."