Back in 2009 I found a random Wordpress blog from Paul Abbamondi about LEGO Harry Potter games and made a comment. He immediately emailed me and we started chatting about video games, writing, television, and life. He began writing for this site in early 2010 and we kept in close touch for years. When the site started winding down and my kids headed to school, Paul and I slowly grew apart, nothing dramatic, but still regretful. In 2019 Paul lost his battle with cancer and passed away at 35 years of age.
I never met Paul in person, but he laid his heart and soul out on the internet for everyone. He was an extremely prolific writer and comics artist: getting short stories published and doing year long comic drawing challenges. If an idea came to his imagination, he expressed it and shared it freely. Paul gave and gave and gave online, and always with a great sense of humor. He seemingly never lost that humor either, drawing comics about fighting stage four colon cancer until his last months.
I knew Paul as a collaborator and friend. When it came to games, he simply loved writing about them. I asked him to join us at First Hour right away because I found his writing hilarious, but he was also obviously just much better at it all than I was; able to find the words that described exactly what he wanted to say but still make it sound whimsical. I was never jealous, just felt lucky to have met someone like him.
Paul wrote 23 pieces for the site about a wide variety of games. The one that has stuck with me the most over the years was an editorial he put together about tiny text in video games, a particular scourge the industry was going through as it migrated awkwardly to higher definition televisions. Every time I see tiny text in games (which still happens far too often!) I remember Paul and his crusade, I like to think he moved the needle a little bit. His writing was one of the big reasons why I wanted to get this site back up and running, to preserve another piece of him.
Knowing someone only through the internet means there’s a barrier between their real life and what they choose to share. I choose to believe Paul was as generous and kind to his friends and family as he was to us virtual correspondents, but I also know he was a human being who struggled like everyone else does. That’s okay. I still love him, or I love my memory of him, I don’t know how it works. I wish I could have been there for him, I still feel ashamed that I didn’t even know what he was going through.
Paul left a large legacy behind. You can still read what he’s written at his gaming Wordpress blog, or browse his art on his Tumblr. His personal site is down but can be accessed through the Wayback Machine, which I highly recommend checking out. His life was too big to even begin to describe in this short post.
Rest in peace, Paul. May you be drawing comics and drinking coffee and playing Suikoden II, wherever you are.
