In a heartbreaking essay at Medium, writer Joe Peacock recalls the events before and after the death of his friend Jeremy Dale, the creator of Skyward and artist of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.

As part of SC Comicon, a special Drink and Draw will be held Saturday at Quest Brewing Company in tribute to Dale. Proceeds will benefit Team Cul de Sac and The Hero Initiative, which was selected by Dale's wife Kelly.

Dale, 34, passed away Nov. 3 after coming down with what his wife and their friends initially thought was "just really bad con crud," familiar to virtually anyone who's attended a convention packed with thousands of people. However, as Peacock relates, Dale was soon unable to move his legs, which confounded doctors.

He died in the hospital after his heart stopped during an asthma attack (the official cause was listed as heart attack), but a coroner only recently determined he had acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), a rare autoimmune disease.

"So, it really was just the flu after all," Peacock writes. "Leave it to Jeremy Dale to make even the flu something rare and special. I love him and miss him dearly. We all do."

SC Comicon is set for Saturday and Sunday at the TD Convention Center in Greenville, South Carolina. Guests include Chris Brunner, Tommy Lee Edwards, Tom Feister, Sanford Greene, Meghan Hetrick, Georges Jeanty, Laura Martin and Rico Renzi.