Dirk Deppey, the force behind the essential comic linkblog Journalista, twittered last night that he’d been laid off and his last column will be tomorrow. I’ll miss it and him — but I hope he’ll find somewhere else to do what he did, since I hate to think of the internet without it. His wide-ranging linkage is the most eclectic in the industry, always with a personality behind it.

Like Noah Berlatsky, I owe Dirk a debt — while he was editing The Comics Journal, he commissioned my piece on the works of Erica Sakurazawa, one of my few substantial articles in traditional print. I hope Dirk finds some welcome outlet for continuing his unique and valuable comic journalism. Sean Kleefeld collects Dirk’s Twittered reminiscences as well as sharing some thoughts of his own on bigger trends.

Update: Dirk’s last column has a good list of other comic sites online and a more formal farewell.