IN MEMORY OF

DR. MICHAEL JAN GIBAS

20 October 1961 — 21 September 2025

It is with a very heavy heart that this page has needed changing as the original driving force and founder of Nomad Graphique, Mike, sadly passed away after a battle with cancer. 

Mike was an exceptional man. And in many ways. Obviously, given what he did at Nomad, his graphic design talents were superb. He had an innate ability that was hard to match, and the way he would find the right visual solution to anything put in front of him within moments was inspiring. Indeed, whenever I find myself stuck on a particular challenge, I often think ‘what would Mike do?’. I like to think that I learned enough from him in the twenty-five wonderful years of working for him that my resulting efforts have done him proud. And I expect the succession of extraordinarily talented people that he employed over the years learned plenty from him too, regardless of how great their skills already were. 

       Artistically adept in other ways, Mike was also a superb illustrator whose comic strip work was particularly fine. But the one area he really excelled — certainly in more recent years — was creative writing. (Fun Fact interlude: Many years back, Mike wrote some of the adventures of Roy of the Rovers, and also scripted stories for Captain Birdseye.) In his spare time, Mike spent the last decade or so working towards the Creative Writing PhD that he passed with flying colours in July 2025. What I read of his work, whether poetry, short stories or screenplays, was effortlessly good. So good that he was offered a job as lecturer at the University he gained his PhD from. He would have shone brightly at this and made the best of teachers. Mike was, as he wrote in his original text for this webpage, committed to storytelling in all its forms.

       Aside from his artistic talents, Mike was a gentle, warm and caring man who instinctively nurtured those around him. I think anyone who spent even the briefest amount of time in his company discovered this. I certainly did when he employed me a quarter of a century ago. He became a much-loved friend and mentor, and I’ll be forever grateful to have known him. It is easy to get sad when losing someone so important in one’s life, but Mike was such a joy to be around that my countless memories of him are happy and amusing. He was genuinely one of the funniest people I’ve known, and our shared, mostly puerile sense of humour had us helplessly crying with laughter on multiple occasions. 

       Mike was a dedicated man — certainly to his work and the high quality of it, but above all to his beloved family and close friends. And as one of those friends, I will strive to be a worthy small part of his legacy by keeping the Nomad Graphique banner alive. The world is much poorer without him, but richer for what he left behind. 

Rest easy, my friend, I miss you. And thank you for everything.

Mark