The outside still invites you in. The inside still calls you out.
Jason Williams unboxed and unpacked toys, Thursday, pricing Star Wars X-Wings for sale at Big Fun Columbus. But out of all the things – the comics, the action figures – something is noticeably missing.
“We’re missing a big hole,” Williams said. “It’s a big hole missing.”
Someone is missing.
“He was a worker here for seven years and our friend for eight,” Williams said.
Wil Neal was the third person Williams hired at Big Fun. He was there seven years until March 2020 and was known for his vibrant personality and his colorful choices in clothes.
“I don’t know how long it took him to get accessorized each morning,” Williams joked.
Someone like Neal is hard to describe.
“He was…such a unique personality,” Marck Schmidbauer said.
Schmidbauer first met Neal on a public access station in town back in the late 1980s. He says Neal had an encyclopedic knowledge about monster movies, Batman and comics.
Williams says Neal wasn’t the city’s poet laureate, but the city’s nerd laureate.
It was a title he earned by dropping tidbits of pop culture and being able to spit Klingon and Star Wars quotes in the same breath.
“Big Fun is probably the best job he could have ever had because he just loved toys so much,” Schmidbauer said.
This week Neal passed away.
A post to Facebook has gained hundreds of comments from those with personal stories. Williams talked with him Saturday.
One last conversation.
“I’m glad to have that last conversation,” Williams said. “I wish I could have told him more, but, 21 Pilots, karaoke, toys…that’s a good conversation.”
Neal’s passion is his legacy.
“You can’t fake that,” Williams said. “You’re either born a nerd or you’re not. Wil was wholistically nerdy.”
The shelves of Big Fun are packed from new to nostalgia. It has everything. Yet, you can feel it. Even with limited room something, or more importantly someone, is missing.
Wil’s life partner, MJ Willow, had this to say about Neal:
“Wilbert was a Columbus native and he loved this city like Batman loves Gotham. Many people may have known him from his career with the Columbus Metropolitan Library, his role on Vast Wasteland, his antics at Comfest, or his dream job at Big Fun. He loved to be around people and talk pop culture anywhere, any time. He would be most pleased if all who miss him take out some time to watch a superhero movie, a sci-fi drama, an old monster movie, a Bruce Lee flick, listen to a KISS album, or share a pizza and laughs with friends. Remember him as I will, with smiles and kindness.”
There is also an effort to help raise funds for Neal’s funeral expenses. You can find more information on that here.