Remembering Jon Schnepp
Growing up as an only-child from divorce parents, I felt like an outsider in my family. Never felt cool with myself or wanted to “join in” with everyone because it never felt right with me. I struggled with what I enjoyed and was never comfortable with expressing my inner geek out of fear being humiliated, teased, and isolated with the things I loved.
Up until the age of sixteen, I was a complete shut in. Hell, I can recall my mom punishing me for not going out and wished I would get into some trouble. When I got a job at a local grocery store, I finally started to come out of my shell but often retreated back into it when the day was done. I only went to one dance in high school, barely went on any dates, and yet I still didn’t feel right in my own skin. It wouldn’t be until five years ago that I would discover who I was as a person, what I wanted out of life, and how to achieve it.
In 2013, I discovered a YouTube show called AMC Movie Talk hosted by John Campea and loved the show immediately. Soon after when Guardians of the Galaxy was announced, Jon Schnepp appeared to discuss the topic with Campea. Schnepp’s energy, excitement, and knowledge ultimately lead to the channel’s success, and I became a subscriber immediately. He never disappointed the audience with his analysis, especially when it came to comic book movies.
As more comic book movies flooded the movie sphere, AMC launched another show called Heroes where they talked about comic book movies, comics, and lesser known characters that they felt needed to be made into a movie. Needless to say, I watched everything Campea and Schnepp were apart of because I became more comfortable talking about things that I loved, which are the movies, in general; but I do favor the superhero genre.
Jon Schnepp showed me everyday that I can express my love for the movies and shout it out to the world while keeping an open mind to other opinions. But with his passing, he gave me a bitter lesson. Several years ago, I learned he was coming to C2E2 to sell copies of his documentary “The Death of ‘Superman Lives’ What Happened?” I thought about taking the day off of work to meet him but decided not to, thinking “Oh, I’ll get another chance to see him.”
His passing isn’t just unfortunate or a missed opportunity to me. Jon Schnepp created an atmosphere in which I grew into someone that is excited to talk about movies, share my opinions with at work, and not caring about people making fun at me about it. I love to write stories, make up different characters, creating conflicts for those characters, and having them overcome the conflicts. With my music playing, I feel like a pianist on his piano, a mad scientist creating life, a true “sweaty.” And while he isn’t the only person to help me grow as an individual, Jon was the one who taught me to never apologized for your opinions, loves, or dreams. I will forever live without giving up on my goals whether it is completing my book series, promoting it across the country, or just continuing to interact with other fans who are excited as I am for new movies.
However, Jon’s family is suffering more than anyone else. Holly Payne, Jon’s fiancé, tweeted out that there has been an increase in sales on his documentary, but the best thing everyone can do is to donate to his gofundme page at https://www.gofundme.com/getwelljonschneppfundraiser, which is managed by Holly. Even a small amount would help her, and Jon would rest in peace knowing we helped his greatest love through this difficult time.
