Luke,
All of us at Dan Allman's Call-a-Tall would like to wish you a happy birthday and offer you $10 off your next Call-a-Tall order!
Need something off the top shelf at the grocery store? Call-a-Tall!
Top of your refrigerator covered in decades of dust? Call-a-Tall!
Looking for someone who'll stick out in a crowd so your group can all find each other? Call-a-Tall!
Please note we no longer offer Cat Stuck in a Tree services due to ongoing litigation.
Call-a-Tall - Ow! My Head!™
Regards,
Daniel Allman, President
Human Ladders, d.b.a Call-a-Tall
Hi Luke,
I wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday, and say thank you.
All those years ago in Toronto, I was unsure of myself and quite a shy person. Never would I have thought that an artist I really admired, named Luke McKay, would sit at a restaurant table with a kid like me and not only give me great advice about being an artist, but was also kind, down to earth, and talked to me like an equal. All throughout the years whenever we'd meet at a convention or at RvBTO, you never stopped giving me advice and cheering me on, and even though I haven't kept up my art as much as I should have, your words never stopped inspiring me even to this day.
Anytime I've picked up a pencil or stylus and make something, your encouragement and friendship always play in my mind and push me to do a little better each time.
So thank you. Thank you for being my friend, for being an inspiration even at times when you don't realize it, and for just being you.
Happy Birthday Luke, love ya man!
Josh Phillips aka Blue_Team
Dearest of Lukes,
I remember PAX 2010. I remember walking from the Sheraton to Belltown...full of nervous energy. We had just been invited to a party. A private PAX party! We don't get invited to private PAX parties, but here we were being handed an invitation by some guy named Gus to go to the Lava Lounge to mingle with Rooster Teeth people. Nervous. Super nervous.
Chris had just had knee surgery and wanted to make the walk, and so we walked. And as we nervously walked - did I mention we were nervous? - towards the Lava Lounge, we hear a voice behind us "Shouldn't you be in a wheelchair? Didn't you JUST have surgery?". It was a voice we weren't familiar with. It was yours, Luke. You and Lauren were there walking towards the same party. You both joined us and made the walk pleasant. You didn't have to join us. We all barely knew each other. We were, at best at the time, parasical online friends? Is that the term? But you both joined us and I remember thinking "These two are rad as heck. I hope that we all become friends."
Because I love whimsy, I'd like to think we became friends at that very moment. It counts. It's on record in writing on this very page!
I make that 2nd Avenue walk on the regular now. From Westlake to Belltown...from the transit tunnel to the hole in the ground where the Lava Lounge once stood. And when I take that route, I think of you and Luaren.
Can I tell you a secret? I was starstruck. Luke McKay was walking with us. This really great artist who made comics we really enjoyed was walking super casual with us as we nervously hobbled up 2nd Avenue. And you know what? I felt the same when we sat at Shawn O'Donnell's one St Patrick's Day. We sat in that corner table and crammed, I dunno...a dozen or so Canandians in there? There was an RvB CanWest where we all went to your apartment and played video games! And the entire time I kept thinking "I'm not cool enough to be here!!" I swear that is way more funny that it reads.
Friends who do cool things make me starstruck. In my mind, artists and storytellers are peak humanity. I always feel blessed to be around that energy. Luke...you exude that energy all of the time. I love playing Dungeons and Dragons with you. I love your art. I love seeing your art evolve over the last counts on fingers 16 years? Is our friendship old enough to drive?! I love your druid adventures whether it be taming the wild animals in the trees to hiking for spring water to put in a sourdough bread recipe.
You are kind and patient and talented and fun and chill. I feel so extremely blessed to be your friend. I am still startstruck because you are still awesome at age 50. May you remain awesome after each and every birthday. I mean...you've been awesome for so long...why the hell stop now?
Love you, friend! Happy Birthday!
-Mary
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE! You are an incredible, kind, and gifted soul and I hope you have the amazing birthday you deserve. You're hitting a big milestone today -- so celebrate it! It's all about you, but don't forget to feed the squirrels...
I want to add that it is an absolute joy to be able to call you a friend. For years when people asked me who I would want to work with on a webcomic I genuinely said "Oh, easy, Luke McKay - but that's not gonna happen." How wrong I was! It's not often that I get to meet folks whose work I've admired for so long and they end up being one of the absolute nicest people I have ever met. You are kind, humble, and incredibly skilled and it is an honor to get to work with you.
So one more time, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE!
Your friend,
Treavor
Luke,
I first knew you as sort of this mystical being on the site. Watching people get "McKayed" and being increasingly jealous with each one. Seeing your art appear first as part of the website I loved the most and then creeping into my life after finding D&D. I did end up being gifted one, which even after ~13 or so years is still the image I use on socials. However, a much better gift was finally meeting you and the wonderful memories of hanging out together.
You are easily one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life, and I hope we all can one day get back together and chill again. But for now, I'll enjoy the pictures of squirrels and any other online shenanigans that may come about.
Happy birthday, bud.
Hugs and Kisses,
Dopp
16 years is a long time, but it really doesn’t feel like it. Hard to believe meeting you on that trip out to Vancouver for RvB CanWest turned into such an adventure.
We’ve built a lot side by side, convention after convention. You helped get into webcomic writing, and I got to be part of you figuring out how to make a real career out of art. Doing that together always meant a lot to me. Sometimes it was a wild time drunk in cities and getting lost, sometimes it was an all-night scramble trying to print and bind piles of Balls 2 That before RTX so we could sell enough to cover the plane ticket.
You’ve always been one of the kindest, funniest, most genuinely supportive people I know. What stands out the most isn’t just that you care, it’s how hard you try. Even when things aren’t working, you keep going. That’s something I’ve watched for years, and it’s shaped how I look at my own life more than you probably realize. I’ve caught myself thinking more than once, “If Luke McKay can do it, I know I can.”
You’ve also been the kind of friend who shows up. Whether it was a tuna melt when I was broke and barely getting by, or literally carrying me out of the Cambie when the infantry got me too drunk to walk, you’ve always been there when it mattered. You made Vancouver feel like home when it wasn’t, and that I had family here.
And then there’s everything else, the chaos that somehow only makes sense because you’re you. Stuff like stuffing two full pints into your pockets or disappearing on New Year’s and reappearing the next day with no memory, missing a tooth, and somehow up $500.I tell those stories and people are shocked, then immediately go, “Yeah… that tracks.”
What I respect even more now is how you’ve managed to hold onto that humour and that openness while still building a real, stable life. You’ve kept that same energy, but grounded it, and it’s been great seeing you with Lauren and everything you’ve built together.
Despite the years you haven’t really changed in the ways that matter. You’re still the same big hearted, funny, slightly chaotic person I met 16 years ago, and I mean that in the best possible way.
I’m really grateful for our friendship. You’ve had a bigger impact on my life than I probably tell you, and I’m glad I get to call you my best friend.
Happy 50th,
JoseDRojas
Hey Luke!
As you celebrate an illustrious half century, I think back to all the cool hangs, the deep conversations, the inside jokes, and just the deep deep gratitude I have even to know you.
Somehow, I have this secular counterpart to St Francis who communes with the animals in my life.
I hope your birthday is as amazing as you are!
Jack Edathil
Luke! I have always admired your creativity, appreciated your humor, and been grateful for your kindness. I hope you have a fantastic day as we celebrate the awesome person you are! Happy freakin' birthday my friend!!!
Jamie Dillion
Happy Birthday Luke! Here's to another wonderful year! The art you create and videos you share with your backyard friends are a lovely little light in this world. I just completed a DnD campaign with a character that your art helped being to life, it means a lot to have that extra bit of heart in the experience. I'm proud to know someone with such talent! I wish you all the best as you continue on from this birthday milestone!
Elizabeth Nathaniel
Happy Birthday!!
The big 50, thank you for being so generous and welcoming over the years.
You are a kind soul, the world would be better with more people like you.
If you ever need anything the Goobers are just a text away.
National Register of Historic Places - Rhiannon Held