The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 23

scores, Barry is perhaps best known for his work on the James Bond movies Dr No (uncredited), From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man with the Golden Gun, Moonraker, Octopussy, A View to a Kill and The Living Daylights. The four-time Oscar winner’s numerous other credits include They Might Be Giants, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1972), The Day of the Locust, King Kong (1976), The White Buffalo, The Deep, Starcrash, Disney’s The Black Hole, Raise the Titanic, Somewhere in Time (based on the novel by Richard Matheson), The Legend of the Lone Ranger, Murder by Phone, Svengali (1983), Howard the Duck (aka Howard: A New Breed of Hero) and Peggy Sue Got Married. He also composed the theme music for the 1973 TV series Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries. The second of Barry’s four wives was actress Jane Birkin.

Children’s fantasy writer and radio broadcaster [James] Brian Jacques died following emergency heart surgery on 5 February. He was seventy-one. He was best known for his popular “Redwall” animal fantasy series, which began in 1987 and ran for more than twenty books. The series, which sold twenty million copies around the world and was translated into almost thirty languages, was adapted into a Canadian animated TV series in 1999. Jacques also published various picture books, “Redwall” spin-offs, and the “Castaways of the Flying Dutchman” series, while his short fiction was collected in Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales and The Ribbajack & Other Curious Yarns.

American TV writer Donald S. Sanford died on 8 February, aged ninety-two. His many credits include episodes of Thriller (including “The Incredible Doctor Markesan” starring Boris Karloff) and The Outer Limits, and the 1979 post-apocalyptic movie Ravagers (set in 1991).

Joanne Siegel (Jolan Kovacs) died on 12 February, aged ninety-three. As a teenager in the late 1930s she advertised her availability in a local newspaper and became the model for “Lois Lane” in the Superman comic book series cartoonists Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel were hoping to sell. She married Siegel in 1948 and in later years campaigned to reclaim her husband’s copyright in the character after he sold all rights to DC Comics in 1937 for just $130.

American children’s book editor and publisher Margaret K. (Knox) McElderry, who created her own eponymous children’s imprint in 1971, died on 14 February, aged ninety-eight. In 1952, while working for Harcourt Brace and Company, she became the first editor to publish both the Newbery and Caldecott award-winning books in the same year. Her authors included Mary Norton, Susan Cooper, Andre Norton, Ursula K. Le Guin and Margaret Mahy.

Sixty-seven-year-old German SF author, editor, translator and literary agent Hans Joachim Alpers (aka “Jurgen Andreas”) died of hepatic cancer after a short illness on 16 February. He edited around fifty anthologies, published numerous juvenile novels under a variety of pseudonyms, and co-edited several reference works, including Lexicon der Science Fiction Literatur (1980).

Comics and animation writer Dwayne McDuffie died on 21 February, the day after his forty-ninth birthday, from complications due to a surgical procedure. He was a co-founder of the Milestone Media imprint, a coalition of African-American comics writers and artists, through which he helped create such characters as “Static Shock” and “Icon”. He also worked for DC and Marvel on such titles as Damage Control, Fantastic Four, Justice League of America, Firestorm and Beyond. In the field of animation McDuffie’s credits include episodes of Static Shock, Ben 10: Alien Force, Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, What’s New Scooby-Doo? and the cartoon features Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and All-Star Superman.

American author Lisa Wolfson (Lisa Kay Madigan), who published YA novels as “L. K. Madigan”, died of pancreatic cancer on 23 February, aged forty-seven. Her books include the 2010 fantasy The Mermaid’s Mirror.

Brazilian literary fantasy author Moacyr Scliar, who had more than seventy books to his credit, died on 27 February following a stroke. He was seventy-three.

Dutch fantasy and SF author Wim Stolk, who wrote as “W. J. Maryson”, died of heart problems on 9 March, aged sixty. An artist and musician, his books include the six-volume “Master Magician” series and the “Unmagician” trilogy.

Reclusive American writer, editor and collector Bill Blackbeard (William Elsworth Blackbeard) died on 10 March, aged eighty-four. Widely credited with having one of the most comprehensive newspaper comic strip collections ever assembled — comprising more than 2.5 million strips published between 1893 and 1996 — he co-edited (with Martin Williams) The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics (1977). His other books include The Comic Strip Art of Lyonel Feininger, R. F. Outcault’s the Yellow Kid and Sherlock Holmes in America. Blackbeard’s story “Hammer of Cain” (co-written with James Causey) appeared in the November 1943 issue of Weird Tales. His archive was acquired by Ohio State University in 1997.

Hollywood and Broadway songwriter Hugh Martin who, with Ralph Blane (who died in 1995), composed the songs “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, “The Boy Next Door” and “The Trolly Song” for the 1944 MGM movie Meet Me in St. Louis, died on 11 March, aged ninety-six. In 1964 Martin wrote High Spirits, a musical version of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, and he was a vocal arranger and accompanist for Judy Garland, Lena Horne and Debbie Reynolds.

J. K. Rowling’s former school chemistry teacher, John Nettleship, who was the original inspiration for “Severus Snape” in the Harry Potter books, died on 12 March, aged seventy-one.

Sixty-four-year-old English-born Canadian fanzine editor and mathematics teacher Mike Glicksohn (Michael David Glicksohn) died of a stroke on 18 March, following treatment for bladder cancer. A founding member of the Ontario Science Fiction Club, he won the Hugo Award in 1973 for his fanzine Energumen, which he co-published with his wife, Susan Wood. Glicksohn also published the fanzine Xenium and was Fan Guest of Honour at a number of conventions, including Aussiecon in 1975.

American graphic artist Jim Roslof (James Paul Roslof) who was TSR’s art director for the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s, died on 19 March, aged sixty-five. He also provided artwork for adventure modules and scripted gaming scenarios. After leaving TSR, Roslof contributed art for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics.

Publisher April R. (Rose) Derleth, the daughter of Arkham House co- founder August Derleth (who died in 1971), died on 21 March, aged fifty-six. She was co-owner of the imprint with her brother, Walden.

British fantasy writer Diana Wynne Jones died after a long battle with lung cancer on 26 March, aged seventy-six. She published more than forty books, mostly for children and young adults, including The Ogre Downstairs, Dogsbody, Power of Three, The Time of the Ghost, The Homeward Bounders, Fire and Hemlock, Black Maria, A Sudden Wild Magic, Hexwood and Enchanted Glass. She was also the author of the “Dalemark”, “Chrestomanci”, “Howl”, “Magids” and “Derkholm” series. Jones’ short fiction was collected in Warlock at the Wheel and Other Stories, Everard’s Ride, Minor Arcana (aka Believing is Seeing), Mixed Magics and Unexpected Magic; she edited the anthologies Fantasy Stories (aka Spellbound) and Hidden Turnings, and wrote the non-fiction study The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. Archer’s Goon was adapted by the BBC into a six-part TV series in 1992, while Howl’s Moving Castle was turned into an Oscar-nominated anime by Hayao Miyazaki. A winner of the Mythopoeic Award and the British Fantasy Society Special Award, she was a Guest of Honour at the 1988 World Fantasy Convention in London and was a recipient of the 2007 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement.