Sixty-three-year-old American fanzine publisher Bob Sabella died of an inoperable brain tumour on 3 December. He edited 170 issues of Visions of Paradise and wrote the 2000 study Who Shaped Science Fiction?
American artist Darrell K. (Kinsman) Sweet died on 5 December, aged seventy-seven. Best known for his work with such imprints as Ballantine Books and Del Rey in the 1970s, he produced the cover art for Robert Jordan’s “Wheels of Time” series, Stephen R. Donaldson’s “Chronicles of Thomas Covenant” series, and Piers Anthony’s “Xanth” series. His artwork was collected in Beyond Fantasy: The Art of Darrell K. Sweet (1997).
American comic book artist and historian Jerry Robinson died in his sleep on 7 December, aged eighty-nine. Originally hired as an inker at the age of seventeen by “Batman” creator Bob Kane, Robinson went on to co-create “Robin, the Boy Wonder” and was a primary influence on the creation of the duo’s arch-nemesis “The Joker” (modelled after Conrad Veidt in the 1928 movie The Man Who Laughs), “Two-Face” and Bruce Wayne’s butler, “Alfred Pennyworth”. In later years he moved into newspaper comic strips and became an advocate for the rights of artists. Robinson’s 1974 book, The Comics, was one of the first books about newspaper strips.
Scottish writer, critic and translator Gilbert Adair died on 8 December, aged sixty-six. In the 1980s he wrote the children’s sequels Alice Through the Needle’s Eye and Peter Pan and the Only Children.
British fantasy author Euan Harvey died of cancer on 9 December, aged thirty-eight. He began his writing career in 2007 and sold eight stories to Realms of Fantasy magazine.
French SF author Louis Thirion died the same day, aged eighty-eight. He published more than thirty novels, starting in 1964 with Waterloo, morne plaine. He also contributed several scripts to the radio series Theatre de l’Etrange.
American-born author and illustrator Russell [Conwell] Hoban, best known for his post-holocaust novel Riddley Walker (1980), died of congestive heart failure in London on 13 December, aged eighty-six. He began publishing in 1959, and produced more than twenty titles for children and adults, including Pilgerman, The Medusa Frequency, Turtle Diary, The Mouse and His Child and the “Frances the Badger” series.
American SF author and medical doctor T. J. Bass (Thomas J. Bassler) died in Honoloulu the same day, aged seventy-nine. Starting in 1968, he had a number of stories published in If and Galaxy magazines, and his linked novels Half Past Human (1971) and The Godwhale (1974) were both nominated for Nebula Awards.
Legendary comic book creator Joe Simon (Hymie Simon, aka Joseph Henry “Joe” Simon) died after a brief illness on 14 December, aged ninety-eight. He created (with Jack Kirby) such characters as Captain America, the Newsboy Legion, the Boy Commandos, Manhunter, Fighting American and the Fly. The duo also worked on Adventure Comics, Detective Comics, Sandman and numerous other titles in all genres, including the horror comics Black Magic and The Strange World of Your Dreams. Titan Books recently published the huge retrospective volume of their work, The Best of Simon and Kirby, along with the autobiographical work Joe Simon: My Life in Comics.
Fifty-year-old Italian fantasy and horror author and magazine editor Gianluca Casseri, known for his extreme right-wing views, killed himself the same day after shooting dead two Senegalese street traders and wounding three others in Florence.
French SF and espionage author Richard Bessiere died on 22 December, aged eighty- eight. His first science fiction series, “Conquerants de l’universe” (1951–54), was followed by a number of stand- alone SF/horror novels, including Les maitres du silence and Cette lueur qui venait des tenebres, along with a series about a futuristic James Bond named “Dan Seymour”.
American SF fan, book dealer and collector James L. “Rusty” Hevelin died on 27 December, aged eighty-nine. Instantly recognisable from his Gandalf-style beard, he edited such fanzines as Aliquot, H-1661 and Badly, and was Fan Guest of Honour at the 1981 World Science Fiction Convention.
Ninety-one-year-old British illustrator Ronald [William Fordham] Searle CBE, whose famous St. Trinian’s cartoons often rivalled those of Charles Addams for macabre humour, died after a short illness at his home in the south of France on 30 December. Besides the St. Trinian’s titles, his many other books include Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1961), James Thurber’s The 13 Clocks and the Wonderful O, Scrooge (1970), Dick Deadeye (filmed in 1975), Marquis de Sade Meets Goody Two-Shoes and Something in the Cellar.
American agent, editor and publisher Glenn [Richard] Lord, best known for his work as agent for the Robert E. Howard Estate, died on 31 December, aged eighty. He edited The Howard Collector magazine from 1961–73, and the 1979 compilation The Howard Collector: By and About Robert E. Howard. His non-fiction volumes include the still- indispensable The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard and two volumes of Robert E. Howard: Selected Letters. Lord received a World Fantasy Special Convention Award in 1978.
PERFORMERS/PERSONALITIES
Dependable British character actor Pete Postlethwaite OBE (Peter William Postlethwaite) died in his sleep after a long battle with cancer on 2 January, aged sixty-four. A former drama teacher, his credits include Split Second (1992), Alien3, The Usual Suspects, James and the Giant Peach, DragonHeart, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Alice in Wonderland (1999), Animal Farm (1999), Dark Water (2005), ?on Flux, The Omen (2006), Lamberto Bava’s Ghost Son, Solomon Kane, Clash of the Titans (2010) and Inception.
Hollywood leading lady Anne [Lloyd] Francis, who memorably starred as “Altaira” in the SF classic Forbidden Planet (1956), died of pancreatic cancer the same day, aged eighty. A former child model, she also appeared in the films Portrait of Jennie (uncredited), The Satan Bug, Brainstorm and the TV movies Haunts of the Very Rich and Mazes and Monsters. From 1965– 66 Francis portrayed the sexy private detective with a pet ocelot in ABC’s Honey West (a spin-off series from Burke’s Law) and she also appeared in episodes of Suspense, Lights Out, Climax! The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Invaders, Search Control, Wonder Woman, Fantasy Island (both the original series and 1990s revival) and Conan.
Early American talkies star Mirian Seegar also died on 2 January. She was 103 years old. Seegar’s credits include RKO’s 1929 version of Seven Keys to Baldpate. In the early 1930s she married director Tim Whelan and retired from the screen.
British-born actress [Valeria] Jill Haworth died in her sleep at her apartment in Manhattan on 3 January, aged sixty-five. The first actress to portray “Sally Bowles” in Cabaret on the Broadway stage, during the late 1960s and early ’70s she appeared in the British horror films It! The Haunted House of Horror (aka Horror House), Tower of Evil (aka Horror on Snape Island/Beyond the Fog) and The Mutations (aka The Freakmaker). Haworth was also in episodes of The Outer Limits (“The Sixth Finger”) and The Most Deadly Game (“Witches’ Sabbath”), along with the TV movie Home For the Holidays.
American actor Aron Kincaid (Norman Neale Williams II), who was in a number of “Beach
