Locus, June 2014
Page 28
REMEMBERING GIGER by Jason V Brock
My wife Sunni and I met the late visionary artist H.R. Giger at his home in Zürich, Switzerland. We met September 21, 2006, which is our wedding anniversary. I remember it vividly, as Giger and Carmen learned that, and gave us each a ring: They were copies of their wedding rings in silver.
‘‘Li II’’ by H.R. Giger (1974)
We were there to interview him for our forthcoming documentary entitled Image, Reflection, Shadow: Artists of the Fantastic, and he, along with his lovely wife Carmen, entertained us for several hours. His house was a fascinating place, as one would imagine, and he was in a fine mood – laughing and discussing his artwork, as well as inquiring about a mutual friend, the late filmmaker Dan O’Bannon (The Return of the Living Dead), who was still alive at the time. There was more to that fantastic encounter – including a fine meal, amusing anecdotes, bottles of wine, and many other stories – but much of it is of a private nature; it is something that Sunni and I will always cherish and hold dear in our hearts. What I can share, however, is that Giger was very pleased that I had brought along a recent picture I had taken of Dan, and kept looking at the image in astonishment. ‘‘Mein Gott…’’ he kept muttering, and I could sense that he was traveling back in time… reliving those moments so many years past on the closed set of what would become the classic horror/sci-fi film Alien.
During the creation of the movie, Dan was one of the few people who would visit Giger when he was working (Giger mentioned to me that between his uncertain English, and his personal intensity, he had the impression that people were afraid of him), and they had many heartfelt talks. Dan was somewhat of an outsider as well; I suspect that both men deeply appreciated the others companionship. They enjoyed discussing their contributions to the current film, of course, and their lifelong fascination with the output of author H.P. Lovecraft (indeed, perhaps no other figures in history have had as much impact on Lovecraft’s legacy as O’Bannon and Giger, with the possible exception of scholar S.T. Joshi). They also shared a history working on the illfated Alejandro Jodorowsky version of Frank Herbert’s masterpiece Dune, which was the first major enterprise to use Giger’s singular talents, and which – through the collapse of this ambitious project (now the subject of a documentary called Jodorowsky’s Dune) – created the strong bond between these two like-minded geniuses. The failure of Dune to materialize as a film was such a profound experience for O’Bannon that – after he was back in the US and able to get another film green-lighted (Alien) – one of his first priorities was to bring Giger to the attention of director Ridley Scott, which is how Giger began his career in cinema.
Another aspect of Giger that is often overlooked was his generosity of spirit (he assisted many neophyte artists in their careers by giving them retrospectives at his Museum H. R. Giger in the charming village of Gruyères, for example), and his kind disposition. He was a gentle soul, and quite humble; it is a curious thing that though his artwork was at times erotic and deeply disturbing, the man himself was full of joy and enthusiasm. He seemed to relish life, and was open with his thoughts and feelings interpersonally. His impact on the world of images and iconography cannot be overstated; he was one of a handful of people in the 20th century whose creations are instantly recognizable, alongside Dalí (whom Giger met), Picasso, Fuchs, and precious few others (interesting that most know them by a single name only, their work is so important).
‘‘Necronom IV’’ by H.R. Giger (1976)
It should be noted that visual art is not the only place Giger has had tremendous impact; his work has been intensely influential with respect to many other media as well. It has certainly changed film history, but also music (Giger himself was a musician, and he did numerous highly regarded album covers for acts such as Celtic Frost, Debbie Harry, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, to name a few), industrial design (such as the astounding Giger Bar), even writing (The Mystery of San Gottardo) and publishing (there are numerous books of his work available, many with key insights from Giger himself about his artwork, film design, recollections, and even personal diaries).
Even as our hearts go out to his family, and the world mourns his tragic and sudden passing, we must not lose sight of Giger’s legacy. We must consider not only his impact and influence, but also his message, his personal perspective that can be applied to our own existence. Giger, the individual uncoupled from his works, was unafraid to explore his most disturbing reveries, to give expression to things that most of us have felt or thought, yet rarely articulated publicly. He appeared undaunted by the lack of understanding that inevitably flowed from his decision not to flinch from his postmodern mirror, at times a reflection of culture, at other times a prism. This was a fearless artist, a challenging and intellectual man, a deeply feeling human… We’ll not soon see his like again, and for that, we are all the poorer, and, in a twist of irony, all the richer, for he has left each of us much to ruminate upon, to ingest, and to marvel at.
Rest in peace, H.R. Giger: You have more than earned it.
–Jason V Brock
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Writer and critic WILLIAM H. PATTERSON, JR., 62, died April 22, 2014. Patterson was an expert on the works of Robert A. Heinlein, and was chosen by Heinlein’s widow Virginia Heinlein to write the authorized biography. Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century, Vol. 1 (1907-1948): Learning Curve appeared in 2011, and was a Hugo Award finalist. Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century, Vol. 2: The Man Who Learned Better is due out in June, and is reviewed elsewhere in this issue.
William H. Patterson accepting Heinlein’s 1951 Retro Hugo (2001)
Patterson was born October 28, 1951 in St. Louis MO. The family moved to Indiana before relocating to Phoenix AZ in 1956. He attended Arizona State University, where he studied history. In 1969 he joined a local SF club and the local chapter of the Tolkien Club (where he met a 12-year-old Patrick Nielsen Hayden). Patterson became involved in local fandom and worked on the failed 1978 Phoenix Worldcon bid; he wrote The Little Fandom That Could about his experiences in Phoenix fandom.
Patterson relocated to San Francisco in 1978, where he founded the Heinlein Journal in 1997 and co-founded the Heinlein Society the following year. He wrote a biographical sketch of Heinlein in 1999 that impressed Virginia Heinlein, who asked him to write a formal biography in early 2000. He worked closely with Virginia until her death in 2003, and afterward helped the Heinlein Prize Trust and the Robert A. Heinlein Archive at the University of California, Santa Cruz organize the papers and other materials they inherited. He also helped locate manuscripts for the ‘‘Virginia Edition’’, definitive versions of Heinlein’s work, and did substantial editing and wrote endnotes for those volumes as well. He worked on organizing the Heinlein Centennial in Kansas City MO in 2007.
Patterson’s scholarly and critical work appeared in The Heinlein Journal, Foundation, and Firsts Magazine, and his essay ‘‘The Heir of James Branch Cabell: The Biography of the Biography of the Life of Manuel (A Comedy of Inheritances)’’ won the Cabell Prize of the Commonwealth University of Virginia in 2000. With Andrew Thornton he wrote The Martian Named Smith: Critical Perspectives on Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land (2002).
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Artist, writer, and editor AL FELDSTEIN, 88, died April 29, 2014 at home in Montana. Feldstein is best know for his tenure as editor of MAD Magazine from 1965-85, but he is beloved by horror fans for his work at EC Comics, where he began working as an artist in 1948 and went on to become a writer and editor, publishing work by Otto Binder, Harlan Ellison, Daniel Keyes, and others. He received a Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, and was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2003.
Albert B. Feldstein was born October 24, 1925 in Brooklyn NY. He won a poster contest for the 1939 World’s Fair, and attended the High School of Music and Art. At 15 he began working for comic book services company Eisner & Iger as an errand boy and la
ter inker. He attended Brooklyn College and took night classes at the Arts Student League until joining the Air Force in 1943, where he painted murals, decorated planes, and drew comics for military newspapers. Afterward, he worked for Fox Comics until beginning his long association with EC Comics, working on titles including Tales from the Crypt, Weird Science, The Vault of Horror, and many others. When EC closed down most of its titles in the mid-’50s, he joined MAD, running the magazine until his retirement. He moved from Connecticut to Jackson Hole WY, where he took up landscape and wildlife painting, which remained his passions throughout his retirement. He relocated to Paradise Valley MT in 1992, and remained there for the rest of his life. Feldstein was married three times, with the first ending in divorce and the second with his wife’s death in 1986. He is survived by third wife Michelle, five children, and a stepdaughter.
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SF author HILBERT SCHENK, 87, died December 2, 2013. Schenck’s first story was ‘‘Tomorrow’s Weather’’ in F&SF, April 1953. ‘‘Hurricane Claude’’ (1983) and ‘‘Silicon Muse’’ (1984) were Hugo Award nominees, and ‘‘The Battle of the Abaco Reefs’’ (1979) and ‘‘The Geometry of Narrative’’ (1983) were Hugo and Nebula Award finalists. His novels are At the Eye of the Ocean (1981), A Rose for Armageddon (1982), and Chronosequence (1988), and his short work is collected in Wave Rider (1980) and Steam Bird (1988). Hilbert van Nydeck Schenck, Jr. was born February 12, 1926 in Boston. He worked as an engineer and college professor at the University of Rhode Island.
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SF writer GEORGE C. WILLICK, 76, died April 26, 2014 in Hanover IN. Willick edited fanzine Parsection in the ’50s, with contributions from various future luminaries, including Roger Ebert. He published a handful of stories in 1969 and ’70, beginning with ‘‘Ersalz’s Rule’’ in Galaxy, October 1969. In the 1990s he maintained the Spacelight website, which included obituaries for SF writers, and maintained other research sites. He took the resources offline after he developed Alzheimer’s.
George Clifford Willick was born May 1, 1937 in Madison IN. He joined the Air Force in 1956, and served until 1962. He worked for Reliance Electric in Madison IN for 35 years. Willick is survived by wife Elberta Ione Wayman, married 1961, and their six daughters.
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EDITORIAL MATTERS
Daryl Gregory, Tim Pratt, Patrick Wells, Francesca Myman, Liza Groen Trombi, Nora Trombi, Kirsten Gong-Wong
I drove down to the Nebula Awards Weekend last week, a quick 45-minute drive to San Jose from Oakland, and a much appreciated change from the usual six to nine hours of travel I have to do to get to most cons. While the downtown SJ hotel didn’t have a natural central area or watering hole to find everyone in, it fit the events well. The hotel restaurant was pricey, but the rooms were good and there were several bars and a coffee kiosk. In comparison to last year, it was a huge improvement over the industrially appointed and noisy Hilton. There was a local comic con going on at the convention center down the street, so costumers wandered the sidewalks in droves, making us feel both at home and weirdly like the normal ones. There were plenty of familiar faces, and even some reappearing from the past. Jennifer Hall, who up to 2004 had been editorial director at Locus and in line to take over the magazine when Charles ‘‘retired,’’ came out to see everyone after several years out of contact. It was good to see her, though we never got a real chance to catch up properly. Jennifer Brehl, longtime friend and executive editor at HarperCollins, was also there; I selfishly hope this reflects a plan by her to attend more conventions, if only so that I get the chance to see her more. I met some new authors, saw lots of friends, and enjoyed the conversation.
I went out to the SF in SF dinner the first night there with featured authors Chip Delany and Daryl Gregory, the Tachyon folks (even Jill Roberts who is rarely seen at these events), Nalo Hopkinson & David Findlay, and more. The SF in SF readings went well; Gregory read a moving story about a mother’s experiences after a brain tumor freezes her sight on a vision of her daughter’s angry face, and Delany read an excerpt from his novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, after amusing the crowd with anecdotes about bad reviews and people who have to tell SF authors they ‘‘don’t like science fiction.’’ Francesca and I interviewed Linda Nagata, Ann Leckie, and Nicola Griffith; I met with editors and agents, and had another fun dinner with folks at Mezcal, the Oaxacan restaurant famous for serving grasshoppers (no, I didn’t!) and mezcal margaritas (yes, I did!). The mass signing was not so massive as previous years, but there was an impressive line of people waiting for the doors to open to get autographs.
Garth Nix, Sean Williams
I missed the beginning of the Readers’ Awards and AnLab Awards breakfast on Saturday morning – I was coming down with a cold and needed decongestant to kick in before any public appearances (you’d thank me). I made it in time to take some photos and see the awards presented at least. More meetings, lunch with Jim Minz and a variety of authors, and then on to the banquet. Toastmaster Ellen Klages did a fine job of vamping while technical difficulties were being difficult, telling a hilarious story about the ‘‘scary ham’’ that lived in her childhood home until she and her sisters finally gave it a ceremonial burial after her father died. The rest of the ceremony went relatively smoothly, although my table was afflicted intermittently by the giggles – an unsettling artifact of camera angles made a woman we could not see on the stage by direct line of sight appear and disappear on the large projector screen at the shoulder of the speaker – Banquo’s ghost.
The one big gaffe was Frank Robinson’s Special Honoree Award being skipped. Robin Wayne Bailey had flown in to accept the award on Frank’s behalf, and I don’t know what exactly happened, but that particular award presentation didn’t. As someone who regularly has to put together extensive lists, I know how easy it is to make mistakes – we still make errors even when everyone on the staff has proofread and double checked things. Steven Gould has made a strong apology on behalf of SFWA and offered to fly Frank and Bailey to next year’s Nebula Awards, which will be the 50th.
VISITORS
Sheila Williams, Liza Groen Trombi
Lots of visitors this month, thanks to the Nebulas and more. We had a visit earlier in the month by Daryl Gregory on his Afterparty book tour, up to the offices for the first time ever. My five year old gave him the grand tour of the collection and the house. Garth Nix and Sean Williams came through the city on their Scholastic tour, and there was a Locus field trip with the two of them for tapas and karaoke that won’t be forgotten soon. We also had Ellen Datlow and Ysabeau Wilce up for lunch and socializing with the staff, which was lovely. After the Nebula Awards Weekend, Sheila Williams came over for lunch and some much-needed catching up; she hadn’t been here for 20 years, but I don’t think it has changed much.
STAFF
Our editorial intern Alora Young graduated from college this month and will be moving back to Australia. She’s been a great addition to our staff, and we’ll miss her. If you’re in Melbourne and have any entry-level editorial or administrative positions, let us know; she’s smart as a whip, with strong attention to detail, good task completion, and a great sense of humor. All must-haves for the field.
Alora Young
THIS ISSUE/NEXT ISSUE
We had time to put the Nebula Awards winners in this issue, but the write-up and photos need more than the two days we had between the weekend and deadline, so they will appear in the next month. There’s another incident with Amazon throttling service in the news (monopolist is as monopolist does), and plenty of awards as we ramp up into the season. In our next issue we’ll have the Locus Awards winners – if you are thinking of going, please book now! It’ll be June 27-29 (including the workshop) in Seattle, and it’s always a lot of fun. There’s a link at
–Liza Groen Trombi
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CORRECTIONS
In our November 2013 issue, Rich Horton’s review incorrectly lists author Chris DeVito’s last name as ‘‘de Vito.’’
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PHOTO LIST
Joe Abercrombie (BG)
Eileen Gunn (FM)
Karen Russell (FCC/JG)
James Morrow (AB)
Bradley Denton (F/CS)
Lauren Owen (F/US)
2013 Nebula Awards Winners & Accepters (FM)
Robin Wayne Bailey (FM)
Iain McCaig (F/DB)
Frank M. Robinson (BG)
Joe Abercrombie (BG)
Eileen Gunn (FM)
Nnedi Okorafor (F/BC)
Charles Gannon (FM)
Terry Pratchett (BG)
Steve Israel (F)
Richard K. Morgan (FCC/RF)
Sherrilyn Kenyon (F/SRN)
Ann Leckie (FM)
2013 Stoker Awards Winners (BG)
Vernor Vinge (LT)
Asimov’s Readers’ & Analog AnLab Awards (LT)
Jim Minz, Sean Monaghan, Marina Lostetter, William Ledbetter (F)
Kameron Hurley (F)
India Conference (F/MHS)
Opening Ceremonies (F/MHS)