The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 24

by Stephen Jones

  British composer Ted Dicks (Edward Dicks), who wrote the music for such 1960s hits as “Right, Said Fred”, “Hole in the Ground” and “A Windmill in Old Amsterdam”, died on January 27, aged 83. Dicks also composed the theme song for Carry on Screaming! and wrote the scores for Virgin Witch and the 1970 TV series Catweazle.

  British comic strip artist Mike White died over the weekend of January 28–29 after a long illness. Best known for his work on the “Roy of the Rovers” football strip for six years, his first strip appeared in Valiant in 1965. He went on to work on Jack Adrian’s violent and controversial “Kids Rule – OK” in Action and for 2000AD he collaborated with writer Alan Moore on various strips, including “Abelard Snazz”, “Future Shocks” and “Time Twisters” (the memorable “The Reversible Man” story).

  Gretta M. Anderson (Gretta McCoombs), who edited and published the American horror, fantasy and SF periodical 2AM Magazine (1985–95), died of a heart attack on January 29, aged 55.

  American bookseller and SF and fantasy writer Ardath Mayhar (Ardath Frances Hurst) died on February 1, aged 81. After writing some poetry and pseudonymous Westerns, she made her genre debut in 1973 and became a full-time author in 1982, publishing more than sixty novels, including How the Gods Wove in Kyrannon, Soul-Singer of Tyrnos, Warlock’s Gift, The Black Tower and Shock Treatment. Mayhar’s short fiction was collected in, amongst other titles, Slewfoot Sally and the Flying Mule and Other Tales from Cotton Country, The Crystal Skull, The Twilight Dancer and Other Tales of Magic, Fantasy and the Supernatural, Strange Doin’s in the Pine Hills and A World of Weirdities. She received the SFWA Author Emeritus Award in 2008.

  British SF and fantasy writer John Christopher (Christopher Samuel Youd) died on February 3, aged 89. He made his genre debut with a poem in a 1949 issue of Weird Tales, and published his first novel, The Winter Swan, that same year. Best known for his YA “Tripods” trilogy (1967–68, adapted for a BBC-TV series in the mid-1980s), his other novels include The Death of Grass (aka No Blade of Grass, filmed in 1970), The Year of the Comet (aka Planet of Peril), A Wrinkle in the Skin (aka The Ragged Edge), The Little People, Pendulum and Bad Dream. The author’s many books for children include the “The Prince in Waiting” and “Fireball” trilogies, along with The Lotus Caves, The Guardians, Empty World and A Dusk of Demons. The Twenty-Second Century collected some of his SF work under the “John Christopher” by-line, and his many other pseudonyms included Christopher Youd, Hilary Ford, William Godfrey, Peter Graaf, Peter Nichols, Anthony Rye, Stanley Winchester and Samuel Youd.

  Eighty-seven-year-old John Turner Sargent, Sr, who was CEO of publishing imprint Doubleday & Co from 1963–78, died of a stroke on February 4, following a long illness. Among the authors he worked with were Stephen King and Peter Benchley, and Sargent was rumoured to have been the Doubleday executive who ordered the US edition of J. G. Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition pulped in 1970 because it included a story about his close friend, Jacqueline Kennedy.

  American comic book artist John [Powers] Severin died on February 12, aged 90. He was best known for his work on EC’s Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, and Marvel’s Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, The Incredible Hulk, Conan the Barbarian and King Kull. In the 1970s he contributed to Warren Publishing’s Blazing Combat and Creepy. Severin was one of the founding artists on Mad, and he worked for 45 years on the humour magazine Cracked.

  American author and stage director Mark Bourne died of a heart attack on February 25, aged 50. He worked with Ray Bradbury to adapt the latter’s stories for the theatre and planetarium performances, and his fiction appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy and Asimov’s. Bourne is credited with first using the word “morph” in an SF story in 1993.

  British actor (The Terrornauts, Out of the Unknown etc.) turned TV scriptwriter Richard [Michael] Carpenter died of a blood clot on February 26, aged 82. He scripted the series Catweazle (1970–71), The Boy from Space (1971), The Ghosts of Motley Hall (1976–78), The Baker Street Boys (1983), Robin of Sherwood (1984–86), The Borrowers (1992) and The Return of the Borrowers (1993), along with the film Stanley’s Dragon and I Was a Rat (based on the Philip Pullman novel). Carpenter also wrote a number of novelisations of his work.

  American comic book artist Sheldon Moldoff died on February 29, aged 91. His work appeared in Action Comics #1 (which introduced Superman), and he also worked on the Golden Age versions of Hawkman and Hawkgirl. After drawing Moon Girl for EC, in the late 1940s he packaged the horror comics This Magazine is Haunted, Worlds of Fear and Strange Suspense Stories for Fawcett Comics. From 1953–67 Moldoff was one on Bob Kane’s primary “ghost artists” on Batman, and he is credited as co-creating the characters Bat-Girl, Batwoman and Ace the Bat Hound, along with supervillains Mr Freeze, Poison Ivy, Clayface and Bat-Mite.

  Canadian-born technical artist Bruce Cornwell, who worked on Frank Hampson’s “Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future” comic strip in the Eagle, died on March 2. He also had work in The Dalek Book and The Dalek World in the mid-1960s.

  Conceptual movie artist Ralph [Angus] McQuarrie, who created the iconic designs for such characters as Darth Vader, R2-D2, C-3PO and Chewbacca in Star Wars, died on March 3, aged 82. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease. A technical illustrator for Boeing before he started designing movie posters, he later contributed concept art to The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the original Battlestar Galactica TV series, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Cocoon (which won him an Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 1986), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, *batteries not included and Clive Barker’s Nightbreed. McQuarrie was also the conceptual artist for the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios.

  British film archivist and journalist Philip Jenkinson, who presented the BBC-TV shows Late Night Line-Up and Film Night in the late 1960s and early 1970s, died on March 4. He was 76. Amongst the many celebrities he interviewed were John Ford, Ramon Novarro, Gloria Swanson and Boris Karloff. He also wrote a regular column about films for the Radio Times and appeared in the 1977 Christmas special of The Morecambe & Wise Show.

  Academy Award-winning American songwriter and screenwriter Robert B. (Bernard) Sherman died in London on March 5, aged 86. In collaboration with his younger brother, Richard M. Sherman, he contributed songs to such movies as The Absent-Minded Professor, Moon Pilot, In Search of the Castaways, The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, The Gnome-Mobile, The Jungle Book (1967), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, The AristoCats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Snoopy Come Home, Charlotte’s Web (1973), Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, The Tigger Movie and many other titles. The Sherman brothers wrote the song “It’s a Small World (After All)” for an installation at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, since when it has reportedly become the most translated and performed song ever.

  Forty-one-year-old New Zealand-born SF and horror writer Paul Haines died of cancer in Australia the same day. A winner of the Ditmar and Aurealis awards, his stories were collected in Doorways for the Dispossessed, Slice of Life and The Last Days of Kali Tuga.

  German SF author Hans Kneifel, who wrote more than eighty Perry Rhodan novels, along with many other sharedworld and stand-alone books, died om March 7, aged 75.

  Influential French illustrator Jean [Henri Gaston] Giraud (aka “Moëbius”), who co-founded the magazine Metal Hurlant in 1975, died in Paris after a long battle with cancer on March 10. He was 73. Best known for his comics work around the world, he also created concept and storyboard art for such films as Alien, Time Masters, Tron, Masters of the Universe, Willow, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, The Abyss, Space Jam and The Fifth Element. He was the Artist Guest of Honour at the 2007 World Fantasy Convention, and was inducted into the SF Hall of Fame in 2011.

  M. A. R. Barker (Professor Muham
mad Abd-al-Rahman Barker), who created the world of “Tekumel” as a setting for the role-playing game Empire of the Petal Throne (1975), died on March 16, aged 83. He also wrote five novels with the same setting, beginning with The Man of Gold in 1984.

  American SF fan turned author Gene DeWeese (Thomas Eugene DeWeese) died on March 19, aged 78. He had been suffering from Lewy body dementia. Best known for his tieins to Star Trek, Lost in Space, Amazing Stories, “Ravenloft”, “Dinotopia” and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (with Robert “Buck” Coulson, under the pseudonym Thomas Stratton), DeWeese’s more than 40 books also include The Blackhoe Gothic, Nightmares from Space, Whatever Became of Aunt Margaret? and The Adventures of a Two-Minute Werewolf (which was made into a TV movie in 1985). Some of his short fiction was collected in The Wanting Factor and, under the pen-name Jean DeWeese he published nine Gothic novels, including The Reimann Curse, The Moonstone Spirit and Nightmare in Pewter.

  Italian poet, novelist and screenwriter Tonio (Antonio) Guerra, best known for his work with director Michaelangelo Antonioni and other leading Italian directors, died on March 21, aged 92. His many films include Perseus Against the Monsters (Spanish version, uncredited), The Tenth Victim, Blow-Up, Cinderella – Italian Style, Ghosts – Italian Style, Zabriskie Point and Flesh for Frankenstein (uncredited).

  Swiss-born British academic and novelist Christine Brooke-Rose died the same day in France, aged 89. Known for her experimental novels, starting with Out in 1964, she also wrote the 1981 non-fiction volume A Rhetoric of the Unreal: Studies in Narrative and Structure, Especially of the Fantastic.

  British author and journalist Peter Phillips died on March 28, aged 92. During the 1940s and 50s he wrote around twenty of SF stories, including “Dreams Are Sacred” (Astounding, 1948), which was adapted as “Get off My Cloud” in 1969 for the BBC TV series Out of the Unknown.

  British editor and publisher Nick Webb died on April 10, aged 62. He began his career at Penguin before moving on to Granada and Arrow. He was managing editor a Sphere and also worked at Duckworth and Simon & Schuster UK. While senior fiction editor at Pan Books in the late 1970s he commissioned Douglas Adams to novelise his radio series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Webb also wrote Adams’s official biography, Wish You Were Here (2003), following the author’s premature death.

  American SF author and editor K. (Kathy) D. (Diane) Wentworth died of pneumonia caused by complications from cervical cancer on April 18. She was 61. Her novels include The Imperium Game, Moonspeaker and House of Moons, along with two collaborations with Eric Flint, The Course of Empire and The Crucible of Empire. As co-ordinating judge for the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest she edited the annual Writers of the Future anthologies from 2009 until her death.

  American film composer Joel Goldsmith, the eldest son of composer Jerry Goldsmith, died of cancer on April 29, aged 54. Best known for his music for the Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis and SGU: Stargate Universe TV series and spin-off movies, his other credits include Laserblast (with Richard Band), The Day Time Ended, Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype, Island of Blood, Double Jeopardy, The Man with Two Brains, Watchers, Moon 44, The Rift, Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence, Man’s Best Friend, Rattled, Vampirella, Kull the Conqueror, Monster! (1999), Chameleon 3: Dark Angel, Haunting Sarah and War of the Dead, along with episodes of the 1990s Outer Limits, Witchblade and Sanctuary TV series. Goldsmith also composed around 20 minutes of additional music for his father’s score for Star Trek: First Contact.

  American small press horror writer Michael Louis Calvillo died after a long battle against cancer on April 30, aged 37. His novels include the Bram Stoker Award-nominated I Will Rise, As Fate Would Have It, Lambs and Death and Desire in the Age of Women. He also published the novellas Bleed for You and 7 Brains, and some of his short fiction is collected in Blood & Gristle.

  Best-selling American children’s book writer and illustrator Maurice [Bernard] Sendak, best known for his Caldecott Medal-winning Where the Wild Things Are (1963, filmed in 2009), died of complications from a recent stroke on May 8, aged 83. His more than 80 other books include In the Night Kitchen (1970), Outside Over There (1981) and Bumble-Ardy (2011). Sendak also received the US Congress National Medal of Arts, the Hans Christian Anderson Award, a National Book Award and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

  Philippines-born comic book artist and letterer Tony DeZuniga died of complications from a stroke on May 11, aged 71. One of the first Filipino artists to have his work accepted by American publishers in the late 1960s, he co-created such characters as Jonah Hex and Black Orchid for DC Comics. Amongst many other titles, DeZungia worked on Conan the Barbarian, Conan the King, Doc Savage, Dracula Lives, Ghosts, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Man-Thing, Monsters Unleashed, Phantom Stranger, Red Sonja, Savage Sword of Conan, Swamp Thing, Vampire Tales, Weird Mystery Tales, Weird War Tales, Weird Western Tales and The Witching Hour.

  American SF fan and photographer Jay Kay Klien died of oesophageal cancer on May 13, aged 80. He published a small number of short stories, his photographs of conventions appeared in numerous magazines, including Locus, and he was Fan Guest of Honor at the 1974 World Science Fiction Convention. Klein was inducted into the First Fandom Hall of Fame in 2011.

  Film scholar and critic Paul Willeman died the same day, aged 77. Among the books he contributed to were Roger Corman: The Millenic Vision and the original edition of the Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror. Willeman wrote the bulk of “continental” film entries for the latter, highlighting the careers of people such as Jesus Franco and Paul Naschy.

  Mexican author Carlos [Manuel] Fuentes [Marcías] died on May 15, aged 83. Best known for his magical realist works, he also strayed into genre fiction with Aura, La cabeza de la hidra, Terra Nostra, Inez and La Silla del Aguila. From 1959–73 he was married to actress Rita Macedo and received a state funeral in Mexico City.

  Filipino comic book artist Ernie (Ernesto) Chan (aka Ernie Chua) died of cancer on May 16, aged 71. The many titles he contributed to include Chamber of Chills, Claw the Unconquered, Conan the Barbarian, Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love, Doc Savage, Ghosts, Haunt of Horror, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Jonah Hex, King Conan, Kull the Conqueror/Kull the Destroyer, Savage Sword of Conan, Secrets of Haunted House, Secrets of Sinister House, Swamp Thing, Tales of Ghost Castle, Tales of the Zombie, Weird Mystery Tales, Weird War Tales and The Witching Hour.

  British literary agent and editor Hilary [Harold] Rubinstein died on May 22, aged 86. The nephew of Victor Gollancz, he entered publishing in 1950 and founded the Gollancz SF line, bringing his friend Kingsley Amis to the list. In the mid-1960s he became an agent at A.P. Watt, where he represented the estates of H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling and G.K. Chesterton. Rubinstein retired from the firm in 1992.

  Hugo Award and Caldecott Medal-winning American artist Leo Dillon, best known for his artistic collaborations with his wife Diane, died of lung cancer on May 26, aged 79. Together they created numerous print and album covers, posters, greeting cards and more than 40 children’s books. Among the authors whose works they illustrated are Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. LeGuin, Michael Moorcock and R. A. Lafferty. Some of their work was collected in The Art of Leo and Diane Dillon (1981), and they jointly received the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2008.

  Ray [Douglas] Bradbury, arguably the greatest and most influential writer in our genre(s), died on June 5, aged 91. After moving with his family to Los Angeles in 1934, he joined the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society where he met Forrest J Ackerman, Hannes Bok, Edmond Hamilton, Ray Harryhausen, Robert A. Heinlein and Henry Kuttner, amongst others. He contributed to various fanzines in the late 1930s, before he broke into the pulp magazines in 1941, contributing short stories to Weird Tales, Super Science Fiction and numerous other titles. In 1947 some of his best fiction was collected in Dark Carnival by Arkham House. In the decades that followed, Bradbury published numerous novels and collections, including such classics as The Martian Chronicles,
The Illustrated Man, Fahrenheit 451, The Golden Apples of the Sun, The October Country, Dandelion Wine, The Day It Rained Forever, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Halloween Tree, From the Dust Returned and many other titles. He scripted John Huston’s 1956 movie of Moby Dick, It Came from Outer Space and other projects, and his own work has been widely adapted for film, TV and theatre, notably for his own television series, The Ray Bradbury Theater (1985–86). His many awards include the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, SFWA Grand Master, Bram Stoker Life Achievement Award, World Horror Grandmaster and a National Medal of the Arts. On what would have been his 92nd birthday – August 22, 2012 – NASA announced that it was naming the landing site of the Mars Curiosity rover “The Bradbury Landing” in honour of the late author.

  American SF writer Jim Young (James Maxwell Young) died of complications from glioblastoma (a malignant brain tumour only diagnosed several days earlier) on June 12, aged 61. A former US diplomat, he wrote two novels (The Face of the Deep and Armed Memory) and his short fiction appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and elsewhere. Following his early retirement, he worked as an actor, appearing in a number of short films and as Adolf Hitler in Nazis at the Centre of the Earth (2012). Young married and then divorced editor Kathryn Cramer in 1989.

  Influential American film critic and champion of the auteur theory, Andrew Sarris, died of complications from a stomach infection on June 20, aged 83. From the 1960s onwards, his reviews appeared in The Village Voice (in which he famously championed Hitchcock’s Psycho) and the New York Observer. Sarris also edited an English-language edition of the French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, and he wrote the acclaimed reference work The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968.