American comics artist Stan Goldberg who, in the 1960s, created the original colour designs for Spider-Man, the Hulk and the Fantastic Four, died on August 31, aged 82.
Frederic Mullally, British author, journalist and publicist (clients included Frank Sinatra and Audrey Hepburn), died on September 7, aged 96. Amongst his books is the 1975 alternate-history novel Hitler Has Won. Mullally was married to actress Rosemary Nicols (TV’s Department S).
British scriptwriter Jane Baker died on September 8. With her husband Pip she scripted the movie Captain Nemo and the Underwater City, along with additional scenes and dialogue for Night of the Big Heat (aka Island of the Burning Damned, starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing). For TV the couple also worked on Doctor Who, creating the character of renegade female Time Lord “The Rani” (memorably portrayed by Kate O’Mara), as well as an episode of Space: 1999. The pair also co-wrote the Doctor Who novelisations Mark of the Rani, Ultimate Foe, Time and the Rani and Terror of the Vervoids, along with the Doctor Who “find your fate” book, Race Against Time.
British author Graham [William] Joyce died of aggressive lymphoma on September 9, aged 59. He made his debut in 1991 with the novel Dreamside, and followed it up with the British Fantasy Award-winning Dark Sister, Requiem, The Tooth Fairy, The Stormwatcher, Memoirs of a Master Builder (as by “William Heaney”), Some Kind of Fairy Tale and the World Fantasy Award-winning The Limits of Enchantment, along with House of Lost Dreams, Spiderbite, Indigo, Smoking Poppy, How to Make Friends with Demons, The Silent Land and The Year of the Ladybird (aka The Ghost in the Electric Blue Suit). Joyce’s books for teens include TWOC, Do the Creepy Thing (aka The Exchange), Three Way to Snog an Alien and The Devil’s Ladder. His short fiction was collected in Partial Eclipse and Other Stories and the retrospective 25 Years in the Word Mines from PS Publishing, and he had stories in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #4, #12, #13 and #14.
American screenwriter [Allison] Sam(uel) Hall died on September 26, aged 93. He was a head writer on the daily Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows (1967-71) and also wrote the spin-off movies House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows. Hall co-scripted (with producer Dan Curtis) the pilot for Dead of Night: A Darkness in Blaisedon (1969), which starred Kerwin Mathews as psychic investigator “Jonathan Fletcher”, and he wrote the TV movies Frankenstein (1973) and The Two Deaths of Sean Doolittle. He was married to Dark Shadows star Grayson Hall (who died in 1985) and was a creative consultant during the show’s brief revival in the early 1990s.
Nebula Award-winning American short story writer Eugie Foster died of respiratory failure on September 27, aged 42. She had been diagnosed with a cancer in her sinuses a year earlier. A director of Dragon*Con and editor of their newsletter, The Daily Dragon, her stories appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including A Vampire Quintet: Five Sinister and Seductive Vampire Stories, and her short fiction was collected in Returning My Sister’s Face (2009).
Claire Walsh (Claire Churchill), the long-time companion of author J.G. Ballard, died on October 6, aged 73. A well-known figure in the London literary and artistic world during the 1960s and ‘70s, she was introduced to Ballard in 1967 by Michael Moorcock and acted as a sounding-board for the writer’s ideas long before he started writing them down. Walsh worked as a publicity manager for Studio Vista, Michael Joseph, Gollancz, Allen Lane and other publishers.
American children’s writer Zilpha Keatley Snyder died of complications from a stroke on October 8, aged 87. Best known for her Newbery Honor titles The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid and The Witches of Worm, she published more than forty books, including Black and Blue Magic, The Changeling, A Fabulous Creature, Song of the Gargoyle, The Unseen and William’s Midsummer Dreams.
Brazilian comic book artist André Coelho died in mid-October, aged 35. He worked for both Marvel and DC Comics on a number of titles, including X-Men, Suicide Squad, Ms Marvel and The Flash.
American screenwriter, producer and actor L.M. Kit Carson (Lewis Minor Carson) died after a long illness on October 20, aged 73. He scripted The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and two episodes of TV’s The Hitchhiker, as well as co-producing The Crow: Wicked Prayer. Carson was married to actress Karen Black from 1977-83.
American SF author [John] Hayden Howard died on October 23, aged 88. He made his debut in a 1952 issue of Planet Stories, and went on to contribute short fiction to If, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Galaxy and Analog. Howard’s only book was the fix-up novel The Eskimo Invasion (1967).
Romanian author, editor, translator and radio host Stefan Ghidoveanu died on October 27, aged 59. For Romanian Public Radio he hosted the SF and fantasy show Exploratorii Lumii de Miine (Explorers of Tomorrow’s World) from 1990 onwards.
Belgium-born author and editor Michel [Patrick] Parry died of cancer at his home in Banbury, England, on November 1. He was 67. He began his career in the 1960s as the British correspondent for the monster movie magazine Castle of Frankenstein (as “Mike Parry”), before editing his first anthology, Beware of the Cat: Weird Tales About Cats, in 1972. He followed it with The Hounds of Helclass="underline" Weird Tales About Dogs, Strange Ecstasies, Dream Trips, The Devil’s Children: Tales of Demons and Exorcists, Jack the Knife: Tales of Jack the Ripper, The Supernatural Solution, The Roots of Eviclass="underline" Beyond the Secret Life of Plants (as “Carlos Cassaba”), The Devil’s Kisses and the controversial More Devil’s Kisses (both as “Linda Lovecraft”), Waves of Terror: Weird Stories About the Sea, Savage Heroes: Tales of Sorcery and Black Magic (as “Eric Pendragon”), The Rivals of Dracula: A Century of Vampire Fiction, The Rivals of Frankenstein: A Gallery of Monsters and The Rivals of King Kong: A Rampage of Beasts, Spaced Out, Superheroes and Sex in the 21st Century (with Milton Subotsky), along with the YA titles Santa 2000 and Ghostbreakers. With actor Christopher Lee, Parry compiled Christopher Lee’s ‘X’ Certificate, Archives of Evil, The Great Villains: An Omnibus of Evil and Lurking Fear, and he also edited six volumes of The Mayflower Book of Black Magic Stories (1974-77) and four volumes of Reign of Terror: The Corgi Book of Great Victorian Horror Stories (1976-78). He novelised the Hammer film Countess Dracula in 1971, and his other books include Sloane: Fastest Fist in the West and Sloane: Fistful of Hate (both as “Steve Lee”, with Steve Moore), Agro (as “Nick Fury”), and with Garry Rusoff he co-wrote the SF novels Chariots of Fire and Throne of Blood. Some of his short fiction was collected in the chapbook Three Demonic Tales. For several years Parry was a junior story editor at American International’s London office and worked as a part-time consultant for Anthony Cheetham’s Sphere Books. He wrote and directed the 1969 short film Hex; scripted the 1977 anthology movie, The Uncanny, starring Peter Cushing, Ray Milland and Donald Pleasence; came up with the original story for Xtro (1982), and adapted Manly Wade Wellman’s story ‘Rouse Him Not’, starring Alex Cord as John Thunstone, for the TV series Monsters (1988).