James Garner, R.I.P.

Damn. I was just about to shut down the computer and head to bed when I read that James Garner has passed away at age 86. It's a shock: hell, it was only a month ago that I was reading his autobiography. 

Garner has been one of my favorite actors for as long as I can remember. His iconic portrayals of Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford are indelibly imprinted in our pop culture memory, and even if those were his only accomplishments as an actor, he'd be a legend. But he was more than that. A fine, thoughtful actor, a veteran, a charming curmudgeon. 

I miss him already.

Dennis Farina R.I.P.

I am saddened today to hear of the passing of actor Dennis Farina. Farina died Monday morning in a Scottsdale, Ariz., hospital after suffering a blood clot in his lung, according to his publicist. He was 69.

Like just about everyone else, I first witnessed his talent and screen presence when he played hardboiled police Lieutenant Mike Torello on Michael Mann's seminal period police drama, Crime Story series back in 1986. A true-life ex-Chicago cop, Farina brought hard-earned verisimilitude to his mob-busting, tough guy role.

Farina went on to play a wide variety of tough cops and criminals - sometimes comically (as in Get Shorty) - in dozens of television shows and films, including Code Of Silence, Manhunter, Snatch, and Midnight Run. He was well known for his recurring role on Law and Order, but I most fondly remember him as the titular character in Mark Frost's short-lived 1998 private eye series, Buddy Faro.

I'm definitely going to miss the guy. Rest in peace, sir.

Richard Matheson R.I.P.

Sadly, after an anxious day of rumors on Facebook and Twitter, it has been confirmed that the extraordinarily talented fantasist Richard Matheson has departed this plane at age 87 after a long illness.

Matheson has always been one of my greatest literary influences and inspirations, a man whose imagination knew no limits, who could see the fantastic in the mundane world around us, and paint vivid, indelible, unforgettable images with words. He was a master, and his influence on popular culture - from the Twilight Zone to The Incredible Shrinking Man to Roger Corman's colorful Poe films to Somewhere In Time (the movie theme was played at our wedding) to I Am Legend and beyond - is immeasurable. In fact, I was just watching the 1971 film adaptation of Legend, The Omega Man, last night.

When I was writing my Kolchak The Night Stalker comic book miniseries a few years ago, it was Matheson's teleplays for the original TV movies that I used as my guide to the character.

Rest in peace, sir.

Ray Harryhausen, R.I.P.

Ray Harryhausen, the undisputed master of stop-motion animation, has passed away at age 92. As others have noted, he didn't create the special effects technique of animating small models one frame at a time, but he perfected it in a series of imaginative motion pictures that, regardless of their other merits (or lack thereof), will endure forever because Ray somehow managed to breath convincing life into his menagerie of mythological and fantastical creations, working in solitude for months at a time. There have been other talented stop-motion animators (including Harryhausen's own mentor, Willis O'Brien), but few managed to imbue their characters with quite as much personality and "soul."

The movies he made will always be remembered, but it is all of the artists and animators, filmmakers and authors that he inspired that will be his true and greatest legacy... and I count myself among them.

R.I.P. Ray. There's considerably less magic in the world today.

Joe Kubert, R.I.P.

I was saddened late Sunday evening to hear of the passing of my old schoolmaster, Joe Kubert. As a child, some of the first non-funny animal comics I remember buying were his Tor and Tarzan comics from DC. A year or two later, when I first thought I wanted to be a comic book artist myself, I wrote to DC Comics and they sent me a Xeroxed "So You Want To Be A Cartoonist" flyer - written and illustrated by Kubert.

In 1983, I applied to his School Of Cartoon And Graphic Art in Dover, New Jersey and was - surprisingly - accepted. I attended for two years. I learned a great deal from Joe, and not just in the classroom. More than once during my two years at his school he took time to discuss with me personal problems I was having, and I greatly appreciated his genuine concern and honest, heartfelt advice. 

Of course, the lessons I did learn in his classes were priceless, and even though I eventually gave up on the dream of drawing comics, I have repeatedly found his teachings on storytelling to be invaluable in my own humble efforts as a writer (and in my brief career as a comic book editor) over the years.

Joe Kubert was an astounding artist and storyteller who contributed so much to the medium. He will be greatly missed by the multitudes who appreciated and enjoyed his work, and my most sincere condolences go out to his family and friends.

R.I.P. sir - and much thanks.

R.I.P. Richard Lynch

Sad news tonight. I've just heard that the great Richard Lynch (or, as my wife called him, "Cat-Man"), the iconic face and velvet voice of villainy in more than a hundred TV shows and movies, has passed away at age 76.

With his unique looks (in part attributable to a bad LSD trip which resulted in the actor setting himself on fire!) and sinisterly silky voice, the Brooklyn-born actor was the go-to bad guy for television and B-movie producers for decades.

He appeared in so many of my favorite television shows and exploitation films: Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, The Sword & The Sorcerer, Invasion USA, Deathsport, Trancers II, Puppet Master III, The A-Team, God Told Me To, Star Trek - The Next Generation, A Man Called Sloane, The Fall Guy, and, perhaps most memorably (at least for me), the terrific 1979 TV movie/pilot film, Vampire, which gave him one of his few leading roles.

They don't make character actors like Lynch, anymore, and we movie buffs are all the poorer for it. Rest in Peace, sir.

Wednesday Cover: Claw the Unconquered

Yep, another Wednesday, another sword & sorcery comic cover from the Seventies. Crom help me, I love this stuff. This time around it's the cover to DC Comics' Claw The Unconquered #2, their attempt to cash-in onrival publisher  Marvel's runaway hit Conan series. The art is by the great Ernie Chua (a/k/a Ernie Chan), a terrific Filipino artist who passed away just last week.

I first noticed the artist's work on Batman and Detective Comics, where he drew a damned fine Dark Knight. He was also DC's go-to cover artist for a couple of years there in the mid-Seventies. Later, he was praised for his work on Marvel's barbarian, where he often inked John Buscema on both the color Conan comic and the Savage Sword of Conan B&W magazine. I'll always associate him with the short-lived Claw, though. His Conan work was more polished, and his Batman stuff more widely-seen and appreciated, but Claw was his book. He was the first artist on it, and defined the character's fantasy world.

I always loved his lush inkline, and thought he was a great storyteller. He'll be missed.

R.I.P. Eduardo Barreto

I am stunned today by the sad news of the passing of my friend and colleague Eduardo Barreto. I had the great pleasure and privilege of working with him on Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger in the mid-90s as his editor, and, for the past few years, we had been collaborating on a planned Sinbad graphic novel - an exciting project that, sadly, will never see completion now. We were also putting together a proposal for King Features to revive Secret Agent X-9 as a daily & Sunday comic strip. With the current sad state of newspaper publishing, Eduardo knew it was a longshot when he asked me to write X-9 for his pitch, but he very much wanted to get back on the comics page - and we both loved the character.

My heartfelt condolences to his family and friends. All of us who knew him will remember him fondly, and all admirers of his work - and they are legion - will never forget his talent and superb storytelling skills.

R.I.P. amigo.

Eduardo's pin-up for my Perils On Planet X project

Page 1 of Sinbad & The Coils Of The Serpent

R.I.P. Gene Colan

Legendary comics artist, Gene Colan, has passed away at age 84, after several years of poor health. His career was astounding, beginning in 1944 and continuing until just a few years ago. He drew everything - for everybody - including definitive runs on super-hero titles like Iron Man, Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, but personally, I was most familiar with his crime and horror books, particularly those published in the 80s. His lush and distinctive penciling style was perfect for the the moody, atmospheric genres of noir and supernatural suspense.

More information about his life and his passing, from his friends and colleagues, can be found HERE and HERE.  Rest in Peace, Mister Colan, and thanks for all the beautifully-drawn thrills and chills.

R.I.P. Elisabeth Sladen

British actress Elisabeth Sladen, the real-world alter ego of plucky journalist Sarah Jane Smith, one of the best companions to renegade Time Lord known as The Doctor, has passed away at age 63 from cancer.

Sladen joined Doctor Who in the 1973 serial, "The Time Warrior," as the new companion of the Third Doctor, played by John Pertwee. She stayed in that role for three years, tagging along as the Third Doctor became the Fourth (Tom Baker). So beloved by fans - and producers - of Doctor Who, she returned to the franchise numerous times: first in the 1981 spin-off "pilot," K-9 & Company, and then in the same year's anniversary special, The Five Doctors. In 2006, she returned to the revived series in the acclaimed "School Reunion" episode, which led to the BBC green lighting her own show, The Sarah Jane Adventures. She was shooting the fifth season of that series when she passed away.

I'm pretty sure that the first full episode of Doctor Who I ever saw was "Robot," on PBS back when I was in art school, around 1983 or 84. Sladen co-starred with Tom Baker in that story, and I think I fell in love with her right then and there. Sarah Jane Smith is still my favorite Doctor Who "companion," and proved herself a formidable heroine in her own right. Smart, brave, cute-as-a-button and prickly as a cactus, Sarah Jane - and by extension, the actress who portrayed her so well - was my kind of woman.

Rest in Peace, Ms. Sladen... and so long, Sarah Jane - the finest companion a time traveler could ever hope for.

R.I.P. Anne Francis

Television's Honey West, the amazing Anne Francis, passed away four days ago from pancreatic cancer at a retirement home in Hollywood. She was 80 years old.

I've adored Anne Francis since the night in the late 70s when I first saw Forbidden Planet on the CBS Late Movie. Her Altaira was gorgeous, no doubt, but Anne brought much more to the role than a pretty face and stunning physique. Altaira, as portrayed by the talented young ingenue, was innocent, but not naive, unworldly but not unwise. In short, I believe that Anne brought her own sharp intellect to the potentially shallow, cliche sexpot role, and made the character much more than your usual sci-fi eye candy.

There was something about Anne that was different from other beautiful starlets of the era; maybe it was the obvious intelligence in her eyes, or the voice that, no matter the role, possessed maturity and confidence. Anne was a blonde, but was never dumb.

As Honey West, she was American television's first ass-kicking action heroine, spinning off from a memorable episode of Gene Barry's Burke's Law into her own single-season series. In a long career as a TV guest star, the actress shined in such shows as The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (where she portrayed - twice - the criminal mastermind Gervaise Ravel), Mission: Impossible, The Invaders, Kung Fu, Black Sheep Squadron, Dallas, Fantasy Island, Riptide and many more. In 1994, she even reprised the role of Honey on the revived Burke's Law, reunited with Barry.

Just a day before her passing, I watched the first season Twilight Zone episode, "The After Hours," and marveled again at how well she carried the story, spending nearly a third of the show alone on screen.

I feel a profound sense of loss with her passing, but am thankful that I have so many of her performances close at hand on my shelves, and I know that every time I revisit Forbidden Planet or Honey West, I'll fall in love with her all over again.

Rest peacefully, Anne.... and thanks.

In Tribute

Turner Classic Movies' tasteful tribute to the film personalities that we lost this year (and hopefully no more will pass away in the next couple of weeks). As a film buff who loves almost all movies (and not, despite my obvious affinity for them, just the bad ones), I found this quite moving. A lot of my favorites left us this past year...

R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen

For many, Leslie Nielsen, who passed away this weekend at age 84, will be best remembered as a talented comic actor, with credits like Airplane!, The Naked Gun (spun-off from the brilliant, short-lived TV series, Police Squad!), and Dracula, Dead And Loving It. And while I like all of those, and think Nielsen was fantastic in them, to me, he'll always be Commander J. J. Adams, the proto-Kirk of Forbidden Planet.

Of course, he was funny.

Rest well, Sir. You will be missed.

R.I.P. Ingrid Pitt

The beautiful and exotic Ingrid Pitt, star of Hammer Films' The Vampire Lovers and Countess Dracula, has passed away at age 73.

The Polish-born Ms. Pitt has always been my favorite lady vampyre, and, for my money, the sexiest. She also appeared in The Wicker Man and, memorably, The House That Dripped Blood for Amicus, where she spoofed her own vampiric image, as well as in action thrillers like Where Eagles Dare with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton, and Who Dares Wins. She also appeared in two Doctor Who serials.

But she will always be best remembered for her vampire roles - as the seductive Carmilla/Mircalla in Roy Ward Baker's The Vampire Lovers, a still-potent erotic horror film, and as the voluptuous Countess Elizabeth Bathory in Countess Dracula.

Rest in Peace, Carmilla.

Stephen J. Cannell, RIP

Acclaimed television producer, writer, occasional actor and novelist Stephen J. Cannell passed away yesterday at age 69. Although dyslexic, he was a prolific writer, who started writing scripts for television shows like It Takes A Thief and Adam-12 in the 60s, went on to co-create (with Roy Huggins) The Rockford Files in the 70s, and pretty much ruled the airwaves in the 80s with shows like The A-Team, Greatest American Hero, Hardcastle & McCormick, Riptide, Hunter, Wiseguy, Renegade, 21 Jump Street, Stingray and more. He was also the man behind such fascinating ratings flops like Tenspeed & Brownshoe, Richie Brockleman Private Eye, and City of Angels, all of which were popular with critics if a little ahead of their time for most audiences.

While some snobs may look down their noses at some of his most popular hits (like The A-Team), Cannell was a master of the episodic television format, and his shows always delivered what they promised - and usually to a Mike Post-Pete Carpenter theme.

I don't think you could have grown up as an American male in the 70s and 80s and not be influenced by Cannell. His shows were action-packed, fun, generally smart - and everywhere. I know that my storytelling owes a lot to those countless hours spent in front of the TV watching Jim Rockford and the A-Team. The man understood structure and story, knew what audiences responded to, and insisted on a high level of craftsmanship, no matter what the project. He was a class act.

Rest in Peace, sir.

R.I.P. Al Willamson

Possibly my favorite adventure cartoonist of all time, Al Williamson, passed away yesterday at the age of 79. I have been a fan of Williamson's art since at least the early 80s, when he drew the Marvel Comics adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back. In the years that followed, I made a concerted effort to track down as much of WIlliamson's work as I could find - and when I got my hands on James Van Hise's book, The Art of Al Williamson, I was knocked off my feet.

I loved his detailed, lush art style, his noble-but-human heroes, his stunning women, his imaginative and utterly convincing alien worlds. He was as much a master of real-world adventure (Secret Agent Corrigan) as he was interplanetary adventure (Flash Gordon, Star Wars), and he was equally adept at atmospheric horror (Creepy), gritty Westerns and exotic jungle thrills (Jann of the Jungle).

Right next to my desk, on a bookshelf within easy reach, are nine large volumes devoted to his work: the aforementioned Art of Al Williamson, Al Williamson Hidden Lands, Al Williamson Adventures, the lovely Al Williamson's Flash Gordon collection, the hardcover edition of his Flash Gordon movie adaptation, three volumes of Classic Star Wars strips, and a Secret Agent Corrigan album from Pioneer Books.

Following so quickly on the heels of the death of his friend Frank Frazetta, I can't help but feel that a distinct era of heroic fantasy illustration has passed, and that we'll never see its like again. Oh, there are talented artists out there working in the tradition of Frazetta and Williamson, like Mark Schultz, Gary Gianni and Mike Hoffman, but it's not the same.

Rest in Peace, Al, and thanks for sharing the adventure. I miss you already.

Frank Frazetta, R.I.P.

I discovered Frank Frazetta's art and Edgar Rice Burroughs' writing at the same moment, when I came across the Ace paperback edition of ERB's Pellucidar in a box of books in my grandmother's basement when I was about twelve years old. I have no idea how that book came to be there - perhaps it had once belonged to one of my uncles or my late grandfather - but that Frazetta cover (above) with that amazing woman, sabertooth and swooping pterodactyls (Mahars, actually, but what did I know from Mahars?) grabbed me like a strong fist around my throat.

There was always something visceral about Frazetta's art, no matter what the subject, that no other painter, regardless of talent or skill, has ever matched. In his use of color, his idealized, heroically-muscled women and men that appeared ready to jump right off the page, his imaginative, awe-inspiring vistas - he was unequalled. In the field of fantasy illustration, Frazetta had no rivals (and still doesn't) - Frazetta cover paintings guaranteed the sales success of the titles they graced, and publishers and art directors fell over themselves to commission him. For generations of fantasy fans, he will always be the definitive illustrator of the worlds of Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and countless other fantasists.

Other artists - however technically proficient or talented - simply could not duplicate the raw sensuality and pure, primal energy of his work. A documentary about his art was released in 2003, entitled, Painting With Fire. A more apt description of his style, I cannot imagine. Frazetta painted with fire.

Frank Frazetta died today at age 82, leaving behind a tremendous body of inspiring, breathtaking masterworks, and a legion of artists, writers and readers who couldn't help falling passionately in love with his stunning, unique vision.

Rest in Peace, sir!

Wednesday Cover: Modesty Blaise

Another Wednesday, another cover and another obituary, sadly. Peter O'Donnell, creator of the legendary comic strip Modesty Blaise, passed away on May 3rd, just a week after his 90th birthday.

He’s best known for creating the classic newspaper strip Modesty Blaise with artist Jim Holdaway. The strip appeared in the London newspaper, The Evening Standard, beginning in 1963 and chronicled daily the adventures of the seductive adventuress for nearly forty years. In 1966, O'Donnell sold the rights to a feature film and wrote the screenplay. The producers changed it so much though, that, in frustration, O'Donnell turned his script into a novel. It was a huge success and led to a dozen or so Blaise novels and a couple of short story collections.

The paperback edition above features a striking image by the legendary Robert McGinnis, and was a tie-in to the film, which starred Monica Vitti and Terrence Stamp. The movie's a mess (though still kinda fun to watch), but the novel is a great adventure story. I only have about half of the books, and I'm always on the lookout for more.

R.I.P. Mister O'Donnell. You had a great run.

Wednesday Cover: THE ROOK

I came to Warren Magazines fairly late, not really looking at any of their titles until my late teens in the early 1980s. Of course, this means I missed the glory days of Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella and Famous Monsters, but I did buy and enjoy some of their odd twilight titles, like The Rook.

Created by writer Bill Dubay, The Rook was Restin Dane, a time-traveling adventurer descended from the unnamed protagonist of H.G. Well's The Time Machine. His nickname came from the shape of his vehicle, which resembled the titular chess piece. He dressed vaguely like a gunfighter (I always thought he looked like Han Solo, but sci-fi was pretty much my only frame of reference back then) and his adventures were pretty wild.

The cover to Issue #2, above, was painted by the great paperback cover artist Bob Larkin.

I read today that Dubay passed away on April 15th after a battle with cancer. He was a prolific comics writer and editor, with most of his work in the medium published by Warren, where he served as Managing Editor for a decade. He also worked in animation for many years. I can't say I know too much about the man or his work, but I know that his byline was on a lot of stories that I've enjoyed over the years.

R.I.P. Mr. Dubay, and thanks.

Stuart M Kaminsky, RIP

It has just come to my attention that mystery writer Stuart M. Kaminsky passed away today at age 75.

I was a huge fan of his "Toby Peters" mysteries, the tongue-in-cheek adventures, set in the 1940s, of a schlubby Hollywood private eye whose cases always involved big-name cinema celebrities. From the first, Bullet For A Star (which involved the P.I. with Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart), I enjoyed the series both for its eccentric cast of recurring characters and its author's obvious love for Hollywood's Golden Age. My favorites include Never Cross A Vampire with Bela Lugosi, Buried Caesars with Dashiell Hammett, and You Bet Your Life, in which Peters must help out the Marx Brothers. All of them are fun, though.

I also enjoyed and collected his "Lew Fonesca" series (even if they were often depressing), and his two Rockford Files original novels. He was a film historian (his book on John Huston has been on my shelf for decades) and even worked on movies like Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In America.

I met Kaminsky briefly about a decade ago at the Private Eye Writers of America convention in St. Louis. At the time, he'd stopped writing the Peters novels, and assured me that he was finished with the series. Fortunately, it turned out that he was wrong, and a few years later, another book in the series hit the shelves and was followed by several more.

I really enjoyed his work. The Peters books were among those that really got me into private eye fiction in my early 20s, and remain among my favorites. It saddens me that there won't be any more.

Rest in peace, Mister Kaminsky.