Monthly Archives: January 2012

Resnick GoH at PulpFest 2012

Posted on by

Mike Resnick will be PulpFest 2012’s Guest of Honor. While Resnick’s record as an award-winning writer and spellbinding raconteur is all the reason any con needs to crown him GoH, among his latest projects  is one PulpFest members will certainly applaud.

A recognized authority on the works of Burroughs, Mike is currently editing, with Bob Garcia, The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs, an anthology of mostly original stories inspired by Burroughs and his creations. It will be published by Baen Books.

The PulpFest committee concludes:

With this year being the hundredth anniversary of the start of Burroughs’ writing career, it is fitting that our guest of honor is an author who, early in his career, “wanted nothing more than to write books in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs.”

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

Bob Lovell (1947-2012)

Posted on by

Robert G. Lovell Jr. – known in fandom as Bob and, when wearing his antlers, as “Chocolate Moose” — died January 15 in Houghton, Michigan. He was 64.

SF Site reminds us that Lovell supported the successful 1983 Worldcon bid by offering “Backrubs for Baltimore” at cons around fandom.

Though he became less active in fandom in later life, Lovell did make it to Chicon 2000. He attended in his scoutmaster’s uniform, recalls Michael Walsh.

A formal obituary is posted here.

Lovell is survived by his wife Sue and sons Endicott and James.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

Bob Lowell, in antlers, appears in this photo from the 1979 Balticon.

Richard Thompson Suspends Comic Strip

Posted on by

Richard Thompson, who draws the Cul-de-Sac daily comic strip, has suspended the strip for four weeks to undergo treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

Thompson came out of fanzine fandom. Many of his cartoons appeared in the 1980s and 1990s in such fanzines as Stephen Brown and Dan Steffan’s Science Fiction Eye, Ted White and Dan Steffan’s Blat! and the Disclave program book.

Thompson was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2009. Since then friends and fans have been encouraging and supporting Thompson through Team Cul De Sac.

Thompson lightened the latest announcement with a touch of humor:

Well, I’m taking some time off. Some more time off, three or four weeks. I’m about to start a program of physical therapy sessions designed for people with Parkinson’s. I’ve only been in for an evaluation, but the therapy largely consists of big, exaggerated movements and sweeping silly walks that will so embarrass your body that it’ll start behaving itself, I hope.

Thompson received the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award, a cartoonist of the year prize, in 2011. The daily “Cul de Sac,” which he launched as a weekly feature in The Washington Post Magazine, is carried by more than 140 papers.

[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster for the story.]

Langford Has Eye Surgery

Posted on by

Dave Langford writes: “I tend not to think of my own doings as news, but if you want to scoop Ansible you are welcome to reveal that I’m recovering from an eye operation on 20 January. Torn/detached retina, getting worse fast. Successful procedure according to the surgeon. But life is still blurry and full of typos.”

How can I pass up an invitation to scoop Ansible? Or, more important, to wish Dave the fullest possible recovery!

Gerhartsreiter Hearing, Day 2

Posted on by

Prosecutors continued establishing the identity of the victim and defendant during the second day of hearings which will determine whether Christian Gerhartsreiter stands trial on charges of murdering John Sohus in 1985.

A former neighbor from San Marino identified the defendant as Christopher Chichester, the name he went by when he was Didi Sohus’ tenant.

Then two police officers testified about contacts leading up to the filing of a missing persons report for John and his wife, Linda. Thomas Leveque, currently an Arcadia Police Department lieutenant and a San Marino police officer in 1985, received the report in April 1985 from Linda Sohus’ sister.

Leveque added that he was told by John’s mother, Didi Sohus, that the couple were on a secret mission. The Pasadena Star-News quotes:

“She said she could get in touch, but would not furnish information,” Leveque said. “She said she had written to them and could contact them and the unknown source could reach them.”

Lili Hadsell, now Baldwin Park’s police chief, but a San Marino police officer in 1985, said she spoke to Ruth Sohus several times before finally making a police report in July.

There also is a story about today’s hearing in the LA Times.

Diane Duane Cleaned Out

Posted on by

Diane Duane told her online community that some miscreant has tapped out her bank account:

“…I was expecting a payment into the joint account that Peter and I share, and logged into online banking to see if it had come in yet. And saw:

Available balance: 0.00”

The bank will cover most of the loss when its fraud department finishes working, but meanwhile there’s nothing but vacuum in the household budget.

[Thanks to James Davis Nicoll for the story.]

Digging the Philistines

Posted on by

Where did those aliens originate? I don’t mean space aliens, I mean the Philistines. Fandom’s Louise Hitchcock, who spoke about archaeology and the Philistines at the 2010 Loscon, was recently asked by Bible History Daily “Where Did the Philistines Come From?”

The fact that the Tell es-Safi/Gath horned altar has only two horns may have to do with the cultural origins of the Philistines. As Louise Hitchcock, senior staff member of the Tell es-Safi/Gath excavations, has suggested, the very motif of the horned altar in the Levant may have been influenced by earlier Minoan “horns of consecration,” symbolic representations of the horns of the sacred bull in Minoan culture. In fact, there is an altar from the Late Bronze Age site of Myrtous Pigadhes in Cyprus that also has only two horns. The unique horned altar from Tell es-Safi/Gath, the earliest stone altar ever found from the land of the Philistines, may be another indication of the Aegean influences on early Philistine culture and quite possibly a hint to their origins.

Dr. Hitchcock is on the faculty of the University of Melbourne.

2012 Edgar Nominees

Posted on by

The Mystery Writers of America has announced the slate of nominees for the 2012 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. Several writers on the ballot are equally well-known in the sf field, while one of the nonfiction book nominees hits a topical of great interest for local LA fans. (The full list is here.)

Two Best Short Story nominees are “The Adakian Eagle” by Bradley Denton and “The Case of Death and Honey” by Neil Gaiman.

The Best Critical/Biographical category features The Tattoed Girl: The Enigma of Steig Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of our Time by Dan Burstein, Arne de Keijzer and John-Henri Holmberg (Holmberg a well-known Swedish sf figure) and On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda (who reviews sf for the Washington Post).

And nominated for Best Fact Crime is The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter by Mark Seal, a book-length profile of the man suspected of killing of LASFS member John Sohus in 1985.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

Comic-Con 2012 Membership Changes

Posted on by

Last February 5 tickets to San Diego’s Comic-Con International 2011 sold out in seven hours. The company running the online registration system admitted it was overwhelmed by record demand and crashed more than once.

The con is making changes in an attempt to satisfy more members in 2012. The two main ones involve pricing and a new membership ID system.

Comic-Con has stopped offering a discount for 4-day badge purchases in hopes more people will purchase only the days they actually will be attending, leaving more badges available for others.

Then, everyone who intends to purchase, apply, or register for a Comic-Con badge must sign-up for a Comic-Con Member ID.

A Comic-Con FAQ attempts to minimize the confusion over its new terminology:

I still don’t understand – What is the difference between Member IDs, badges, and tickets?

A Comic-Con badge is required for entry to any Comic-Con event. This is the physical badge you will wear at Comic-Con.

Additionally, a Member ID account is required to purchase, apply, or register for a badge for Comic-Con. The Member ID will act as your “login” to the EPIC online registration system when it at a later date.

Without a Member ID you will not be able to log on to the EPIC online registration system and purchase a badge, nor complete a press, professional, trade professional or volunteer application.

Comic-Con does not sell “tickets” to our event. After you register for a Member ID and purchase your badge through EPIC online registration, you will receive a barcode confirmation e-mail that you will bring onsite to exchange for a badge.

I did not find the date for open online registration posted on any of the pages linked above; perhaps it has yet to be revealed. Conrunners will be watching with interest to see how the giant of the sf/fantasy field fares this year.