Fanartist Bill Kunkel died September 4 at the age of 61, reportedly due to a fall in his home.
“Alas… great guy, very talented,” commented Greg Benford when passing along the news.
My earliest memory of Bill’s creativity was his art-on-stencil for the Arnie Katz iteration of Focal Point – in issues delivered to my dormitory mailbox, back in the day.
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Sorry for being so late in posting a response.
While he also was an excellent fan artist, he also played a role in two other fandoms that are close to my heart.
– He founded the first magazine about video games, “Electronic Games”, and would later write columns as “The Game Doctor” for several other magazines (“Electronic Gaming Monthly”, “Computer Gaming World”, etc.) after that magazine came to an end.
– He was a columnist for Pro Wrestling Torch as it transitioned from a newsletter to a full-on magazine, making it one of the top news sources about what was really going on (the “shoot”*) in pro wrestling.
*As opposed to the on-screen storylines (the “work”).
The New York Times has published a full Kunkel obituary article.