American-born writer Guy Mariner Tucker, author of the 1996 study, Age of the Gods: The History of Japanese Fantasy Film, died of heart failure in Tokyo the same day. He contributed many articles on Japanese fantasy films to such magazines as G-Fan, Cult Movies and Kaiju-Fan.
American television writer Chris Hayward, who co-created The Munsters and also worked on Rocky and Bullwinkle, died on November 20th, aged 81.
Russian-born Broadway lyricist and screenwriter Betty Comden (Basya Cohen), whose credits include the Mary Martin stage version of Peter Pan, On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain and The Band Wagon with songwriter Adolph Green (who died in 2002), died of heart failure on November 23rd, following a long illness. She was aged around 90. Comden’s lyrics were also heard in What a Way to Go!, Blue Sunshine, The Addams Family, Dr Giggles and TV’s Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
Jerry G. (Gwin) Bails, regarded as “the father of American comic book fandom”, died of a heart attack the same day, aged 73. He began publishing his influential fanzine, Alter Ego, in 1961 and his books include Collector’s Guide: The First Heroic Age, Who’s Who in American Comic Books, Fifty Who Made DC Great, Golden Age of Comic Fandom and Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Fanzine.
Prolific British author Sydney J. (James) Bounds died of cancer on November 24th, aged 86. He joined the Science Fiction Association in 1937, where he met writers Arthur C. Clarke, William F. Temple and John Christopher (Sam Youd). Bounds founded the SF fan group, the Cosmos Club, during World War II, and his early fiction appeared in the club’s fanzine, Cosmic Cuts. His first professional sale never appeared, but by the late 1940s he was contributing “spicy” stories to the monthly magazines published by Utopia Press. His early novels include Dimension of Horror, The Moon Raiders, The World Wrecker and The Robot Brains. Writing under a wide number of pseudonyms, he became a regular contributor to such SF magazines as Tales of Tomorrow, Worlds of Fantasy, New Worlds Science Fiction, Other Worlds Science Stories and Fantastic Universe, amongst other titles. When the magazine markets began to dry up, Bounds became a reliable contributor to such anthology series as New Writings in SF, The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, The Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories, The Armada Monster Book and The Armada Ghost Book. His story “The Circus” was adapted by George A. Romero for a 1986 episode of the TV series Tales of the Darkside. Other anthologies to feature his stories include Tales of Terror from Outer Space, Gaslight Tales of Terror, Frighteners, Keep Out the Night, The Mammoth Book of Vampires, The Mammoth Book of New Terror, Great Ghost Stories, Tales to Freeze the Blood and Philip Harbottle’s Fantasy Adventure series. In 2002, Harbottle edited the first-ever collections of Bounds’ work, The Best of Sydney]. Bounds: Strange Portrait and Other Stories and The Best of Sydney]. Bounds: The Wayward Ship and Other Stories, for Cosmos Books.
90-year-old actress and author Phyllis Fraser (Helen Brown Nichols/Phyllis Cerf Wagner) died of complications from a fall the same day. The cousin of Ginger Rogers, she appeared in a handful of 1930s films, including Thirteen Women and The Black Room (with Boris Karloff). She married publisher and co-founder of Random House, Bennett Cerf, in 1940. With Herbert A. Wise she co-edited the seminal anthology Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural in 1944 for her husband’s The Modern Library imprint. Following Cerf’s death in 1971, she married New York City Mayor Robert Wagner four years later. In the late 1950s she started collaborating with her friend Theodore Geisel (“Dr. Seuss”) on a number of children’s books, including Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.
American academic Leon E. (Eugene) Stover, who collaborated with Harry Harrison on the 1968 anthology Apeman, Spaceman and the 1972 novel Stonehenge, died of complications from diabetes on November 25th, aged 77. Stover also wrote non-fiction studies about Harrison, H. G. Wells and Robert A. Heinlein.
American comic book illustrator Dave [Emmett] Cockrum, best-known for his work with Len Wein on Marvel’s X-Men title during the mid-1970s, died after a long battle with diabetes on November 26th, aged 63. Many of the X-Men characters Cockrum co-created and designed, including Storm, Mystique, Nightcrawler and Colossus, went on to appear in the popular film franchise. His other credits include drawing the Legion of Super-Heroes for DC Comics before he moved to Marvel. He reportedly died wearing Superman pyjamas and was cremated in a Green Lantern shirt.
Film music composer and conductor Shirley Walker died of a brain aneurysm on November 29th, aged 61. Her many credits include The Dungeonmaster, Ghoulies, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, The Haunting of Seacliff Inn, The Adventures of Zoom in Outer Space, Escape from L.A., It Came from Outer Space 2, Asteroid, The Love Bug (1997), all three Final Destination films and the remakes of Willard (2003) and Black Christmas (2006). She also scored many animated TV series, including Batman (1992–95).
51-year-old American author [John] Pierce Askegren was found dead at his home from a massive heart attack the same day. He wrote the “Inconstant Moons” trilogy (Human Resource, Fall Girl and Exit Strategy) along with comic books and TV and gaming tie-ins.
42-year-old British writer Craig Hinton, whose credits include five Doctor Who spin-off novels, was found dead at his London home on December 3rd.
Romance writer Patricia [Anne] Matthews died of respiratory failure and congestive heart failure on December 7th, aged 79. Her 1991 novel The Unquiet was an occult romantic thriller, and as “Laura Wylie” she wrote the 1970s horror novel The Night Visitor. She was also the author of a number of Gothic romances, often in collaboration with her husband Clayton Hartley Matthews, under the pen name “Patty Brisco”.
American comics artist Martin Nodell, who co-created and illustrated the original 1940s Green Lantern under the name “Matt Dellon”, died on December 9th, aged 91. Nodell reportedly got the idea for Green Lantern’s magic ring while waiting for a New York subway and seeing a train operator waving his green light. The character soon got his own comic book, which ran until 1947. He was revived in 1959 and has appeared in various incarnations since. Nodell eventually left the comics industry in the early 1950s and moved on to a career in advertising, where he was part of the original team who created the Pillsbury Doughboy.
TV scriptwriter Robert Schaefer died of emphysema on December 14th, aged 80. He wrote for numerous shows, including Science Fiction Theater and Highway to Heaven, and scripted the 1958 feature The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold.