Stephen Jones - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 23

Former US Army soldier and shipyard worker Charles E. Hicksondied of a heart attack on 9 September, aged eighty. On 11 October, 1973, Hickson and another man were fishing off the west bank of the Pascagoula River, Mississippi, when they claimed they were abducted by aliens. This became known as the “Pascagoula Abduction”. Hickson appeared in the 1978 feature documentary, The Force Beyond , and in 1983 he wrote a book about his experience, UFO Contact in Pascagoula .

American comics artist Jack Adlerdied on 18 September, aged ninety-four. He was a staff member of DC Comics’ production department from 1946 to 1981, working as a cover artist and colourist on such titles as Sea Devils, Green Lantern and G.I. Combat .

American horror short fiction writer and editor Mark W.(Whitney) Worthendied on 19 September, aged forty-nine. He created the online magazine Blood Rose (1998–2005) and co-edited Desolate Souls , the souvenir anthology of the 2008 World Horror Convention, with his second wife, Jeannie Eddy (aka “J. P. Edwards”). Worthen was closely involved with the Horror Writers Association, as both a webmaster and co-chair of the awards committee. He received the HWA’s Richard Laymon President’s Award for Services in 2007.

Eighty-nine-year-old British author John[Frederick] Burkedied on 21 September following a fall in his home. He became a SF fan in the 1930s, writing letters to Weird Tales and founding the early UK fanzine The Satellite with David McIlwain (aka “Charles Eric Maine”). Sam Youd (aka “John Christopher”) was also a regular contributor to the magazine. Burke’s short stories appeared in Authentic Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, Nebula, New Worlds, the 6th and 9th Pan Book of Horror Stories, Tandem Horror Three , the 6th and 8th Ghost Book, New Terrors 2, After Midnight, Scare Care, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume Nine, Don’t Turn Out the Light, Brighton Shock! and many other magazines and anthologies. His first novel, published in 1949, won an Atlantic Award in Literature from the Rockefeller Foundation, and he worked for Museum Press before becoming European story editor for 20th Century-Fox Productions in 1963. Best known for his 1970s trilogy of novels featuring psychic investigator “Dr Caspian” ( The Devil’s Footsteps, The Black Charade and Ladygrove ), he wrote more than 150 books (under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms), many of them film and TV novelisations, including the Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, Dr Terror’s House of Horrors, The Hammer Horror Film Omnibus, The Second Hammer Horror Film Omnibus, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Privilege, Moon Zero Two and two tie-ins to Gerry Anderson’s U.F.O . (as “Robert Miall”). Burke also edited three anthologies for Pan Books ( Tales of Unease, More Tales of Unease and New Tales of Unease ), and some of his best short stories are collected in We’ve Been Waiting for You , edited by Nicholas Royle for Ash-Tree Press. A new macabre collection, Murder, Mystery and Magic , and a new SF collection, The Old Man of the Stars , were published in 2011, and he had completed a new horror novel, The Nightmare Whisperers , shortly before he died. Burke also scripted the 1967 Boris Karloff movie The Sorcerers , but only received credit for the original idea.

Best-selling Australian fantasy author Sara Douglass(Sara Mary Warneke) died of ovarian cancer on 26 September, aged fifty-four. Best known for the “Wayfarer Redemption” series, which began in 1995 with the best-seller BattleAxe and continued with Enchanter, Starman, Sinner, Pilgrim and Crusader , her other series include the “Crucible” trilogy, “Darkglass Mountain” and “Troy Game”. Douglass also wrote Beyond the Hanging Wall, Threshold and The Devil’s Diadem , and some of her short stories were collected in The Hall of Lost Footsteps .

American playwright and screenwriter David Z.(Zelag) Goodmandied of progressive supranuclear palsy the same day, aged eighty-one. His credits include Hammer’s The Stranglers of Bombay, Straw Dogs, Man on a Swing, Logan’s Run and Eyes of Laura Mars .

Italian comics writer and publisher Sergio Bonellialso died on 26 September, aged seventy-nine. His Sergio Bonelli Editore imprint published the psychic-investigator title Dylan Dog .

Italian editor and writer Vittorio Curtonidied of a heart attack on 4 October, aged sixty-two. He had been suffering from cancer. Between 1970–75 he co-edited the Galassia paperback line, founded the Italian SF magazine Robot in 1976 and translated more than 300 novels. Curtoni’s own short stories were collected in Bianco su nero ( White on Black ) and he wrote the novel Dove stiamo volando ( Where Are We Flying To ).

American lawyer and civil rights activist Derrick Bell(Derrick Albert Bell, Jr.) died of carcinoid cancer on 5 October, aged eighty. His SF story “The Space Traders” was adapted by HBO for the 1994 anthology TV show Cosmic Slop .

British author Jack D. Shackleforddied of lung cancer on 13 October, aged seventy-three. A former professional heavyweight boxer, professional cricketer, folk-singer and practising traditional witch, he wrote the novels Tanith (1970), The Strickland Demon (1977) and The House of the Magus (1979), and he had a short story in The 17th Pan Book of Horror Stories .

Veteran American comic book writer Alvin Schwartz, who is credited for inventing the “Bizarro World” concept in Superman , died of heart-related problems in Canada on 28 October, aged ninety-five. He also scripted copies of Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash and House of Mystery . Schwartz wrote the newspaper strips for a number of DC Comics heroes and worked on rival Fawcett’s Captain Marvel .

Comic book writer, artist and editor Mick Anglo(Maurice Anglowitz), the creator of British superhero “Marvelman”, died on 31 October, aged ninety-five. Over the years he re-vamped the character (and often the same artwork) as “Captain Universe”, “Captain Miracle” and Miracle Man”. Anglo produced a 1966 hardcover annual for TV’s The Avengers ; the short-lived mid-1960s comics Fantasy Stories, Macabre Stories, Spectre Stories and Strange Stories for John Spencer & Co., and he also illustrated the tie-in strips “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” and “Green Hornet” for TV Tornado , which he edited.

American author, journalist and musician Les Daniels(Leslie Noel Daniels, III) died of a heart attack on 5 November, aged sixty-eight. Best known for his centuries-spanning series of books about the vampire Don Sebastian de Villanueva ( The Black Castle, The Silver Skull, Citizen Vampire, Yellow Fog and No Blood Spilled ), he was also the author of the non-fiction study Living in Fear: A History of Horror in the Mass Media and edited the anthology Dying of Fright: Masterpieces of the Macabre , illustrated by the Lee Brown Coye. Daniels was also an authority on comic books, and he wrote Comix: A History of Comic Books in America (1971) and definitive guides to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, along with authoritative histories of Marvel and DC Comics. His short fiction appeared in such anthologies as Best New Horror 4, Dark Voices 4 and 5 , and Dark Terrors 5 .