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

Hollywood screenwriter, producer and director Hal Kanterdied of pneumonia on 6 November, aged ninety-two. He was the son of Albert L. Kanter, who founded the Classic Comics (later Classics Illustrated) line in 1941. Kanter wrote the screenplays for such Bob Hope comedies as My Favorite Spy, Road to Bali, Here Come the Girls and Casanova’s Big Night , and in 1953 he began regularly scripting the Annual Academy Awards show.

American composer, bandleader and trumpeter Russell Garcia, who composed the music scores for the George Pal productions The Time Machine (1960) and Atlantis the Lost Continent , died of cancer in New Zealand on 20 November, aged ninety-five.

American science fiction author Anne[Inez] McCaffreydied of a massive stroke at her home in Ireland on 21 November, aged eighty-five. She began her writing career in 1953, and is best known for her best-selling “Pern” series, which began with the “fix-up” novel Dragonflight in 1968 and continued for more than twenty further volumes, with later titles co-written with her son, Todd McCaffrey. Her more than 100 books also include the “Talents”, “Doona”, “Dinosaur Planet”, “Killashandra” and “Catteni” series, along with such stand-alone novels as The Mark of Merlin, The Coelura, Nimisha’s Ship and Catalyst . McCaffrey’s short fiction is collected in The Ship Who Sang and Get Off the Unicorn , she edited two anthologies and wrote two cookbooks, while Dragonholder (1999) is a biography written by her son. She was the first woman to win both the Nebula and Hugo Awards, and her “Pern” book The White Dragon (1978) was the first SF novel to appear on the New York Times bestseller list. She was also a recipient of the British Fantasy Society’s Karl Edward Wagner Award, and was named a SFWA Grand Master in 2005.

Robert E. Briney(Robert Edward “Bob” Briney, Jr.), an expert on Sax Rohmer and mystery and supernatural fiction, died on 25 November, aged seventy-seven. A co-founder of the Advent: Publishing imprint in 1956, he edited the 1953 anthology Shanadu and also contributed a novella under the pseudonym “Andrew Duane” (written with Brian J. McNaughton). Briney edited the 1972 reference book SF Bibliographies: An Annotated Bibliography of Bibliographical Works on Science Fiction and Fantasy Fiction along with eighteen issues of The Rohmer Review (1970–83).

Japanese anime artist and director Shingo Arakidied on 1 December, aged seventy-two. Among his credits are Ulysses 31, Inspector Gadget and The Mighty Orbots .

Sixty-three-year-old American fanzine publisher Bob Sabelladied of an inoperable brain tumour on 3 December. He edited 170 issues of Visions of Paradise and wrote the 2000 study Who Shaped Science Fiction?

American artist Darrell K.(Kinsman) Sweetdied on 5 December, aged seventy-seven. Best known for his work with such imprints as Ballantine Books and Del Rey in the 1970s, he produced the cover art for Robert Jordan’s “Wheels of Time” series, Stephen R. Donaldson’s “Chronicles of Thomas Covenant” series, and Piers Anthony’s “Xanth” series. His artwork was collected in Beyond Fantasy: The Art of Darrell K. Sweet (1997).

American comic book artist and historian Jerry Robinsondied in his sleep on 7 December, aged eighty-nine. Originally hired as an inker at the age of seventeen by “Batman” creator Bob Kane, Robinson went on to co-create “Robin, the Boy Wonder” and was a primary influence on the creation of the duo’s arch-nemesis “The Joker” (modelled after Conrad Veidt in the 1928 movie The Man Who Laughs ), “Two-Face” and Bruce Wayne’s butler, “Alfred Pennyworth”. In later years he moved into newspaper comic strips and became an advocate for the rights of artists. Robinson’s 1974 book, The Comics , was one of the first books about newspaper strips.

Scottish writer, critic and translator Gilbert Adairdied on 8 December, aged sixty-six. In the 1980s he wrote the children’s sequels Alice Through the Needle’s Eye and Peter Pan and the Only Children .

British fantasy author Euan Harveydied of cancer on 9 December, aged thirty-eight. He began his writing career in 2007 and sold eight stories to Realms of Fantasy magazine.

French SF author Louis Thiriondied the same day, aged eighty-eight. He published more than thirty novels, starting in 1964 with Waterloo, morne plaine . He also contributed several scripts to the radio series Théâtre de l’Étrange .

American-born author and illustrator Russell[Conwell] Hoban, best known for his post-holocaust novel Riddley Walker (1980), died of congestive heart failure in London on 13 December, aged eighty-six. He began publishing in 1959, and produced more than twenty titles for children and adults, including Pilgerman, The Medusa Frequency, Turtle Diary, The Mouse and His Child and the “Frances the Badger” series.

American SF author and medical doctor T. J. Bass(Thomas J. Bassler) died in Honoloulu the same day, aged seventy-nine. Starting in 1968, he had a number of stories published in If and Galaxy magazines, and his linked novels Half Past Human (1971) and The Godwhale (1974) were both nominated for Nebula Awards.

Legendary comic book creator Joe Simon(Hymie Simon, aka Joseph Henry “Joe” Simon) died after a brief illness on 14 December, aged ninety-eight. He created (with Jack Kirby) such characters as Captain America, the Newsboy Legion, the Boy Commandos, Manhunter, Fighting American and the Fly. The duo also worked on Adventure Comics, Detective Comics, Sandman and numerous other titles in all genres, including the horror comics Black Magic and The Strange World of Your Dreams . Titan Books recently published the huge retrospective volume of their work, The Best of Simon and Kirby , along with the autobiographical work Joe Simon: My Life in Comics .

Fifty-year-old Italian fantasy and horror author and magazine editor Gianluca Casseri, known for his extreme right-wing views, killed himself the same day after shooting dead two Senegalese street traders and wounding three others in Florence.

French SF and espionage author Richard Bessieredied on 22 December, aged eighty-eight. His first science fiction series, “Conquérants de l’universe” (1951–54), was followed by a number of stand-alone SF/horror novels, including Les maîtres du silence and Cette lueur qui venait des ténèbres , along with a series about a futuristic James Bond named “Dan Seymour”.

American SF fan, book dealer and collector James L. “Rusty” Hevelindied on 27 December, aged eighty-nine. Instantly recognisable from his Gandalf-style beard, he edited such fanzines as Aliquot, H-1661 and Badly , and was Fan Guest of Honour at the 1981 World Science Fiction Convention.

Ninety-one-year-old British illustrator Ronald[William Fordham] SearleCBE, whose famous St. Trinian’s cartoons often rivalled those of Charles Addams for macabre humour, died after a short illness at his home in the south of France on 30 December. Besides the St. Trinian’s titles, his many other books include Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1961), James Thurber’s The 13 Clocks and the Wonderful O, Scrooge (1970), Dick Deadeye (filmed in 1975), Marquis de Sade Meets Goody Two-Shoes and Something in the Cellar .