Christopher Fowler - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 10

My old classmate had weathered into a white-haired, sturdy replica of his own grandfather, and although his hips still gave him considerable difficulty his mind had suffered no comparable stiffening. Delbert knew my name as well as his own, and though he could not connect it to the wizened old party counseling him from the lectern to embrace his enemies, the old party’s face and voice so clearly evoked the deceased lawyer who had been my father that he recognized me before I had spoken the whole of the initial verse. The grand design at work in the universe once again could be seen at its mysterious work: unknown to me, my entirely selfish efforts on behalf of Charlie-Charlie Rackett, my representation to his parole board and his subsequent hiring as my spy, had been noted by all of barnie-world. I, a child of Scripture Street, had become a hero to generations of barnies! After hugging me at the conclusion of the fateful service, Delbert Mudge implored my assistance in the resolution of a fiscal imbroglio which threatened his family’s cohesion. I of course assented, with the condition that my services should be free of charge. The Mudge imbroglio proved elementary, and soon I was performing similar services for other barnie clans. After listening to a half-dozen accounts of my miracles while setting broken barnie-bones, New Covenant’s physician visited my Scripture Street habitation under cover of night, was prescribed the solution to his uncomplicated problem, and sang my praises to his fellow townies. Within a year, by which time all New Covenant had become aware of my “tragedy” and consequent “reawakening”, I was managing the Temple’s funds as well as those of barn and town. Three years later, our Reverend having in his ninety-first year, as the Racketts and Mudges put it, “woke up dead”, I submitted by popular acclaim to appointment in his place.

Daily, I assume the honored place assigned me. Ceremonious vestments assure that my patchwork scars remain unseen. The lucite box and its relics are interred deep within the sacred ground beneath the Temple where I must one day join my predecessors — some bony fragments of Graham Leeson reside there, too, mingled with Marguerite’s more numerous specks and nuggets. Eyepatch elegantly in place, I lean forward upon the Malacca cane and, while flourishing the stump of my right hand as if in demonstration, with my ruined tongue whisper what I know none shall understand, the homily beginning, It only … To this I append in silent exhalation the two words concluding that little book brought to my attention by an agreeable murderer and purchased at the great grand station long ago, these: Ah, humanity!

The following writers, artists, performers and technicians who made significant contributions to the horror, science fiction and fantasy genres during their lifetimes (or left their mark on popular culture in other ways) died in 1998.

Prolific author Walter D. Edmonds, best remembered for his 1930s bestseller Drums Along the Mohawk (filmed by John Ford in 1939) died on January 24th, aged 94.

Cartoonist and dust jacket illustrator “Ionicus”(Joshua Charles Armitage) died on January 29th, aged 84. He trained at the Liverpool School of Art and, following service in the Royal Navy during World War II, began contributing cartoons to Punch magazine. He produced fifty-eight covers for the Penguin P. G. Wodehouse series, but it is his sixty-five dust jacket paintings for William Kimber’s ghost story collections and anthologies between 1974–88 — by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, James Turner, Denys Val Baker, Amy Myers and others — for which he will be remembered.

Thriller writer Lawrence Sandersdied on February 7th, aged 78. Best known for his novels The Anderson Tapes and The First Deadly Sin (filmed in 1972 and 1980, respectively), he also wrote such borderline-SF titles as The Tomorrow File and The Passion of Molly T, plus the fantasy Dark Summer under the pseudonym “Mark Upton”.

Fantasy and science fiction writer (Patricia) Jo Claytondied of multiple myeloma on February 13th, two days before her 59th birthday. Despite being hospitalized for more than a year and a half and suffering from advanced bone cancer, she completed the second volume (Drum Calls) and part of the third book in her “Drums” trilogy, along with a number of short stories. Among her thirty-five published novels are Diadem from the Stars (1977), Moongather, Drinker of Souls, Skeen’s Leap, Shadowplay, Wild Magic, Dancer’s Rise, Fire in the Sky and Drum Warning.

Games designer and fantasy novelist Sean A. Moorewas killed in a single-car accident in the early evening hours of February 23rd. The creator of the bestselling computer game, Ultimate Wizard, he was 33 and had recently quit his job to become a full-time writer. His books included Conan the Hunter, Conan and the Shaman’s Curse, Conan and the Grim Gray God and the novelisation of the 1997 movie Kull the Conqueror (he also worked uncredited on the script).

Cuban-born cartoonist Antonio Prohias, who drew the “Spy vs. Spy” strip for Mad magazine from 1961 until he retired in 1991, died from cancer on February 24th in Florida. He was 77.

Rockin’ Sidney Simien, who won a Grammy Award in 1985 for his zydeco hit “(Don’t Mess With) My Toot Toot”, died of lung cancer on February 25th, aged 59.

Beat poet Jack Micheline, a close friend of Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso and Bob Kaufman, who published more than twenty books of poetry, died in San Francisco on February 27th, aged 68.

Comics writer and editor Archie Goodwin(Archibald Goodwin) died on March 1st after a long battle with cancer. He was 60. In 1965 he entered the comics field as a writer and Editor-in-Chief of Warren Publication’s Creepy and Eerie titles. He later worked at both Marvel and DC Comics, and scripted such newspaper strips as Star Wars and Secret Agent X-9.

43-year-old MS sufferer Robert James Leake, the seven-foot tall “professional monster” who appeared in numerous commercials and television shows as Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and Darth Vader, died the same day, after entering hospital with a chest infection. He joined The Dracula Society in 1974 and held a variety of positions, including Honorary Secretary, archivist, media consultant and editor of the society’s newsletter, Voices from the Vaults.

Following treatment for a series of aneurysms, playwright and screenwriter Beverley Cross, who was married to actress Dame Maggie Smith, died on March 20th, aged 66. His credits include the Ray Harryhausen fantasy adventures Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger and Clash of the Titans.

Rozz Williams, the songwriter and musician who founded Gothic rock group Christian Death, hanged himself on April 1st at his home in West Hollywood. He was 34.

Puerto Rico-born science fiction illustrator Alex Schomburgdied on April 7th, aged 92. His career spanned seven decades and included the covers of Hugo Gernsback’s science magazines in the 1920s, superhero titles from the Golden Age of comics, and pulp and digest SF magazine covers during the 1950s and 60s. Croma: The Art of Alex Schomburg was published in 1986, and he received a special Lifetime Achievement Award in SF Art at the 1989 World Science Fiction Convention.