Five Mars SF&F guys who committed suicide

Guess who?
1. James Ashmore Creelman (1894-1941) Hollywood film writer whose credits include King Kong (1933) and The Journey to Mars (1936).

2. Thomas Disch (1940-2008) Science fiction author and poet whose works include the children’s book The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars (1988).

3. Gray Morrow (1934-2001) Illustrator of paperback book covers and comics whose works include the cover art for the 1966 editions of the trilogy Warriors of Mars, Blades of Mars, Barbarians of Mars by Michael Moorcock.

4. H. Beam Piper (1904-1964) Science fiction author whose works include the classic short story “Omnilingual” (1957).

5. Wally Wood (1927-1981) Comic book writer and artist whose works include “Spawn of Mars” (1951) and the concept roughs for the famed 1962 Topps Mars Attacks trading cards.

Author James P. Hogan (1941-2010)

British science fiction author James P. Hogan (1941-2010), who held some controversial views on the Holocaust and climate change, has died. Hogan wrote the humorous Martian Knightlife (2001) and the introduction to the Edgar Rice Burroughs omnibus Under the Moons of Mars (2003), as well as many other works.

[via SF Site]

Artist Frank Frazetta (1928-2010)

Frank Frazetta (1928-2010)

Artist John Schoenherr (1935-2010)

SFScope reports that award-winning science fiction illustrator and cover artist John Schoenherr died April 8, 2010. Born in New York City in 1935, Schoenherr did the cover art for several Maritan SF novels, including: The Bird of Time (1961), by Wallace West; Mars is My Destination (1962), by Frank Belknap Long; The Martian Sphinx (1965) and Born Under Mars (1967), by John Brunner; and The Sword of Rhiannon (1967), by Leigh Brackett. I’ve put together a small gallery over on Flickr.

Actor Peter Graves dies at age 83, appeared in 1952 film Red Planet Mars

The New York Times reports that well-known film and television actor Peter Graves died earlier today, March 14, 2010, at his home in Los Angeles. Perhaps best known for his role in the late 1960s-early 1970s television series Mission: Impossible, Graves also played the character of Chris Cronyn in the Cold War anti-Communist science fiction film Red Planet Mars (1952).

Author Kage Baker (1952-2010)

SFWA reports that well-known American science fiction and fantasy author Kage Baker has passed away at her home in Pismo Beach, California while battling cancer. Baker wrote several works of Martian SF, including the award-winning novella “The Empress of Mars” (2003), which she later expanded into the novel The Empress of Mars (Tor, 2009), and the novella “Where the Golden Apples Grow” (2006).

Actor Gene Barry, star of 1953 film War of the Worlds, dies at age 90

Television, film and stage actor Gene Barry died Wednesday, December 9, 2009, age 90, in Woodland Hills, California, according to an obituary in The New York Times. Among his many accomplishments was his lead role as scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester in the George Pal film production of War of the Worlds (1953), based on the classic 1898 novel by H.G. Wells. Barry also made a cameo appearance as Tom Cruise’s ex-father-in-law in the Steven Spielberg remake of War of the Worlds (2005).

Pictured: Gene Barry as Dr. Clayton Forrester.

Mars is My Destination, a 1962 novel written by Frank Belknap Long

Mars is My Destination: a Science-Fiction Adventure, by Frank Belknap Long (1962)

Pictured: Paperback original (New York: Pyramid Books, 1962), #F-742, 158 p., 40¢. Cover painting by John Schoenherr. Here's the piece from the back cover:

There was trouble brewing on Mars -- bad trouble. Two giant industrial empires fought for control there, and their struggle imperiled the whole Mars colony. Civil War -- atomic civil war -- could break out any second, leaving Earth’s only foothold in Space a mass of radioactive rubble. But both antagonists were too politically powerful for the Colonization Board to take a direct hand. One man was needed to take charge -- one man who could act fast and decisively, brutally if he had to. Ralph Graham got the job. And then people began dying around him...

An obituary of Frank Belknap Long appeared in the January 5, 1994, issue of The New York Times.

Cover artist Don Ivan Punchatz (1936-2009)

Spectrum Fantastic Art reports that Don Ivan Punchatz, a legendary artist and Spectrum Grand Master who created cover art and illustrations for SF books and magazines such as Playboy, National Geographic, Penthouse, Newsweek, National Lampoon and Time, died October 22, 2009.

Punchatz did the cover art for Night of the Cooters: More Neat Stories (pictured), a 1990 collection written by Howard Waldrop, and the interior artwork for “The Toad Prince or, Sex Queen of the Martian Pleasure-Domes” (2000), a novelette written by Harlan Ellison that was published in a 2000 special edition of Amazing Stories magazine.

[via Locus Online]

Cover artist Dean Ellis (1920-2009)

Spectrum Fantastic Art reports that Dean Ellis, a prominent illustrator and painter who created the cover art for numerous science fiction books and magazines, died last week in Saratoga Springs, New York, aged 88. In 1970, Ellis painted a work entitled “The Martian Chronicles", which was used as the cover art for a couple of early 1970s Bantam paperback editions of Ray Bradbury’s classic collection. According to the website FindArtInfo.com, Ellis’ original acrylic 25.5 x 16.5 in. painting sold at auction in 2004 for about $2,500.

[via Locus Online]

House Peters, Jr., Actor Who Played Mr. Clean and Appeared in Film Red Planet Mars, Dies at Age 92

The Los Angeles Times reports that actor House Peters, Jr., who played Mr. Clean in a television advertising campaign and appeared on TV shows such as The Lone Ranger and Lassie, died on October 1, 2008.

Peters also appeared in several films, including The Day the Earth Stood Still and Red Planet Mars (1952), starring Peter Graves and Andrea King, in which he played the character of Dr. Boulting.

Beachhead to a Grand Master's Library (1992)

Beachhead: a Novel, by Jack Williamson (1992)

At left: Paperback (New York: Tor Books, 1993), 368 p., $4.99. Introduction by Arthur C. Clarke. Cover illustration by Ron Miller. Here's the blurb from the back cover:

“Grand Master Jack Williamson has written the most realistic, exciting adventure to be based upon our up-to-date scientific findings about the nature of the Red Planet. Sam Houston Kelligan had from boyhood known that he would someday fly to Mars. But what children dream of is often far different in reality from what one could ever imagine. Having been chosen as one of a select crew Kelligan does go to Mars, only to be marooned with a crippled spacecraft, afflicted with a debilitating illness, and abandoned by crewmates. Aided by one brave woman Kelligan must somehow find a way to survive the rigors of the hostile planet and return to Earth before the members of the first manned mission to Mars have all succumbed.”

Beachhead was originally published in 1992. A book review from Kirkus Reviews is available at Amazon.com. The entry in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database contains a partial bibliographic history, as it omits the limited first edition published by Easton Press in 1992.

On a more voluminous note, The Jack Williamson Science Fiction Library at Eastern New Mexico University, established in 1982, has one of the top science fiction collections in the world. It contains more than 30,000 volumes, including science fiction books and pulps dating back to the early 1900s, manuscripts, correspondence, and photographs.

Williamson died in 2006 and an obituary appeared in the November 14, 2006, issue of The New York Times. NPR’s Morning Edition broadcast a remembrance piece on November 15, 2006. More recently, a book titled In Memory of Wonder's Child (2007) was published in honor of this sci-fi Grand Master. Williamson's autobiography, Wonder’s Child: My Life in Science Fiction, was published back in 1984.