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"Losses That Should be felt by All."
By: Eric Anderson, Vice President and Editor
So far in the early stages of the year 2000, we have lost some of the people that have given us the best in Science Fiction and Fantasy, so it is here that I shall highlight three; one very well reported, and two that have not been.
It's Been a Nice Trip Charlie Brown... Charles Schulz (1922-2000)
Charles "Sparky" Schulz was taken from our world the day that his last strip was being printed for the February 13th Sunday comics. Why do I have him listed in here, in a Science Fiction/Fantasy journal? Well, it has been my belief for many years that the comics we enjoy in the daily and Sunday papers are a form of fantasy that is used to entertain, inform, express a viewpoint and that like. From the political wit of the much missed Bloom County to Doonsbury , B.C. and the Wizard of Id, along with those of a slapstick humor like Hagar the Horrible and Garfield, these strips have almost a modern Aesop Fable quality of using animals acting like humans to humans acting like animals (does Steve Dallas come to mind?) to drive its point or humor home.
It was so with Peanuts. But this strip was unlike the many of the comics that shared the funny pages. It was a gentle, warm and fuzzy look at ourselves by using children, a dog and a bird as our mirror. It did not go out to make a statement, just a peek at life on a level that everyone could understand. It was not a belly-busting comic strip, but one that put a smile of enjoyment on a person's face after reading.
Charles Schulz never thought of his strip as a earth shaking comic, but just a little break in the day to enjoy a laugh or a smile, but it was much more then that. It had readership around the world that took time out so see the antics of Snoopy, Lucy, Peppermint Patty and of course Charlie Brown. It was because of Schulz that my interest in history began with his "Snoopy and the Red Baron". It was because of Schulz that NASA had named an Apollo capsule and LEM "Snoopy" and "Charlie Brown".
Sadly it seems fitting that Schulz should leave us the day before his last strip "hit the stands", for he had been saying that Peanuts would end when he quit, and how more did that point get driven home then with that. It also drives home the point that we should enjoy what we have, while we have it.
Good-bye Sparky, thanks for all the years of enjoyment.
"Van is Here, But Van is Gone" ... A.E. van Vogt (1912-2000)
A science fiction grand master has left us, and the world is much more empty because of it. Alfred A. van Vogt left the world on January 26th from complications of pneumonia, and sadly a decade long battle with Alzheimer's. A.E. van Vogt helped inspire many writers that we have today such as Ray Bradbury and Robert J. Sawyer as they made their trips into the world of science fiction and fantasy and van Vogt had won the friendship with many more. One friendship was with Harlan Ellison (where the title "Van is Here..." comes from his introduction to a 1999 collection of short stories entitled Futures Past: The Best Short Fiction of A.E. van Vogt) who battled the SFWA on making van Vogt a grandmaster, an honor finally given to him in 1996 and just in time so that he could enjoy it before drifting off into that wilderness known as Alzheimer's. His stories have inspired movies, such as the short story "Black Destroyer" (1939), which was included into the book Voyage of the Space Beagle, that became the basis the motion picture Alien"(1979).
Most will point to his books Slan, Weapons Shops of Isher and Voyage of the Space Beagle as his greatest works, works that I have not read yet (they are on my long list folks) but I must point out two of his books that don't get as much attention or praise that I have enjoyed immensely.
The Universe Maker (1953) is a powerful story of a Korean War vet who had accidentally killed a young woman in a car crash and is transported into the far future to atone for her death, by being executed. There he finds three factions battling amongst themselves; the Floaters, the Tweeners and the Shadow Men.
Planets for Sale (1954) is a novel compiled from several short stories that van Vogt and his first wife E. Mayne Hull (who died in 1975) wrote between 1943 and 1946. It centers around Artur Blord who is an adventurer business man in the far future who must battle aliens, mutants and rival businessmen to keep his fortunes intact.
Robert J. Sawyer wrote on his hearing about van Vogt's death that he remembered on the night that Sawyer won the Nebula Award for his novel The Terminal Experiment and van Vogt received the SFWA Grand Masters Award, Sawyer walked over to congratulate van Vogt. Sawyer then overheard van Vogt saying something that crushed his heart. "I remember having been a writer, but I don't remember anything I wrote." Let us not forget the works that this man has given us, and let this loss be felt by all who enjoy science fiction and fantasy.
Mister Fonebone is here to see you... Don Martin (1931-2000)
For the longest time, you could not open the pages of Mad Magazine without having at least three pages of Don Martin strips in them. Always drawing people with pot bellies, long faces and feet that seemed to have extra joints, Don Martin let us enter his warped world where people like Fonebone and Captain Klutz existed.
Of all the artists and cartoonists that Mad Magazine has had, Don Martin was my favorite. For the longest time HE was the reason that I picked up the magazine, and somewhere in boxes in my house, I have several paperbacks of his comics stored away. No more will funny sounds be spelled out for us. No longer will Captain Klutz save us from the forces of evil. No longer will the world of the absurd become so real.
Copyright 2000 by Eric Anderson, Vice President and Editor.