After a long battle with spinal cancer, artist Josh Medors passed away 28 Nov. 2012. He was 36 years old.
Best known for his
work on "Frank Frazetta's Swamp Demon" and his creator-owned "Willow Creek," Medors also provided pencils for "G.I. Joe: America's Elite" published by Devil's Due Publishing, "30 Days of Night" from IDW and more. Medors was also a talented cover artist, providing covers for "Vengeance of the Moon Knight," "The Living Corpse: Exhumed" and more.
Medors lived in Pataskala, Ohio during his adult life and worked as a freelance illustrator, having attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where he received an education in Graphic Design, Cell Animation and Illustration. His first published works in comics were pin-ups for various publishers. After meeting "30 Days of Night" creator Steve Niles via Niles' website, Medors provided art for a number of Niles' projects including "Think Like a Machine," "30 Days of Night Annual," "Dial M For Monster" and "Horrorcide."
The artist was diagnosed with cancer in 2008 when
doctors discovered a rare form of the disease in his spinal column. Medors was a founder of
Help for Heroes, an organization founded in partnership with the Hero Initiative during 2009 to help raise funds for comic professionals to aid in their fight against cancer. The organization's Facebook page had been updating readers and fans on Medors' progress during a recent surgery to install a shunt in his head to relieve the build-up of fluid.
Josh Medors is survived by his wife, Charlotte and his son, Garth.
Russian author Boris Strugatsky, 79, died November 19, 2012 in St. Petersburg, Russia from heart problems and pneumonia. Strugatsky and his older brother Arkady (died 1991) were famous for their collaborations. They are easily the best known Russian SF writers worldwide, and were considered major writers in their homeland, though their sometimes satirical work often brought them into conflict with the government of what was then the Soviet Union. The Strugatsky Brothers wrote dozens of SF novels, stories, and collections together, most famously Piknik na obochine (Roadside Picnic, 1972), a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award that was adapted for film by Andrei Tarkovsky as Stalker (1979). After his brother’s death, Strugatsky published two books under the pseudonym S. Vititsky.
Boris Natanovich Strugatsky was born April 14, 1933 in Leningrad, and remained in Leningrad during the siege in WWII. He attended Leningrad State University, where he studied astronomy, graduating in 1955. He worked as an astronomer and computer scientist until becoming a full-time writer in 1966.
Author Kevin O’Donnell, Jr., 61, died November 7, 2012 in Campbell CA of complications from cancer.
His first story was “The Hand Is Quicker” in Analog (1973), and he published more than 50 SF stories in the following 25 years, as well as mystery fiction and non-fiction articles. First SF novel Bander Snatch appeared in 1979, and he published 10 novels in all, notably four books in the Journeys of McGill Feighan series, beginning with The Journeys of McGill Feighan: Book I: Caverns (1981).
Born November 29, 1950 in Cleveland OH, O’Donnell grew up in nearby Fairview Park, spending a few years as a teenager in Seoul, South Korea. He attended Yale University, graduating in 1972 with a degree in Chinese Studies.
O’Donnell was managing editor of Empire: For the SF Writer from 1979-81, and served as publisher until 1983. He was active in SFWA in the ’90s and 2000s, serving on various committees, and retired as Chairman of the SFWA Grievance Committee in 2005, the same year he received a Service to SFWA Award. He is survived by his wife, Lillian Kia Chou Tchang, married 1974.
David Grove (1940-2012)
Artist David Grove, 72, died October 25, 2012 of emphysema at his home in San Francisco CA.
Born February 27, 1940 in Washington DC, Grove was an accomplished illustrator who produced covers and interior art for most of the major SF/F publishers. He was also known for his movie posters, most famously the film adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes(1983).
Some of his work was collected in David Grove: An Illustrated Life(2011). He was inducted into the Illustrators’ Hall of Fame in 2007, and a retrospective of his work was mounted at the Museum of American Illustration in New York this past summer.
A celebration of Grove’s life and work will be held at Café Divine, 1600 Stockton Street in San Francisco on November 30, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. In lieu of flower, donations can be made to Friends of San Francisco Animal Care and Control or to the charity of your choice.
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