Explorer's findings
01/09/2002 . Source: Jessica Martin 

Short news snippets for September. Including the sad death of book-cover illustrator Ron Walotsky and the odd departure of Science Fiction Chronicle's founder Andrew Porter from said publication, followed by a trail of rumour and 'no comments'.

Walotsky Passes Away

The prominent book-cover illustrator Ron Walotsky died in hospital in Florida on the night of July 29/30 at the age of 58.

Although he painted covers for mainstream works - including that for Thomas Harris's Red Dragon (1981) - he was best known for his SF and fantasy covers, including those for strings of books by Robert Silverberg, Piers Anthony, and especially Roger Zelazny; his covers for Zelazny's "Amber" series are considered definitive, and a portfolio was published.

He painted nearly 60 covers for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, so that the magazine became almost identified by Walotsky's meticulous, highly fantasticated, often idiosyncratically colored style - a style that seemed to owe much to magic realism.

When it came to the publication of the book of his art, Inner Visions (2000), so many luminaries of the fantasy/SF world wished to write its foreword that in the end it contained a foreword, an afterword and several "middlewords"; those contributors were Ellen Asher, Jim Burns, Vincent Di Fate, Bob Eggleton, Ed Ferman, Alan Dean Foster, Jane & Howard Frank, Joe Haldeman, Don Maitz, Gordon Van Gelder and Robert Weinberg.

In his later years, as fantasy and SF publishers relied increasingly heavily on formulaic covers, his individualistic style fell from favor, yet his work remained if anything more widely appreciated among the public and among connoisseurs, who regard him as one of the Greats of fantasy/SF art.

www.Walotsky.com

Paul Barnett

Andrew Porter departs SF Chronicle

The founding father of SF Chronicle, science fiction's second trade magazine (the first being Locus, of course), has flown the magazine he founded over 20 years ago, leaving behind him a storm of conflicting rumors.

The newsletter Ansible claimed Porter had been fired as editor by the magazine's new(ish) owners, DNA publications, and went on to say its "cafe society spy Ms Una Tributable, wonders if this is because AP told a number of people at Readercon that Warren owed him $20,000 in back pay."

Ansible also highlighted alleged disputes over editorial policy between the mag's publisher and Msr. Porter.

Andrew Porter had no comment for Ansible, and didn't go into much more detail for Locus either when they reported his departure.

Warren Lapine, Publisher of DNA Publications - and ultimate owner of SF Chronicle - was more forthcoming, when he told the 'Nest:

"I don't have a lot to say about this other than Andrew Porter is no longer with DNA Publications. Most of what I've been hearing has indeed been nonsense, but unfortunately I'm not free to comment on the situation at this time. I can say that John Douglas has been doing a wonderful job of replacing Andy and I'm quite happy with the way things are working out."

Our take on this?

Well, with the best will in the world on both sides, it's incredibly hard to be master of your own ship for 20 plus years, then suddenly find yourself having a boss. AP was obviously unhappy in his later years - even when the mag was still a solo operation & owned 100% by himself, as his many editorials & irregular publication dates attested to. Everything from how family bereavements had knocked him for six, through to complaints about how crap book imprints were at supplying SF Chronicle with forward publishing schedules.

DNA's website has outlined some exciting new directions for SF Chronicle which we hope the magazine can fufil, whoever's sitting in the command chair.

As for AP, let's hope he finds happiness at the next thing he turns his hand to; he gave a lot to the SFF fan community over those 20 years - a little bit of joy in his life is the least he blooming deserves.

Betsy Mitchell, the new(ish) head honcho at book imprint Del Rey, has been kicking arse and taking names, by signing the Brit science fiction author Peter F. Hamilton in a new three-book deal.

Hamilton - one of the rising stars of a new British wave of space opera - has done very nicely out of popular novels like the Reality Dysfunction and The Naked God, and has now had his palm well-greased to churn out a couple of new doorstops, which include Pandora's Star, due late 2003, and Judas Unleashed, due late 2004.

His third book will be a stand-alone non SF'er; with a working title of Misspent Youth, which Hamilton describes as "a novel of second chances."

Let's trust Peter isn't going all Iain Banks, yearning to turn his hand to the kind of material which TLS book critics might regard as worthy and actually review (e.g. 30-somethings having philophical crisies in Islington, rather than science fiction).