[Link] M.J. Rose, Author and Self-Publishing Advocate, Dies at 71

by Jim Milliot

Melisse Shapiro, also known as M.J. Rose, an early self-publishing advocate as well as bestselling author, died unexpectedly on December 10 while in Florida visiting her father. She was 71.

In a Soapbox column she wrote for PW in 2012, Rose recounted how after her first novel, the racy Lip Service, was turned down by traditional publishers in 1998, she used her background in advertising and marketing to release the title as an e-book and print book on Amazon. Within six months, Lip Service had sold more than 75,000 copies and would later be published by Pocket Books. Her subsequent books regularly reached national bestseller lists.

Rose was also an entrepreneur. Along with partners Liz Berry and Jillian Stein, Rose founded the 1001 Dark Nights Press and Blue Box Press imprints that were part of another Berry-Rose creation, Evil Eye Concepts. In a 2021 interview with PW, Rose said that Dark Night’s books had thus far sold more than 3 million copies across all formats. She also noted that Evil Eye was created to see “what would happen if a publisher treated an author the way an author wanted to be treated.”

Read the full article: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/Obituary/article/96718-m-j-rose-bestselling-author-and-self-publishing-advocate-has-died.html

Rest in Power, Ramona Fradon

Ramona Fradon (October 2, 1926 – February 24, 2024), a comics artist for more than 70 years, has died at 97. She retired just last month. Fradon’s death was shared by Catskill Comics, a comic book art dealer, on Facebook.

She began her career in 1950, beginning to work for DC Comics early on. She’s best known as an artist on “Aquaman” and co-creator of the superhero Metamorpho, set to be played by “Barry” actor Anthony Carrigan in James Gunn’s forthcoming “Superman: Legacy” next year.

Catskill Comics posted, “It comes with great sadness to announced that Ramona Fradon has passed away a few moments ago. Ramona was 97 and had a long career in the comic book industry and was still drawing just a few days ago.”

“She was a remarkable person in so many ways. I will miss all the great conversations and laughs we had. I am blessed that I was able to work with her on a professional level, but also able to call her my friend. If anyone who wishes to send a card to the family, Please feel free to send them to Catskill Comics and I’ll be happy to pass them along.”

Fradon announced her retirement on Jan. 9 via Catskill Comics. A post on the art dealer’s site read, “After an extremely long run in the comic industry, at 97, Ramona has decided it’s time for her to retire. She will no longer be doing commissions. She apologizes to all the fans who have been waiting patiently on her wait list to get one. She did say though from time to time she’ll do a drawing or two to put up for sale on the website.”

“Ramona Fradon started her career in 1950. She has worked for DC Comics, drawing ‘Aquaman,’ for which she co-created the character Metamorpho. She has also worked other DC titles such as ‘Superman,’ ‘Batman’ and ‘Plastic Man’ along with comic strip Brenda Starr.”

Fradon was born on Oct. 2, 1926, in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in New York City. She graduated from Parsons School of Design in 1950 and was hired by DC Comics in 1951. Fradon began working on “Aquaman” comics that year, and she also cocreated the characters Aqualad and Metamorpho. She paused her career in 1965 to raise her daughter, but returned to DC in 1972.

She took over as the lead artist on “Brenda Starr, Reporter” in 1980 and continued to work on the series until 1995. From there, Fradon began working on art commissioned through Catskill Comics.

RIP: Stan Lee Is Dead at 95; Superhero of Marvel Comics

"Under Mr. Lee, Marvel transformed the comic book world by imbuing its characters with the self-doubts and neuroses of average people, as well an awareness of trends and social causes and, often, a sense of humor.

"In humanizing his heroes, giving them character flaws and insecurities that belied their supernatural strengths, Mr. Lee tried “to make them real flesh-and-blood characters with personality,” he told The Washington Post in 1992.

“That’s what any story should have, but comics didn’t have until that point,” he said. “They were all cardboard figures.”

-- from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/obituaries/stan-lee-dead.html

RIP: Harlan Ellison, Grand Master of Science Fiction & Fantasy, 1934-2018

by Ryan Britt

“For a brief time I was here, and for a brief time, I mattered.”

Harlan Ellison at the Harlan Ellison Roast. L.A. Press Club July 12, 1986. Los Angeles,
California. Photo by Pip R. Lagenta used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Harlan Ellison, author, screenwriter, and grand master of science fiction and fantasy, has passed on June 28th, 2018 at the age of 84. ...

Whether he was shouting love at the heart of the world or screaming because he had no mouth, Harlan Ellison brought noise into not only the field of SFF, but the universe of storytelling itself.

Part runaway, part punk, the education of Harlan Ellison didn’t necessarily predict greatness. He was a dockworker, a gang member, a circus hand, an expelled student, and member of the armed forces all before he was 25 years-old. Crisscrossing from his native Ohio, to New York City, Ellison eventually settled in Los Angeles, where he lived from 1962 until the present day. It was this proximity to Hollywood which involved Ellison in writing for the screen, leading to famous (and infamous) stories sold to the likes of  The Outer Limits, Star Trek, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

None of these writing jobs happened without notable kerfuffle, and like a science fiction rock-star, Ellison’s dust-ups with the powers-that-be are almost as famous as his writing. Think the movie The Terminator bears some similarity to a few Harlan Ellison short stories? So did he, and successfully sued and settled with James Cameron over the issue. Historically, Ellison disparaged Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry for the way his famous “City On the Edge of Forever” Trek script had been rewritten without his permission. Though, in the last several years, Ellison seemed to ease-up on his vitriol toward Trekkies and gleefully participated in two different adaptations of the story, one as a new audio play for Skyboat Media, and another, new version of his first “City” script, beautifully illustrated by IDW comics.

Read the full obituary: https://www.tor.com/2018/06/28/harlan-ellison-1934-2018-obituary/