FANDOM PIONEER RONN FOSS SUCCUMBS AT 62

A PERSONAL ADDENDUM FROM JE SMITH:

It was through my friendship with Bill that I first met Ronn Foss, and kept up a correspondance with him for several years. Ronn was always very supportive of my work, and invited me very early on to contribute to the Destiny: Vampire Mermaid strip he was doing for Scary Monsters Magazine. The experience was invaluable, allowing me to "get my feet wet" in doing sequential art stories, learning what does and does not work in print, and giving me my first taste of inking other artist's work. Although Ronn and I disagreed at times, we kept up a good, friendly relationship, and even at the end, I was slated to ink a Destiny story I had scripted some time back. Whether that will still happen, I don't know. It would be nice if Destiny could continue in some form or another, to keep Ronn's legacy going, but that decision is not up to me.

Any time I sent Ronn a copy of COMPLEX CITY, I could count on a supportive, but brutally honest appraisal. When I sent him a copy of #4, he said that he enjoyed it, but was afraid my "paying customers" would feel ripped off by the series of two-page spreads that dominate the first half of the issue. Ronn was a great lover of comics, and I think he really enjoyed seeing me "spread my wings" by self-publishing BULLETPROOF and COMPLEX CITY. He commented often about the progression of my work, and how much I was improving. It was always very heartening to get praise from Ronn, because he did not give it lightly.

At one point, fairly early in our Destiny collaboration, Ronn mentioned that he still had some of his original art left, and proposed that he could "trade" some of it for my work on Destiny. I readily agreed, and after about a year's work, I became the proud owner of "Witch Hunt," the last story Ronn did with him most famous (and, to my mind, coolest) creation, The Eclipse, which was originally published in COMIC CRUSADER, and, as far as I know, has never been reprinted. It's beautiful work, and pure Ronn Foss, which is mainly what I like about it. On the page he was proudest of, Ronn signed it "To Jeff -- a Brother of the Brush." That always meant a lot to me, and it means even more now.

I never knew Ronn in the '60s -- I was too young to be aware of the maelstrom of activity in those glory days of Fandom. But I did know him in the last six years, and came to count him as a good friend. I can scarecely face that fact that I'll never get another one of his chatty letters (usually written in fountain pen on lined school paper), or hear his to-the-point comments on another issue of COMPLEX CITY. I'm really going to miss him.

Rest in Peace, Ronn -- you've earned it.