Eric Carle was an American artist, illustrator, and writer of children’s books.
Carle’s picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies.
RIP Alan Sheridan (1934 – 2015)
This happened at least five years ago but it escaped my attention.
Alan Sheridan was an English author and translator. He translated Gilles and Jeanne (1983) by Michel Tournier.
The death of Sheridan came to my attention while documenting Pornographic Archaeology which I read thoroughly vertically last week.
RIP John Margolies (1940 – 2016)
This will have happened five years in two days, but I only found out today.
John Margolies was an American architectural critic and photographer.
I just spent (while researching the fantastic Jacques Moeschal) two hours intermittently trying to find the title of the book on roadside architecture I sold five years ago and then I found out that it is the one above: The End of the Road: Vanishing Highway Architecture in America (1981).
The link with Moeschal being that with lots of irreverence (I love the word, as well as the practice of irreverence) you can call the ‘signs’ of Moeschal ‘roadside attractions’.
RIP Roger Hawkins (1945 – 2021)
Roger Hawkins was an American drummer.
He played drums on countless well-known soul, disco, and r&b songs.
He was a co-founder of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section in Alabama, a house band like the Compass Point All Stars, Booker T. & the M.G.’s and the Salsoul Orchestra.
Hawkins played drums on “Love Sensation” (1980) by Loleatta Holloway.
RIP Franco Battiato (1945 – 2021)
Franco Battiato was an Italian composer, writer, filmmaker, and painter.
His name is on the ‘Nurse with Wound list’ and his compositions are in the ‘Caribou 1000’ and on the ‘Daily Fingertracks’.
His debut albums Fetus (1972) and Pollution (1972) are typical for the beginning of his career. He made these albums when he was 27.
I wrote something here about peak creativity but erased it. Notions such as ‘late bloomer’, ‘child prodigy’, ‘imperial phase’, ‘genius’ and ‘talent’ and artists such as David Bowie, Lee Perry and Goya crossed my thoughts.
Battato was new to me. I enjoyed him immensely yesterday. An old adagium of me comes to mind. Something about looking for beauty in unexpected places.
RIP Jimmy Scott (1925 – 2014)
This escaped my attention seven years ago.
Jimmy Scott was an American vocalist known for his high natural contralto voice and his sensitivity on ballads and love songs.
He covered “Nothing Compares 2 U” on his album Holding Back The Years (1998).
The ‘romans durs’ by Simenon, the Dick Bruna covers
We interrupt our regular necrological programming to show you most Dick Bruna covers of Simenon’s ‘romans durs‘.
I’m currently in a reading project that will see me reading all of these. You can follow my endeavour here. As we speak, I read 53 of them, of a total of 84 Dutch translations of a grand total of about 119 novels.
RIP Curtis Fuller (1934 – 2021)
Curtis Fuller was an American trombonist known for his work on the American jazz scene between the years 1957 and c. 1980.
Trombonists I admire include Rico Rodriguez, Peter Zummo, Vin Gordon, Don Drummond, Fred Wesley and Willie Colón.
RIP Jean-Claude Romer (1933 – 2021)
Jean-Claude Romer was a French actor, film critic and film historian.
He was editor-in-chief of French film magazine Midi Minuit Fantastique (1962 – 1971), the first magazine dedicated to genre cinema and cinema fantastique.
It has come to my attention that the first issue of Midi Minuit Fantastique is online in full at Archive.org[1].
That issue is dedicated to Terence Fisher, who still seems to be a bit underrated and of whose film The Stranglers of Bombay it is said:
“More clearly than any other Hammer effort, The Stranglers of Bombay lays bare the foundation of voyeurism, scopophilia, misogyny, castration anxiety, repression, sadomasochism, and “the male gaze” which informs the construction of Hammer’s output.”
The Charm of Evil: The Life and Films of Terence Fisher (1991) by Wheeler W. Dixon
One thing leading to another as they say, I stop here, because it is leading me too far.
RIP Karl Wirsum (1939 – 2021)
Karl Wirsum was an American artist, one of the Chicago Imagists, a group known for their grotesquerie, surrealism, and complete uninvolvement with New York art world trends.
In my universe he is famous for illustrating the nobrow essay “Cross the Border — Close the Gap” (1968).