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COMICS LOSES ONE OF ITS MAJOR VISIONARIES: BYRON PREISS
BY JIM STERANKO
Around noon on July 9, 2005, writer-editor-developer-publisher Byron Preiss was involved in a fatal auto accident as he drove to his synagogue in Long Island, New York-and American popular culture lost one of its most productive and visionary champions.
I read about Byron Preiss's death at Mark Evanier's blog News from Me, which also links to this article. I met Preiss only once, at an Edgar Dinner years ago, probably around 1988 or 1989, when we were seated at the same table. He seemed like nice guy, and I told him how much I'd enjoyed some of the books he'd been involved with. Later on I wrote a novel for iBooks, and it was about as much fun as anything I've ever done. While I never talked to Preiss during the work on the project, I was grateful for the opportunity to do a book about Humprey Bogart, one of my favorites for many years. His death is quite a loss to the publishing world, and I hope some of his projects (like iBooks) can continue.
2 comments:
I may have to stop reading your blog if I keep seeing bad news here. I have a number of books Bryon Preiss and his company packaged, and I seem to recall having some comics by him somewhere. His talent will be missed.
Wow, Talk about being years too late...a bunch of friends and I read 'The Secret' in 1983 and were so convinced we knew one of the 'hiding places' we drove all night to Philadelphia to try to find the buried treasure. Perhaps we were to attracted to the Ganga at the time but we were convinced the book and treasures were real. After nearly getting arrested by the Philly police (who did not have a great rep at the time for scofflaws), we took a bunch of photos and left. I submitted it all to Byron Preiss and got a lovely letter in return saying "The fair people are convinced of your determination and seriousness of purpose..."
I came across the letter recently and ordered the book online just to remind myself of my wild weekend adventure in Philadelphia, pre sobriety. It was a fun time.
Anyone know if the book was a hoax? Just wondering...
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