It was a shock to hear of the death a couple of days of ago of Christopher Fowler, a much loved and admired genre writer, who became more well know for his later crime series featuring the detective Bryant and May. But it was his early outings in horror and fantasy that first turned me on to his work, particularly Roofworld, Rune, Spanky and Psychoville, as well the short stories like 'The Green Man,' 'Piano Man' and 'The Eleventh Day' that appeared The 3rd Alternative and Black Static.
He wrote the wonderful story 'Crocodile Lady' that was first published in Crime Wave, and later reprinted in Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling's Year's Best Fantasy & Horror series, and another memorable story, 'On Edge,' appeared in Dark Voices.
His entertaining column on cinema, Electric Darkness, ran for many years in The 3rd Alternative, and morphed into the even better Interference when TTA itself became Black Static. The columns were informed by Fowler's own experiences working in cinema, and were further evidence of the depth of his knoweldge of and the skill and range of his writing.
I met Chris a couple of times at conventions, most memorably (for me at least), when he attended the Welcome to My Nightmare horror convention orgnaised by myself and Steve Lockley, here in Swansea back in 1995. He was a wonderful and obliging guest, even if he did sign my copy of Psychoville to 'Steve - Welcome to the wrong side of town.' I'm still convinced that soemwhere in his collection, my old pal Steve Lockley has a copy of the booked signed to Mike.
Fowler is a huge loss to us. I hope that wherever he is, he's resting in prace.