RIP-Jim Harmon

When I wrote yesterday's Richard Diamond post, I neglected to mention that the editor I worked with on both my published story and that unfinished one was Jim Harmon. I also did not realize that he had died just the night before. Jim Harmon was a sci-fi author whose name I first came across circa 1972 as part of the great group of fans who contributed essays on comic books (originally published in the fanzine XERO) to the seminal comics history title, ALL IN COLOR FOR A DIME. Soon enough I also found that he was the author of THE GREAT RADIO HEROES and THE GREAT RADIO COMEDIANS, again pioneering efforts in their field.

As I got more and more into OTR, I began buying cassettes by mail from none other than Jim Harmon himself, including a bunch of "new" OTR episodes he produced, usually with Curly Bradley who had played Tom Mix on radio.

By that point in the mid-seventies he was, along with Ron Haydock, Don Glut and other West Coast pop culture buffs, producing a number of nifty nostalgia magazines including MONSTERS OF THE MOVIES for Marvel.

I can't really say I got to know him but we exchanged a number of letters and emails while he was my editor on IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN vol 3 just a few years back. By the time we were dealing with vol. 4, I could sense something had changed but wasn't sure what. My last email from Mr. Harmon was about six months ago--an apology for the confusion that led to my NOT finishing yesterday's detective story.

Rest in Peace, sir...and thanks.