To those who have gone before

This week… what can I say about this week?

How about “Damn it, I want a reset button?”

This week, in the space of three days, I lost two good friends.

Marty Gear was East Coast Fandom’s Uncle Vlad (as you can see above. He did vampire cos-play before it was cool.) He was surrogate father, grandfather, favorite uncle to many, many people. He was a SMOF (a Secret Master of Fandom), someone who had rubbed elbows with the Grand Masters, and he was hugely influential in costuming and in fandom in gen...