Guy H. Lillian III
Aug. 24th, 2025 12:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacA noted science-fiction fan from my day in the field died yesterday at 76. Guy was best-known for his large genzine (general-interest SF fanzine) Challenger, named in memory of the most infamous motor vehicle accident ever to occur in the state of Florida, where Guy was living at the time. It was a regular Hugo nominee for Best Fanzine during roughly the 2000-10 decade.
Before Guy was a genzine publisher, he was other things. He started as a comic book letterhack in the late 1960s, but a decade later I encountered him during his period as a prolific apahack (contributor to amateur press associations). Lists of apas he belonged to are long, but they usually exclude Lasfapa, which is the one he and I both belonged to. Guy was very active, he wrote long zines, but I never felt he really participated in the interpersonal conversations. A lot of us in the apa hung out together at conventions, but I never saw Guy there, and indeed, though he and I were occasionally in the same place at the same time, I don't think we ever actually met. I was surely a very minor figure from his point of view, so I never attempted to press. He was probably hanging out with people he knew from other apas.
I do remember one quip - about Guy, not by him - from the Lasfapa years. Guy was very proud of being Guy H. Lillian the Third, son of Guy H. Lillian Jr., and he would sometimes write, in his typically heartfelt style, of his desire to fulfill his genetic destiny by marrying and siring a son who would be Guy H. Lillian IV. (He did eventually get married, but I don't think the heir ever came to be.)
So someone asked in the comments, what would the name be if the child was a girl?
And someone else responded, it'd be Gal H. Lillian IV.
Before Guy was a genzine publisher, he was other things. He started as a comic book letterhack in the late 1960s, but a decade later I encountered him during his period as a prolific apahack (contributor to amateur press associations). Lists of apas he belonged to are long, but they usually exclude Lasfapa, which is the one he and I both belonged to. Guy was very active, he wrote long zines, but I never felt he really participated in the interpersonal conversations. A lot of us in the apa hung out together at conventions, but I never saw Guy there, and indeed, though he and I were occasionally in the same place at the same time, I don't think we ever actually met. I was surely a very minor figure from his point of view, so I never attempted to press. He was probably hanging out with people he knew from other apas.
I do remember one quip - about Guy, not by him - from the Lasfapa years. Guy was very proud of being Guy H. Lillian the Third, son of Guy H. Lillian Jr., and he would sometimes write, in his typically heartfelt style, of his desire to fulfill his genetic destiny by marrying and siring a son who would be Guy H. Lillian IV. (He did eventually get married, but I don't think the heir ever came to be.)
So someone asked in the comments, what would the name be if the child was a girl?
And someone else responded, it'd be Gal H. Lillian IV.
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Date: 2025-08-24 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-25 04:25 pm (UTC)