Science fiction and mystery writer and comics historian Ron Goulart has passed away.
Ronald Joseph (Ron) Goulart
January 13, 1933 – January 14, 2022
“I was hardly there when the electric dishwasher grabbed me.”
“It was a clear black night and they were several million miles from home.”
“The dead man went for a walk”
“The house had a slightly German accent.”
“Nobody liked Frank A. Munsey.”
“There was a robot in the closet.”
Ron Goulart knew how to start a story – whether it was a short story, a novel, or a history of pulps or comics. And followed through the opening with an absorbing narrative, sometimes fact as in his histories, mostly fiction as in his hundreds of science fiction and mystery tales.
Word is spreading on social media that Ron Goulart has passed away a day after his 89th birthday.
“The ape said, ‘I demand a retraction.'”
The old man danced on the wall.”
“The great hairy smutch was working a crossword puzzle in the sand.”
“He was arguing with a toilet when the government agent located him.”
“There was really very little of him left.”
“Although I’m as nostalgic about comic books as the next member of the over-25 generation, I also happen to suffer from total recall.”
“Max Kearny shook his head.”
Max Kearny, Ben Jolson, John Easy, Groucho Marx, The Barnum System, Star Hawks.
Fantasy & Science Fiction, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Ron Goulart’s characters and stories in the science fiction and mystery genres were usually accompanied by a dollop of comedy.
He is also famous as an early historian of pulp magazines and comic books and comic strips.
Ron Goulart has been a professional author for several decades and has over 180 books to his credit, including more than 50 science fiction novels and 20 some mystery novels. He’s twice been nominated for an Edgar Award and is considered one of the country’s leading authorities on comic books and comic strips.
As seen above he didn’t just write about the pulps he was published in them.
That also happened with comic books, though not nearly to the degree of his pulp fiction.
Ron hit the comics jackpot when his intergalactic policemen Rex Jason and Chavez, who patrol Goulart’s Barnum System, debuted as the Star Hawks comic strip in 1977 with Gil Kane art.
Unfortunately the strip began with two strikes against it: It was an innovative double tiered and it was science fiction. Then more science fiction strips with more recognizable pedigrees (Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Star Trek) crowded Star Hawks off the comics pages.
Ron’s successful career as writer never faltered.
