Grumpy Old Men

I just read a great summary of the Gary Groth v Harlan Ellison libel suit that's of minor interest to science fiction and comics fans because of the parties involved. (Groth is the venomous publisher of The Comics Journal magazine, and Ellison authored hundreds of SF short stories, wrote a few comics over the years - including Hulk, Avengers and Daredevil, if memory serves me, - contributed the screenplay for Star Trek's "The City at the Edge of Forever" episode, and was a creative consulant on Babylon 5, among many other accomplishments.)

The article, from the Seattle Weekly, provides a great history of the emnity between the two men, as well as the particulars on the upcoming libel case. You get a good sense of just how much these two men hate each other, but it still leaves you wondering, "Why bother?"

One of the more interesting insights I gained from reading the article was about the legendary status of the as-yet-unpublished (after 40 years) The Last Dangerous Visions collection, edited by Ellison. Vicki owns the first two in the series, Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, but I'd had no idea there'd ever been plans for a third one. This revelation even lead me to check out Wikipedia's entry for the non-existent book! (Kind of reminds me of Alan Moore's Big Numbers comic series based on fractal theory, although in that case at least some of the work saw the light of day!)