Pat and Richard Lupoff. On the left are the Lupoffs at the 1960 World Science Fiction Convention wearing what may have been the first (and certainly was the most influential) example of superhero cosplay at a fan convention.
Pat and Richard Lupoff burst onto the science fiction fan scene in 1960 with the first issue of their fanzine Xero. There was no real comics fandom in that era, but the first instalment of “All in Color for a Dime” ran in Xero 1 and suddenly a new fandom was born. In the years since 1960 comics fandom has grown into a worldwide phenomenon.
The Best of Xero collection with an introduction by Roger Ebert, who had written for Xero in his young, science-fiction fan days.
The Lupoffs won a Hugo for Xero and both of them went on to careers in the media world. Pat has worked for many years in the retail end of the publishing business, building the children’s section of legendary Cody’s Books in Berkeley, California, from a sleepy corner of an upstairs room into a major community asset. Since the tragic demise of Cody’s she has performed the same book magic for Dark Carnival, Bookstore of the Fantastic, also in Berkeley.
Richard Lupoff’s Professor Thintwhistle and his incredible Aether Flyer (in this 1974 paperback with a Frazetta cover) became a pioneering steampunk graphic story (drawn by Steve Stiles) beginning with the February 1980 Heavy Metal magazine (and was later collected as a graphic novel, most recently with a Neil Gaiman introduction).
Richard Lupoff is the author of some seventy books ranging from science fiction, fantasy, and mystery novels and short story collections to volumes of cultural history including Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure and The Great American Paperback. His recent books include Writer: Volumes 1 and 2. Writer: Volume 3 is now in preparation. When not writing his own novels and short stories, Richard is the Editorial Director of Surinam Turtle Press, an imprint of Ramble House.
Richard Lupoff’s 1973 short story “12:01 PM” about someone caught in a time loop was adapted into both an Oscar-nominated short (1990’s “12:01 PM”) and the 1993 television movie 12:01. (Also, some have noted the similarity of 1993’s Groundhog Day film to Lupoff’s story and adaptations.)
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