Yang

[filkertom]

I never really knew him very well.

I first heard of him way back when. It must've been before the Myth books. I was hanging out a lot in the late 1970s with mstrhypno, who regaled me with the youthful indiscr- er, adventurous tales of the SCA's Dark Horde, and of two guys in particular: Moonwolf, aka Michael Longcor, and Yang the Nauseating, also known as Robert Asprin.

I heard about George Takei being interrupted in a con panel by two full-dress Klingons, Commander K'rass (Bob) and his bodyguard K'orb (George Hunt, aka Bork the Indestructable), who announced that they were with the Klingon Diplomatic Corps. The KDC eventually became the Dorsai Irregulars, the fannish elite with whom I am honored and humbled to hang out now and again.

I actually was introduced to him in 1979, at my very first WindyCon. The filk (which was in one-half of the gaming room, which lets you know how much respect both got back then) consisted of him and Juanita. They went for hours, and I had a blast, and then went off for my very first con snog. Hell of a weekend.

Bob was Ann Arbor local, y'see, and once in awhile I had the cojones or temerity or something to go up to his office, up at the top of a long flight of stairs in Nickels Arcade and say Hi. It was not a huge office, and it was stacked about as mine is stacked these days, with books and papers and games and comics and toys and toys and toys. And he'd take the time to jawbone with me, a nothing kid he barely knew, for an hour or so, and it was a lot of fun, and I tried not to take advantage of it -- only saw him every few months.

Time blurs at this point. I can't remember if that time when I'd go visit him was before or after the two years I spent in Cincinnati. I think after, the later 80s. I know that I didn't get the chance to see him for a long time, some years -- that must've been when I worked for NBD and later First of America, up until 1992. But one day I went to Nickels Arcade, hoping he would be free for lunch, to find that his entire office was gone.

He had moved out of state, gone to New Orleans, damn near retired from writing, damn near died, and I didn't even know.

I didn't see him for the longest time, although of course I heard that he was doing better and that he was writing again. And then came Dragon*Con 2004, and there was Bob in the filk room, as if he had never left. And he and I and Moonwolf sang, and he saw Luke Ski for the first time, and it was all great.

The next Dragon*Con was Hurricane Katrina. Bob didn't want to leave. His place was apparently above the water, or something. People finally convinced him to get out of there, but it was after Dragon by the time they did, and so I didn't see him. The next two Dragons, I'm not sure if he was there; I was very damn busy, and never made it to the very late-night open filks.

And now he's gone.

Mostly I knew him from the stories of others. But I got to know a little myself. He was the kind of guy you hear stories about, you tell stories about, and on top of that had a hell of a lot of stories of his own to tell. MythAdventures!, the adaptation of Another Fine Myth by Phil Foglio, is still one of the ten best graphic novels I've ever read, and the funniest. I used to game in Thieves' World, which was I think the first game supplement to have official stats for nine different rules systems.

So, to sum up:

• One of the major influences of my young adult life was himself heavily influenced by Bob.
• An organization of many of the finest people I am privileged to know was co-created by Bob.
• Bob was one of the first two people I saw doing what I now do for a living.
• Bob was the first big-name author I knew, and he could've blown me off, but he didn't.
• One of my favorite books was co-created by Bob.
• One of the better add-ons for one of my favorite hobbies was co-created by Bob.

Shit, man. I should've paid the guy royalties for my entire fucking existence.

Bob Asprin did a hell of a lot, and I was lucky enough to be on the edges of it.

Miss you, man. Wish I knew you better. Rest in peace.

If you have any stories of Bob Asprin or how he's influenced your existence, we'd be honored if you'd share them here.

Comments

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I don't think I ever even met him, but I heard plenty of stories.

And I really liked his books.

I was looking forward to meeting him at MarCon.

[gipsygirl.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to sort it out in my head, but I've collected some of my memories here (http://gipsysmusings.com/2008/05/23/bob-asprin/).

WHAT?!@?!

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

When did this happen??? Details!!!

Dragon*Con story - I used to sell filk at the back of the filk room. This guy in glasses came up and bought some stuff with me, and paid with a check that said "Robert Asprin." It then hit me who he was. got his business card - sent it to Bill and Brenda Sutton - he was a guest a couple GaFilks later.

Re: WHAT?!@?!

[hms42]

yesterday

[maikujaku.livejournal.com]

You know, seeing you post this, makes me feel lucky that I have a slim chance of meeting you at Anthrocon. Your music is amazing, and definitely an inspiration. I enjoy filking, and try to occasionally lead some myself in the smokers corner outside. We've sat out there til 5 in the morning, not necessarily filking, but just singing to our hearts content and our throat's misery.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

i had the honor to meet him twice.
and didnt know how lucky i was at the time... you see, at the time i only knew him as a writer of some GREAT books (and yes, Phil's graphic adaption, which sold the series to me)i kept stumbling over the other things he did... usually when it smacked me in the face.

once i didnt know who he was until the convention person told me... after he bought something at my table.

and the other time he was singing as a guest at a con (GAFILK, i believe)..... which filk oblivious person that i was i didnt know he did (basically at the time i knew about YOU... and Clam Chowder and a handful of others....)..... and he was great... and i kept thinking he looked familiar.... and then i found out he was ......."you're kidding... he does filk too?" and everyone looked at me funny....

anda few scant years back i was given a copy of the "family portrait"... one of the first pictures of the Great Dark Horde.... with Azreal, and Yang, and many many others.. and had always hoped to get it autographed......
and now he's gone.

and as always with me.. i find out too late about so much
"you mean HE was involved in (thing i love but didnt know person was involved in) and you all thought i KNEW?!"

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

I just read Myth-Gotten Gains last week which prompted me to order Phil's graphic novel adaptation of the Myth series (my original copies having disappeared long, long ago.)

Wow. For someone I never actually met this is really making me tear up. Thanks for the wonderful stories, Bob.

[delazan.livejournal.com]

My kitten, Gleep (see icon) is named after Skeeve's dragon. I loved the MythAdventures.

[chaosdancer.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you've lost your friend and mentor. He was someone I've heard about for lo these many years, but I never had a chance to meet him. When I first got into the SCA, it was apparently during a time when all the early legends were leaving - it seems like that's always the way, just missing the good old days wherever I go. I too was looking forward to the chance of meeting him this weekend and this makes me so sad. But I know it's nothing compared to losing someone you actually knew, a friend. {{{{{hugs}}}}}

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Tom, you don't have enough room on your LJ for all the stories about Bob...

[kshandra]

You'll appreciate BarbaraFox's story, methinks.

I met him

[capplor.livejournal.com]

just once, but that experience was a big part of a convention I still remember as "one of the best"

Robin

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

What a great gift Bob gave you...all that time. As the Fraggles would sing "egh, egh, Pass It On".

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

That's a touching memorial itself, really.

I never met him, just devoured the MythAdventures books like cheap candy, when I was a lonely mousy little middle school girl looking for a place to escape to. They were full of adventures and bad puns mixed with slightly naughty humour (especially if you're twelve) and omigod they were funny. I read out a bit about Perv-ects and Perv-erts to my dad, who probably wondered where he'd goen wrong. I lost track of them for a while, but then I ran into them again, realised I'd missed them, and bought them.

Nothing too profound, but it's the little things, really.

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

The only time I ever met him was when he was GOH at ICon. I was standing in the back of the room at Opening Ceremonies, and got to talking with this guy I hadn't seen around (I was a fairly new fan then, not the seasoned trufan with dozens of cons under my belt that I am now) and, lo and behold, it was him! I'd already read some of his "Myth" books, so I told him how much I liked them.

At that con, I bought a copy of his "Dark Horde" tape; I still have it.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

What a great collection of memories. Thank you to everyone for sharing!!

[ginevra007.livejournal.com]

I will never forget him. Briefly I was a member of the SCA group The Dark Horde, (classic) where tales were told of the Mighty Yang who helped found it. I got to meet him at Sci-Con 1982,in VA Beach lo those many years ago. Some of us got to party briefly with him, where we stayed up all night talking. Come the dawn, as was my friends ritual, we then went to the beach (which the hotel was on) to watch the dawn. I invited him to come with us, which he did! Some of my friends danced on the beach while others were 'Polar Bears' and jumped into the cold cold water for a brief swim. A memory I will always treasure.

I raise my mead cup to him. Thank you for your humor and making the world a little brighter.

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

:< I chickened out.

I was at U-con, in the dealers room. And this guy standing near me, facing away, spoke to someone else. "That's my game!" he said.

It was MythAdventures.

My eyes widened: it was ROBERT ASPRIN.

I got unexpectedly shy. I told myself I'd meet him tomorrow. But Lynn Abbey took ill, and they left early.

I loved the Myth books. I devoured Sanctuary. They held a special charm for me because Asprin lived in Ann Arbor -- in my state! I didn't know I still had that teen awe a decade later.

I don't know how to explain more. Maybe I can't.

I should have said something at U-con, about how his work mattered to me. Even if I stumbled over my own tongue. It might have made sense to him anyway.

Tom, thanks. Thanks for being braver than me. Thanks for sharing this. Thanks for being you. Look forward to seeing you at Clave. Please jam a lot with Steve Brust this weekend, eh?

-hugs-

Anne Zanoni*--- [Chica]

[zillah975]

This is a wonderful post; I feel much the same way about him. I'm a little too sad to do it over again, so I'll share here what I shared with the local SF group from whom I heard the news.

I wanted to see him at Dragon*Con this year.

I'm glad I got to see him last year. When I was maybe fifteen or sixteen years old, Bob was friends with my sister through filking, and so I got to be friends with him as well -- or, rather, he was astonishingly patient with me and my geekiness and my crush on him. He has a reputation (much of it self-cultivated) for being the kind of guy you lock up your daughters when he's in town, but he was never anything to me but kind and respectful and fun. He's the first person who ever encouraged me to take up a martial art, to get involved in women's self defense. He encouraged me to believe that I could do it, whatever "it" was.

The next year at Ok*Con, in Tulsa, my sister (Michele) and I and Margaret Middleton and some other filkers were hanging out in Bob's suite, waiting for the con committee to come get him to go to dinner. Well, they forgot.... So he took us all to dinner at the Flame Room in the hotel there. I felt SO grown-up, and so... I mean there we were, in our jeans and tee-shirts, in this gorgeous upscale restaurant that was about a thousand percent nicer than any I'd ever been in, eating filet mignon and cherries jubilee and Bob was practically holding court. And when Michele confided to him, a little embarrassed, that she didn't think she could finish her cherries jubliee, Bob gave her his definition of decadence: order whatever you want, eat as much of it as you want, and throw the rest away. :) Obvs. it made an impression if I still remember it so clearly thirty years later.

At TexarCon one year, I wound up at lunch with him and my sister and some friends and Stephen King, before King was famous (I think Carrie might have come out in theaters?). When I mentioned I was taking fencing, he wanted to know all about it, and when he decided that I was being badly instructed, he and King took their butter knives and gave us a quick fencing lesson in the restaurant, which managed to be both hysterically funny and also really informative. And it alarmed the staff slightly, which I think happened fairly frequently when Bob was there.

Dragon*Con last year was probably the first time I'd seen him since then. At one of his panels, before it started, I went up to say hello, fully expecting him to have no idea who I was, but he remembered me. And I finally got to tell him how much good he'd done me -- my self-esteem, my sense of adventure, my believe that I could do things that I had assumed I couldn't do. I think he was a little non-plussed, but he was as gracious and funny as he'd ever been.

I was really looking forward to seeing him again.


The world seems really sad today.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Chambanacon 5.
My first full-immersion filk experience.
Yang, Azarael, Moonwulf, and Hawkeye.
Also Juanita, Marty, Al, Joe, Gordy, Anne.
I was hooked.

He was at Dragon*Con 2007

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

He was in the filk room Saturday night and Sunday night.

He mostly told stories about the good'ol-bad'ol days of filk yore. He did sing some songs, and sang along to the standards.

During one of the circles, I decided to read a poem my brother wrote Mounting the Earth, when I finished I heard him say "nice".

I also went to his reading, where he read an exerpt from a new series he was working on, set (where else) in New Orleans. He will be missed for many reasons.

[vampry.livejournal.com]

I first met Bob at a Windycon back in the early seventies. One of my first conventions. I'd just discovered filk and was invited to a room filk with him, Margaret Middleton, Gordy Dickson and a few other people who would become friends. I later became a peripheral member of the Dark Horde (peripheral cause I didn't actually attend a lot of SCA events) and....

Damn, I'm going to miss him.

[gramina.livejournal.com]

I've done my best here (http://gramina.livejournal.com/275944.html) to share how I remember Bob.

Shortly for some Tully, and my guitar.

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

Still numb. Thank you so much for calling to make sure I knew. It softened the blow, coming from one of my best friends, rather than from Jenni, who may be my con mom but isn't as close, doesn't know how my weird little mind works as well as you do.
The Dorsai told some great stories. And were so warm and welcoming to me, reaching out to comfort my sadness in spite of their own great pain and loss. I hope I'm not deluded when I feel like I went from Fangirl to Friend this weekend (tho I was always careful to describe myself as Snuggly, never Friendly)
Tully tonight, a nightcap and a small salute to a man I'm certain I would have been honored to know. Wish I could have been in New Orleans last night for the Pub Crawl held in his honor...

There are no words, and yet....

[rev-bob.livejournal.com]

I met Robert Asprin twice - once at Chattacon 2002, where I had my picture taken with him, and once at Libertycon 2005, where I spent a good chunk of time in the filk room with him. On both occasions, I took the chance to tell him how much I enjoyed his work, and now I am right glad of it.

About a week Before, I finished his latest book: "Dragons Wild" - billed as the first of a new series, no less - and I thoroughly enjoyed it. (Enough so, in fact, that I entertain foolish hopes that there is a followup in the pipeline.) That weekend, I went by the local used book shop for the first time in months, and I was rewarded by finding a good copy of "Sweet Myth-tery of Life" in the Starblaze edition. After I left the shop, I found that I had not been charged for it. Fitting, somehow.

Those who know me even in passing know a couple of things about me. First and most obvious, I have a hideous penchant for punnery. Second and almost as obvious, I read a lot. I decided to keep track one year, and the total was about 150 books over 365 days. The vast majority of those I read once and then file away. A smaller selection I will pull out once every couple or so years to reread. My Heinleins are there, as well as a couple of really choice series. There is, though, a yet smaller stack that I have to handle with extreme care. These are the books that I call "contact poison," for good reason. You see, if my gaze falls upon them, I am likely to pick them up. If I pick one up, I will certainly flip through it. If I start flipping through it, I will remember how much fun it was to read - and I will reread it. There is a significant chance that I will continue until I finish the entire series.

As I said, that stack is rather small. Offhand, there are four components to it: Stephen King's "It," Spider Robinson's "Callahan" books, Robert Asprin's "Myth" books, and Robert Asprin's "Phule" books. I don't feel like I lost a friend last week - I feel like I lost a couple of families.

I mentioned up front that I spent time in the filk room with him at Libertycon, but I'm really not much of a filker. See, I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but on occasion I can write some verses here and there. It so happens that I am in the middle of just such a project, to be my first "real" published work - and it has been decided that the songbook in development will be dedicated to him. It's kind of my way of acknowledging the debt I owe him, directly and indirectly.