some memories of & thoughts abt my dear ole friend
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martinskidmore who died last wednesday
ITEM! i first martin in the early 1980s at a westminster hall gomic mart ( or possibly at the crackers boozeup the night before? ) - when me & my mate
giddyoldgoat were producing a bernard bresslaw fanzine which was sortof a parody of the x-men fan glub zine, cerebro - martin was particularly tickled by our idea for b.bresslaw chess pieces ie random bits of rock - so of a similar quality to those horrors "sculpted" by the leader of the XMFC
( i just realised i was 18 then so it must've been 28 or 29 years ago - blimey...! )
ITEM! no matter what his "proper job" was i always thought of him as THE BEST FANZINE EDITOR EVER - particularly for FA/fantasy advertiser ( i was SO PLEASED when he brought it back in online form last year ) but also when he edited worlds collide, in gollaboration with his dear pal, dave dursley
ITEM! visiting him ( & his then wife jackie ) in bristol & leicester - they were very welcoming & had cable telly before anybody else i knew
ITEM! martin & jackie staying with my mum & dad one easter - & martin having to be rushed to st thomas's hospital on the sunday morning in agony with kidney stones - probly due to his poor diet - he was never in very robust health but when visiting pals he'd disregard this & would stay up til all hours yapping away - i was also present for a gouple of his epileptic fits during the 80s - quite frightening
ITEM! when he was editor of trident gomics i happened to see martin's letter of rejection to my then flatmate, tim p - it's the nicest one i've ever read - very detailed, carefully explaining why he couldn't use tim's submission but encouraging him to send another one
ITEM! my first visit to martin's t*tt*nh*m flat for an new year's party featuring an enormous plate of economy ham - & cans of skol lager he kept for years & years afterwards
ITEM! martin's strange relationship with food - to say he was a fussy eater would be an extreme understatement - but when he liked something, he REALLY liked it - i once had a postcard enthusing over the quality of a burger he had on holiday in spain - & there are similar stories abt a mango juice he had in india, the lasagne
piratemoggy cooked for him - & most recently of course his gomments abt the ten juice smoothies he enjoyed in hospital
ITEM! if you let him, martin could talk to you for well over an hour abt how he'd improved the system for washing up at the motorway service station where he once worked
ITEM! martin was a big wrestling fan but he loved this quote: "can you imagine the mentality of somebody who watches wrestling?" by max von sydow's character in hannah & her sisters
ITEM! martin's once proud nickname "leicester's king of the crisps" was usurped by that johnny come lately gary lineker
on a related note, here's a nice pic by andrew moreton from comics friends reunited 2009
it's how i like to remember martin: eating crisps & talking to friends
ITEM! the only time i've been to the new wembley stadium was with martin, to watch his team bristol rovers beat shrewsbury town in the playoff finals - & you can imagine, he was delighted & it was a pleasure to see him so happy -
erkinpeaviss & i also went to graven gottage with him once to watch bristol rovers draw with fulham
ITEM! i'll miss watching arsenal matches at martin's flat - i always thought it was a bit odd going to t*tt*nh*m to watch the mighty arse but always used to end up going a few times a season - often with
giddyoldgoat ITEM! just in case you didn't know, his middle name was herbert - & like odo stevens in "a dance to the music of time" he didn't care for it much
ITEM! martin was always very kind & encouraging abt my drawings - printing stuff i'm sure no-one else would ( including a gontroversial gover for FA ) & was often enthusiastic abt my strips in the face of massive dislike or at best indifference elsewhere
ITEM! no matter how much or how often we argued about it, i could never gonvince martin that stan lee made a worthwhile or valid gontribution to the marvel gomics stories of jack kirby or steve ditko
ITEM! i just wanna say i know that martin treasured a great deal the friendships he made through livejournal, ILX, freaky trigger, poptimism, the singles jukebox et al - he was immensely pleased to be in yr gompany & very proud of the achievements of his ( mostly ) young friends - & on a personal note: reading all yr online tributes to martin has been a great gomfort to me
ITEM! this is my first livejournal post this year - i joined LJ in april 2007 at the urgings of martin & steve whitaker aka
stickismyfriend ( who died in 2008 ) - & although never say never, it'll probably be my last for a while - once katie was born i found it increasingly difficult to keep up with reading LJ, let alone posting on it - & with bumpo mike due in december, well...
- having said that, i would very much like to keep in touch with "team skidmore" tho ( ie everyone here who i met through martin )
