William Rotsler

William "Bill" Rotsler
Born Charles William Rotsler
(1926-07-03)July 3, 1926[1]
Los Angeles
Died October 18, 1997(1997-10-18) (aged 71)[1]
Awards Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist (1975, 1979, 1996, and 1997)
Website www.williamcharlesrotsler.com

Charles William Rotsler (July 3, 1926 – October 18, 1997) was an artist, cartoonist, pornographer and science fiction author. Rotsler was a four-time Hugo Award winner and one-time Nebula Award nominee.

Pornography

From 1958 Rotsler was involved in the pornography industry, first as a stills photographer on the set of adult films, and later as a film director and actor.

He created Adam Film Quarterly (later called Adam Film World) in 1966 as a sibling magazine to Knight Publishing's Adam magazine.[2] Adam Film Quarterly featured much female nudity but only simulated sex acts.[3] Rotsler's magazine also provided commentary about this pornography, halfway between the content of the high-end Playboy and hardcore magazine Hustler, which other media would not cover.[2] Because of the modular quality of these sexploitation films, Rotsler's stills from could be paired with his own text for a constructed narrative or used to illustrate a narrative for a nonexistent movie. [4] Rostler earned reputations both as a writer creating novelizations from sexploitation films, and as a prolific pornographic photographer second only to Marv Lincoln.[5]

Because Rotsler became a major player at Adam Film Quarterly, playing many roles in production, he began to use pseudonyms, including "Shannon Carse", "Cord Heller", "Clay McCord", and "Philip Dakota", for various cast and crew credits. He even interviewed himself as these characters in the magazine.[6] Rotsler commented "99% of the credits were pseudonyms. On the 'lesser' productions, I'd direct as Shannon Carse and if I acted, I’d be Barney Boone. If I acted in a Rotsler-directed film, I'd be Shannon Carse."[7]

Rotsler had been a cartoonist for science fiction fanzines since he designed the cover for National Fantasy Fan volume 7 issue 2 in 1948;[8] and in 1969, at the urging of author Harlan Ellison, moved his focus to writing science fiction.

Filmography

Rotsler wrote, directed, or acted in some two dozen pornographic films during his career with Boxoffice International Pictures.[8] in the 1980s, he was cameraman for the Hollywood segments of the segments for the French TV series "Destination Series," hosted by Bill Warren; Rotsler occasionally appeared on camera. He also wrote Contemporary Erotic Cinema in 1973, published by Ballantine and Penthouse about pornographic movies from an aesthetic point of view.[9]

Filmography
Title Year Role Notes Source
Agony of Love 1966 The Beatnik (credited as Shannon Carse) director, writer, and producer [10]
The Girl with the Hungry Eyes 1967 Brian (credited as Shannon Carse) director, writer, and producer [8][11]
Mantis in Lace 1968 director [8]
The Enormous Midnight 1968 director [12][13]
Shannon's Women 1969 Shannon credited as Shannon Carse [14]
House of Pain and Pleasure 1969 director [12][15]
Street of a Thousand Pleasures 1972 director [8]

Science fiction

Rotsler, active in science fiction fandom for years, was known for his illustrations for fanzines, many of which he gave away for free. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist four times: 1975, 1979, 1996, and 1997.[16] He also won a "retro-Hugo" for his work in 1946 and was runner-up for 1951.[17] Rotsler was a well-known attendee at West Coast science fiction conventions where he would give away his illustrations.[18] He is also the author of "Rotsler's Rules for Costuming", which address the cosplay often found at these conventions.[19][20] He regardless quipped that "people are making rules for themselves and always finding loop-holes."[21] Through his illustrations Rotsler also helped perpetuate the image of science fiction fans wearing propeller beanies.[22]

As an author, Rotsler's best known novelette, Patron of the Arts (1972), was a finalist for the 1973 Nebula Award; it lost to Goat Song (1972).[23][24] In 1982, Rotsler published through Wanderer Books canonical backstories for the characters of Star Trek: The Original Series. In the process he gave Uhura her first name, Nyota.[25] Rotsler was the source of the title of Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" (1967). This was adopted, with permission, from a caption of a Rotsler cartoon of a rag doll with no mouth.[26]

The Rotsler Award, named for Rotsler, is given annually at Loscon by the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests to recognize "lifetime work of outstanding fan artists." The award comes with a US$300 honorarium.[27][28]

Books (fiction)

  • 1974 Patron of the Arts (expanded from his 1972 novella)
  • 1976 To the Land of the Electric Angel
  • 1976 Futureworld (film novelisation) as John Ryder Hall
  • 1977 Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (film novelization) as John Ryder Hall
  • 1978 Zandra
  • 1979 Doctor Strange: Nightmare
  • 1979 Iron Man: And Call My Killer.. Modok!
  • 1980 The Far Frontier
  • 1980 Shiva Descending (w/Gregory Benford)
  • 1981 Tom Swift: 1: The City in the Stars (w/Sharman DiVono; as Victor Appleton)
  • 1981 Tom Swift: 2: Terror on the Moons of Jupiter (w/Sharman DiVono; as Victor Appleton)
  • 1981 Tom Swift: 3: The Alien Probe (w Sharman DiVono; as Victor Appleton)
  • 1981 Tom Swift: 4: War in Outer Space (w/Sharman DiVono; as Victor Appleton)
  • 1982 Blackhawk (based on the DC comic series)
  • 1982 Star Trek II: Biographies
  • 1982 Star Trek II: Distress Call
  • 1982 Star Trek II: Short Stories
  • 1982 Tom Swift: 5: The Astral Fortress (w/Sharman DiVono; as Victor Appleton)
  • 1982 Tom Swift: 6: The Rescue Mission (w/Sharman DiVono; as Victor Appleton)
  • 1983 The Hidden Worlds of Zandra
  • 1984 Star Trek III: Short Stories (w/Wendy Barish)
  • 1984 Star Trek III: The Vulcan Treasure (w/Wendy Barish)

Books (non-fiction)

  • 1993 Contemporary Erotic Cinema
  • 1995 Science Fictionisms

Rotsler's papers including dozens of matted color drawings, unpublished manuscripts and sketchbooks of original artwork are part of the Eaton collection at University of California, Riverside.[29][30]

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 Lubell, Samuel (ed.). "William Rotsler Dies". The WSFA Journal. Washington Science Fiction Association. ISSN 0894-5411.
  2. 1 2 Church 2014, pp. 111-113.
  3. ↑ Church 2014, p. 106.
  4. ↑ Church 2014, pp. 113,115,124-125,128.
  5. ↑ Resnick, Mike (2002). Once a Fan... Wildside Press. p. 290. ISBN 9781592240197.
  6. ↑ Church 2014, pp. 132-133.
  7. ↑ Warren, Bill (Summer 1994). "William Rotsler's Women". Psychotronic Video. pp. 65–66.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Church 2014, p. 128.
  9. ↑ Baxter, John (2005). A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict. Macmillan. p. 294. ISBN 9781466839892.
  10. ↑ Munden 1997, p. 14.
  11. ↑ Munden 1997, p. 405.
  12. 1 2 Church 2014, p. 132.
  13. ↑ Munden 1997, p. 303.
  14. ↑ Munden 1997, p. 105.
  15. ↑ Munden 1997, p. 499.
  16. ↑ "Hugo Awards Winners by Category". Locus. Archived from the original on 2013-03-24.
  17. ↑ "1951 Retro Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  18. ↑ Fahnestalk, Steve (February 6, 2015). "ROTSLER REVIVAL: Review of THE FAR FRONTIER and PATRON OF THE ARTS". Amazing Stories.
  19. ↑ "Costuming Dawns". Starlog. No. 143. June 1989. p. 54.
  20. ↑ "ROTSLER'S RULES FOR MASQUERADES" (PDF). Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  21. ↑ Crisp, Tom (2009). The Book of Bill: Choice Words Memorable Men. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 68. ISBN 9780740779121.
  22. ↑ Schweitzer, Darrell, ed. (2002). Speaking of the Fantastic. Wildside Press. p. 134. ISBN 9781592240012.
  23. ↑ Dozois, Gardner, ed. (1998). The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection. Year's Best Science Fiction. Macmillan. p. lx. ISBN 9780312190330.
  24. ↑ "Nebula Awards Listings". Locus.
  25. ↑ Davidson, Steve (January 30, 2015). "Amazing Things: DPS Publishes Rotsler's The Far Frontier". Amazing Stories.
  26. ↑ Robinson, Tasha (June 8, 2008). "Harlan Ellison, Part Two". The A.V. Club.
  27. ↑ "About the Rotsler Award". Southern California Institute for Fan Interests. May 13, 2014.
  28. ↑ "LASFS History". Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. May 18, 2014.
  29. ↑ Milenkiewicz, Eric (November 2013). "William "Bill" Rotsler" (PDF). The Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction. 1.2: 117.
  30. ↑ "Guide to the William Rotsler papers". Online Archive of California. Retrieved March 25, 2015.

Bibliography

  • Church, David (2014). "Between Fantasy and Reality: Sexploitation, Fan Magazines, and William Rotsler's "Adults-Only" Career". Film History: An International Journal. 26 (3): 106–143. doi:10.1353/fih.2014.0016.
  • Munden, Kenneth White (1997). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 2. The AFI Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States Series. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520209701.
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