Chris Baker Memories

A long time ago, in a land far, far away, 

there was a Science Fiction bookshop called Andromeda 

and it was a hub, mainly because of Dave Holmes but 

not entirely, for the local fans of the fantastic.

One of those fans, was the young and very talented, 

Chris Baker, who quickly took to signing his artwork

as Fangorn.

One of the things that he turned his hand to, 

while he was attending Bournville Art College,

was etching, on thin metal sheets, that were covered with a layer of black paint.

The one example, that I remember well, was a copy 

of this beautiful painting, by Bernie Wrightson.

I wish that I had a copy, of Chris' copy, 

to share but as far as I know, it is probably still 

in a pile of Dave Holmes old stuff and 

is lost to the world.

Mister Baker, went on to have a successful career, as an illustrator and then later, as a designer/storyboard artist, 

working on some major Hollywood films.

Congratulations, Chris, you made your dreams come true.  

Old Silver Snail & Brian Morton

I ran across this scan of an old newspaper photograph,

which shows the very much younger, Brian Morton.

If I am guessing correctly,

because there was not any date, associated with the image,

it was taken after 1985 and before 1989.

He really hasn't changed a lot, over the years, 

he just thickened up a bit and these days, 

except that he has more hair, 

he always makes me feel as though I am in the presence of 

"The Kingpin",

of Marvel Comics fame.

On a different topic, I had forgotten about the old checkerboard, black an white tiled floors, that were a part of the Silver Snail's ambience! 

What I wouldn't give, for the chance to go back to when the photograph was taken and change a few decisions! LOL

Silver Snail Hamilton Opening

Here is an advert, rediscovered in the centre pages of Bill Marks flagship publication, Vortex, number four.

Vortex #4, is dated for July of 1983,

so that is as close as I am likely to get, to the moment of the Hamilton location's birth.

The years have sort of mashed everything together, in my head and I wouldn't have been able to say exactly when Ron opened the Hamilton branch of the Snail.  It came as a surprise, when I realized that it fell in the same year as the move of the Toronto store, from 323 to 367 Queen Street West.

At that time, Andromeda, the distribution side of Ron's small empire, was beginning to make more money than the Silver Snail was and Ron had moved into a CEO role, over both companies, with Mark Askwith becoming the manager of the Toronto store.

Ken Steacy did a beautiful job of designing the mascot, eventually christened "Bobo", by Rob Walton, and the image in the lower right corner of the advert, was, in my opinion, one of the best ever used on the store's bags.

Only one more thing to add.

The original painting, by Paul Rivoche, that is shown on the left hand side of the advert, was hanging in the cafe section of the New Silver Snail and I had made a gentle enquiry, over a year ago, as to whether the new owners were interested in selling it.

They never did get back to me and I noticed, two weeks ago, that the space on the wall, where it had once hung, was now vacant.  I am guessing that either someone stole it, or that they received a more forceful offer and sold it.

Whatever.