Can Anyone Confirm This?

It’s being reported on Harlan Ellison’s board that Alan Coil passed away of a heart attack on Friday. It’s being reported by someone I don’t know, or at least I don’t think I do, which is not intended as any slight against the integrity of the individual. But can anyone provide independent confirmation of this?

PAD

32 comments on “Can Anyone Confirm This?

  1. Oh no. I’ve hardly ever agreed with Alan about anything outside of comics but this would ruin the day.
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    If it helps, the poster on the Ellison board says that Alan’s name may have been “Lewis Coil”.

  2. Many years ago, Susan and i came home from a con, and almost as soon as we were inside (as i recall it) the phone rang.
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    It was Karl Edward Wagner, asking if i could furnish any details of the death of a medium-well-known Atlanta based writer, an acquaintance of ours.
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    I explained that we’d been out of town, had just gotten back, and knew nothing of it. And i asked how Karl had heard of it.
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    Both Andy Porter (“Starship”) and Charlie Brown (“Locus”) had received a letter, postmarked Atlanta, allegedly from the writer in question’s brother, saying that he had been despondent and had taken his own life. One of them (i forget which) had asked Karl to do an article about him and his death. (Since i’d known him for ten or fifteen years and never even heard of a brother, this struck me as Odd.)
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    Since it would have had to have happened before we’d left for the con in order for a letter to have reached Porter or Brown, i was surprised that we hadn’t heard anything … which made me a touch suspicious.
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    I told Karl to hang tight and i’d try to find out something.
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    But how? I could hardly call up his only (rather elderly) relative i knew of but had never met, and ask if he’d killed himself…
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    Well, the upshot was that it was a hoax, and Karl was able to get word to both Porter and Brown in time to stop them going to press with it.
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    Now, i don’t know if this report you refer to is true or a hoax.
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    But i do know that the Internet makes it possible for this sort of news/rumour to spread a lot more quickly than it could have in the mid-80s. That’s both good and bad – good, because verifying/disproving it can be done rather more quickly and (usually) more easily than twenty-five years ago, but bad, because if it is a hoax or false rumour, more people will hear it before it’s debunked.
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    Seeking confirmation or disproof is a good thing.
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    I hope it’s not true, but…

      1. Yes. That’s obvious, and i wasn’t implying the opposite.
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        But, once upon a time, that posting on HE’s board would not have been possible, and the report wouldn’t be known to so many people, some of whom will inevitably uncritically take it as gospel, even if it is a hoax. (An updating of the “It must be true – I read it in the paper/heard it on the radio/saw it on TV” thing.)
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        But it’s a sad fact that seeking confirmation must, of necessity, spread the rumour.
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        But it is necessary to know.
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        And, while the Internet can spread a rumour more rapidly, it can also speed up the exposure of a hoax or mistaken report.

      2. Yes. That’s obvious, and i wasn’t implying the opposite.
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        Didn’t say you were, Mike, nor did I take it that way. I was pointing to what you said as affirmation for my caution. We’re on the same page here.
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        PAD

  3. Peter –

    There are past messages from Paul Shiple in Harlan’s board archives, and one from Alan referencing Paul by name as a close friend. Doesn’t look to be a hoax.

    This is awful. I’ve known Alan online for about a decade and met him once or twice at Mid-Ohio-Con during that time. As contentious as he could sometimes be on the Net, he was a good and intelligent guy, and there are many of us who’ll miss him.

    1. Aw crap. I mean, I was about 95% sure that it wasn’t a hoax, although as I said to Mike, I was being cautious because it’s the Internet and you never know. But if Alan’s acknowledged Paul as a friend in the past…
      .
      Ðámņ.
      .
      PAD

  4. Words fail. Tony Isabella is reporting this on his mesageboard as well and absence anyone denying it (and Alan is not one to let an opportunity to comment pass by) we have to assume the worst.
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    I’m not gonna pretend we were best buddies who corresponded off line like I do with other members of the family here and I would not be at all surprised if there were times he might have considered the amusement value of seeing me staked to an anthill or something…but I’m going to miss him. And I always thought he would be the sort of guy that, if we’d met at a con, we could go out for a beer and burger and have a good time. No chance of that now.

  5. And it goes without saying that my deepest condolences go to Alan’s friends and family.

  6. While we had one or two conflicts in this forum, I too will miss Alan’s presence here. I’m sorry to hear about his passing, and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

  7. Never interacted with him much except here.
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    Always felt there was an interesting person on the other end of the connection.
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    Another man done gone.
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    I’ve said it before, and i say it again now – i’ve outlived too many dámņ friends and acquaintances.

  8. Thank you for all of your kind words and condolences. These are especially tough times for all that knew Lew on a personal basis. Unfortunately he didn’t have any family that wasn’t either dead or estranged. But fortunately, all of his friends came to become his family. He was a big hearted guy and would be there in an instant for anyone that was his friend. And he had A LOT of friends. He is sorely misses by many. Thanks again.

    1. I really don’t know anything about him, Paul, other than his presence here. Can you furnish any details about him in real life?
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      PAD

  9. It’s a shame to hear this news. 🙁 My condolences to all who knew him.

  10. I looked on some Michigan newspaper sites and couldn’t find an obit…but i don’t know if people really use those anymore.

  11. Hi Peter (and everyone else).

    Long-time lurker (despite recently being two tables down from you at C2E2 the other week), and it’s with a heavy heart that I make this first post here.

    Sadly, the news of Alan’s passing is indeed true. Like, Paul, I was a close friend of “Alan” (his real name was Lew, but he posted online with his middle name) and was lucky enough to spend time with him on a weekly basis (you guessed it, at the comic shop) for almost 20 years.

    Alan has also been a long-time poker/Euchre buddy (a card-counting one at that!), a convention co-traveler and a bastion of sound and well-reasoned advice at some of the times I needed it the most.

    As Paul mentioned, all of Alan’s biological family members are dead or estranged, but for almost 20 years myself a solid dozen(+) of us were lucky enough to become Alan’s extended family.

    Alan, as his posts reflect, was a voracious yet picky (and arguably borderline elitist) comic reader and fan. Although he often came-off as a grumpy old curmudgeon online, I can now come out and say that this was more or less just a “tough guy” act that hid a huge, huge, HUGE heart of gold.

    While Alan knew his posts were often incendiary, he would post them anyway if for no other reason that it amused him to rile people up.

    Troll-ish? Perhaps, yeah… but Alan always knew what he was doing and it amused him to shake-up the hornet’s nest of Internet comic-fandom a bit.

    Hey… it’s what he did for kicks.

    However, that being said, Lew was always honest. He wasn’t the type of guy who would lie or post false feelings to raise some Hëll. Rather, he’d lay out exactly what he had to say and then tell you to “blow it out your ear” (if you were lucky!) if you didn’t like what he had to say.

    Although I know most of you only knew him via his “online personality,” make no mistake that — again — his gruff exterior shielded a MASSIVE HEART OF GOLD.

    Over the years my daughter came to see him as a grandfatherly figure: Someone who would gruffly (but playfully) razz her one moment, hug her the next and help her with her homework another moment later while the rest of us geeks jawed about comics, politics and whatever other issues were the topics of discussion on any given Wednesday.

    Since his passing Alan has already left a HUGE hole in the hearts of all of us who were lucky enough to be counted as his close friends, and I can’t express to you enough how much it would mean to him (and hopefully, somewhere, DOES mean to him) to see such an outpouring of support and kind words towards him.

    Alan was one of the kindest and most generous people I’ve ever known. He would do anything for his friends and will be terribly missed by those of us who knew him best.

    All too often it’s said that “___________ was so kind he would give you the shirt off his back.” In Alan’s case this was no exaggeration…

    But right before doing so he’d chide you for needing it…

    And right after that he’d see if you needed something to eat, too.

    Wherever Alan is right now, it’s a better place for him being there, just as the comic shop, and poker night, the yearly barbecues will be lesser because of his absence.

    I hope this allows you all to know Alan a little better. Thanks for giving me this space to let you all know a little more about Alan, PAD. It’s appreciated.

    Best wishes,
    Dirk Manning

  12. Ðámņ. I had no idea he was that old. That kind of passionate intensity is usually reserved for the young.
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    R.I.P., Alan. Give ’em hëll.
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    TWL

      1. 1) Eek.
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        2) I sort of knew that, but I’d argue that in a lot of ways he was actually MORE passionate about a number of topics than you’ve been. Your passion is nearly always tempered by reason; his sometimes wasn’t. Basically, he just “projected” younger than you do, even if he wasn’t. No slight towards either of you intended.
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        Either way … disquieting times.
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        TWL

      2. And I’m 55. I remember years ago when I’d see my dad reading the obituaries in the newspaper, I thought it was kind of morbid. Now that I’m “old” and have, in the past 10 years or so, seen quite a few of my friends, contemporaries, and even folks younger than me pass away, I understand from whence my dad was coming from. Things like recently being a pall-bearer for the first comic book store owner I ever knew, someone who was also a great pal, helps put life into perspective for this particular pentagenarian.

  13. Lewis Allen Coil – of Dundee Michigan passed away on April 30- 2010. I’m his brother.

  14. “As contentious as he could sometimes be on the Net, he was a good and intelligent guy”
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    I’ve seen that phenomena a lot, and I wish I’d gotten the chance to know the more personal side of him, apart from the online persona. That’s really one of the bad things about the Net.
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    “Unfortunately he didn’t have any family that wasn’t either dead or estranged.”
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    That’s really sad.

  15. Lewis Allen Coil – Of Dundee, MI passed away April 30-2010 while taking a break from mowing his lawn. The cremation will be through Allone Funeral Home 734-241-5225. His younger sister is handling all the arrangements. Yes he loved comics. Please remember him well – as you read on.

    Doug.

  16. Doug, will you be in town??? Personally, I would love to meet you. Here is my e-mail: geinmeats (at) aol.com . Please contact me at your convenience.

  17. My condolences to Alan’s family and close friends.

    I also only knew him from (several) message boards.

    It’s a sad, sobering thought, to realize how many people you interact with online, and that you’ve met only a tiny fraction of them, and some of them you’ll never meet.

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