Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Remembering Derrick
164 Plays4 years ago
Derrick Ferguson passed away on April 4, 2021. Perry shares some of his thoughts and memories of his friend and co-host.
---
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/superherocinephiles/message
Recommended
Transcript
Announcing Derek Ferguson's Passing
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast. I'm half of your host, Perry Constantine, and unfortunately today this show will only have half a host. As you're all well aware, Derek Ferguson was my co-host on this show, and it's my sad duty to inform you that he's no longer with us. First thing I'd like to do is to share verbatim what his wife Patricia had posted on Derek's social media.
00:00:30
Speaker
It is with a broken heart that I, Patricia Cabbagestock Ferguson, announced the passing of my beloved Derek Ferguson. Derek transitioned on April 4th, 2021. There will be a viewing open to the public on April 15th, 2021, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Woodwood Funeral Home, 1 Troy Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, 11213, followed by a private service from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., streaming information to follow.
Remembering a Friendship and Mentorship
00:01:01
Speaker
Now, I'd like to talk a bit about my history with Derek and about how much he meant to me. Sorry, this is gonna be tough to get through. Around the year 2000 or so, I began writing comic book fan fiction. There was a very active community of shared universe comic book fan fix sites at the time, all associated with a website called Heroes, which was sort of like
00:01:30
Speaker
I guess a CBR or Wizard magazine for the community. Derek was a very active member of this community, not only as a writer, but also as a reviewer. Now I had gotten reviews and comments about the work that I had posted up from many different people at that time.
00:01:52
Speaker
It was just the thing you did, right? People would post their stories up and, you know, you'd comment on each other's work and so on and so forth. But... But Derek was... Derek was different. When he chose to review some of my stuff, he had given me some of the most insightful comments that I had ever seen.
00:02:15
Speaker
And as anyone who has read Derek's reviews can attest, he had a remarkable ability to dissect a work in a way that was both informative and entertaining. Now, I was in my teenage years back then, and as most teenagers, I had a massive ego and, you know, was full of piss and vinegar. Derek and I initially did not like each other, and we clashed quite a bit. But
00:02:44
Speaker
Over the course of about maybe two or three years, things started to change. As I matured, Derek and I started to find common ground in our love of movies. And what had started as an initial animosity had quickly transformed into a friendship. And without ever intending to, Derek had quickly become kind of a mentor to me.
Professional Collaborations and Inspirations
00:03:11
Speaker
We would chat frequently on AOL Instant Messenger, not only about comic books and fan fiction and movies, but also about personal things. I would often come to him for advice on different things. One day, Derek told me something that kind of surprised me. And then he said, I'm waiting for you to write a novel. Now, I had been writing fanfic for several years when he told me that, and writing quite prolifically.
00:03:41
Speaker
I'd always dreamed of being a comic book writer or a screenwriter or something along those lines, but I never thought I could be a novelist. That just didn't seem like it was within the realm of possibility. And I told him so. Now Derek, of course, he stuck to his guns. He was respectful, but he said that he thought I was wrong.
00:04:06
Speaker
I followed his advice. I had made a few aborted attempts at writing different novels. They all kind of petered out after a certain number of words. But I finally did manage to produce and publish my first novel, which was Fallen in 2007. And I asked Derek if he would write the introduction. He was very generous. And he did.
00:04:31
Speaker
As the years went on and we became active in publishing our original work, Derek and I would talk, you know, frequently. It was through Derek that I became part of the larger new pulp community and we were often cheerleaders for each other's work. Derek had reviewed a few of my books and he interviewed me many times on his website as part of his Kicking the Willy Bobo interview series.
00:04:57
Speaker
several times we had talked about working on projects together, and it just never seemed to quite work out. Now that had recently begun to change, and we were in the initial stages of working together on a series of Western novels.
00:05:18
Speaker
Since I've started taking art classes and improving my drawing ability, we had also talked about the possibility of, when I was more confident in my abilities, when I felt I was ready, of doing a comic book featuring his Dylan character. Several years back, Derek and Tom DJ did a podcast called Better in the Dark that focused on movie reviews. And I became a huge fan of that show.
00:05:46
Speaker
I had known Derek, obviously, and also Tom personally, but that's why I initially listened in. And I kept listening because I really enjoyed hearing what they had to say. In fact, that was the podcast that first introduced me to podcasts.
00:06:07
Speaker
And eventually I decided to do a podcast of my own called The Exploding Typewriter, Pulp Writers on Writing Pulp, which, as you can tell by the title, was all about, you know, writing and pulp fiction. And it didn't last very long, but Derek was a guest on a few of the episodes. And those episodes that he came on were longer than most. Derek, he just had that way about him. He was always a lot of fun to talk to with.
00:06:38
Speaker
And I think you all know from listening to this show, it was impossible to have a boring conversation with Derek. I mean, he just, he had such energy and such bombast that he brought and such humor and wit, and you couldn't help but have a good time whenever you talked with him. A few years ago, I started the Japan on Film podcast. And initially, I just did it by myself.
00:07:09
Speaker
Derek was the first guest on the show and he came out to discuss Seven Samurai and the Western remake, Magnificent Seven. He had come on to do another episode and we talked about the Japanese version of Unforgiven. And he was one of the show's biggest promoters. He would often share links to episodes he liked and it was around that time that I had the idea of doing a podcast about superhero movies.
00:07:40
Speaker
But I knew that I didn't want to do it by myself. I wanted to have a partner with me. I wanted to have a co-host. And I knew there was no one I would rather do that show with than Derek. So I came to him with the idea and he said yes. And that's how Superhero Cinephiles was born.
00:08:03
Speaker
It started as a biweekly podcast, but when COVID broke out and I had some more free time in my schedule, we decided to transition to a weekly format. And it was something that I look forward to doing every week. You know, we often record it on Thursday mornings here in Japan. And every Thursday I would wake up excited for the chance to talk with Derek about our pick of the week.
00:08:29
Speaker
And just as he had been doing for years in private, Derek had introduced me to movies that I never would have thought to watch. And he brought a very wonderful perspective to movies that I had seen before and made me rethink a lot of these movies.
Personal Reflections and Impact on Family
00:08:49
Speaker
Derek and I had never actually met in person. In fact, one of the frequent jokes I would say is that, you know, Derek's my best friend that I've never actually met in real life.
00:09:02
Speaker
Several years ago, before I came to Japan, I was supposed to do an interview in New York, and Derek had graciously offered to host me at his place. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Another job offer had come up at the time, and so I had missed that chance to meet Derek. Yeah, I'm not upset that I never got that job,
00:09:30
Speaker
I am upset that I didn't have that opportunity to go visit him and just hang out with him in person. We had talked a few times about hopefully being able to find a way to meet up at some point, but it just never came to pass and it will forever remain one of my biggest regrets. Derek was more than just a friend. He was a mentor.
00:10:00
Speaker
And in many ways, he was a brother. In fact, when my wife became pregnant, Derek was one of the first people I'd hold. And because we were hosting this show week after week, and I often look after my daughter in the mornings, which you can probably hear her in the background, she's right next to me now,
00:10:26
Speaker
you know, I would do the show with her. And so Derek's voice was one of the first voices that my daughter had heard. And as she gets older, I definitely plan on having her listen to these episodes that we did together and plan to introduce her to his books and his stories so that I want her to know who her uncle Derek was.
Plans and Reflections on Derek's Last Days
00:10:55
Speaker
Last month,
00:10:56
Speaker
We were scheduled to do an episode on Zack Snyder's Justice League. Now as you know from listening to the show, Derek and I had often discussed Snyder's movies in his work and we had talked about the impending Snyder cut and we both had, you know, we didn't love those movies, but one of the things that we did love was talking about them.
00:11:23
Speaker
And after all that time, we had both been looking forward to discussing the Snyder Cut, especially after it had been hanging around in the air for so long. But the morning we were supposed to record, I woke up to a message from Derek saying that he had to postpone the episode because he had to go to the hospital. That turned into an extended stay.
00:11:52
Speaker
We had spoken a few times while he was in the hospital. He was in good spirits, right? He thanked me for my concern. We joked around and stuff like that, but he generally, he seemed confident that he'd be able to go home soon. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. It had been about a week, maybe two, since I had heard from Derek. I had sent him a message
00:12:20
Speaker
You know, just kind of checking up on him, just kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing. And he didn't respond to it. Now, I just assumed that he was kind of overwhelmed with everything. But in the back of my mind, you know, I had this dark thought that something might have happened. Something might have gone wrong. I told myself that I was just being paranoid and that he was fine.
Honoring Derek and the Podcast's Future
00:12:52
Speaker
My instincts sadly prove correct. In regards to this show, I'm sure many of you are wondering what's next. That's a normal reaction. I mean, it's obviously something I've been wondering myself. I will say that this is what I want to do right now. All I'm concerned about with right now is honoring Derek's memory.
00:13:23
Speaker
So in that light, I'm planning to put together a memorial episode. If any of you would like to contribute, I'd like you to please record yourselves, either with video or just audio alone, sharing whatever memories or words you'd like to share about Derek. Please record it, save it as an MP3 file or
00:13:50
Speaker
or a video format, and pretty much any video format is fine, and send it to the show's email address. That's superherosinafilesatgmail.com. You may want, if it's a large file, which I'm sure most of these will probably be, you would probably want to use a service to, a file transfer service. WeTransfer.com is a very good service. You could use that to send the audio.
00:14:17
Speaker
It doesn't have to be long. Anything you'd like to share about Derek, please send it in and I'll put them together and put together an episode. I'd also like to reach out to some other podcast hosts that Derek and I knew and to see if we'd be able to schedule, I don't know, some sort of round table or something along those lines.
00:14:43
Speaker
I understand that some of the publishers Derek had worked with are planning to put together some things as well, and I don't believe his wife has announced any sort of memorial fund or anything like that. If she does, I will, of course, pass on that information and let you know where you can donate.
00:15:11
Speaker
As for what will happen beyond that memorial episode in regards to this show, honestly I'm not sure right now. Knowing Derek, I'm fairly certain he would have wanted this show to continue. He really enjoyed, you know, sharing these movies with other people and kind of
00:15:41
Speaker
introducing people to, I know one of the things he loved doing in general was introducing people to movies they may not have otherwise known much about. I personally, I would like to continue doing the show, but I don't think I'm capable of doing it on my own, and certainly I would want to take some time before the show continues in any sort of form, but I do want to see it go on in some way.
00:16:13
Speaker
uh... if you would like the show to continue then please by all means you know let me know uh... you can do it privately by emailing superhero cinephiles at gmail dot com or you can post a public comment on on twitter on instagram on facebook uh... the only other thing left to say is that if you would like to honor derrick's memory uh... please
00:16:42
Speaker
go and buy some of his books and stories. His work is available through Prose Press, Airship 27, Pulp Workpress, and many more. Just do an Amazon search for his name and you'll find no shortage of works that I know you will love.
00:17:03
Speaker
I think that's the best way right now. Please don't donate to this show in Derek's memory. I don't really know Patricia that. Other than reaching out to her recently, I've never actually spoken to her, so I don't have any way of really providing any funds that come through me to her. So please just go, and like I said already, I don't know of any funds that she set up or anything like that.
00:17:29
Speaker
So, if you want to financially help in any way, I think the best thing you can do is to buy Derek's books and stories. That's... That's all I really have to say on this subject for now. Other than... I'm gonna miss you, Derek. I love you, buddy. Thanks for watching, thanks for listening, and...
00:17:57
Speaker
Again, please send your contributions. If you want to record something for the memorial episode, please send it to superherocinephiles at gmail.com. For any financial support, please go out and purchase Derek's work. Just search for his name on Amazon, Derek Ferguson or Derek L. Ferguson. He's got tons of material out there that you can purchase. Thanks again.