John V. Baltadonis

(1921 - 1998)

JVB -- also known as Balty -- was a founding member of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society (PSFS) (and thus one of the Phillies) and of the Fantasy Amateur Press Association (FAPA) in the 1930s. He was described by Ossie Train as "A hulking brute of 6'2" ".

One of the most active fans of the 1930s, he was an amateur artist and served as art editor for the PSFS fanzine Imaginative Fiction. He also contributed art to other fanzines. At one time he was known as the "Paul of the fan artists."

With others he co-edited the second version of the Science Fiction Collector, beginning in 1937. He published Fantasy Fiction Pictorial and Fantasy Fiction Telegram. He was the last member of Comet Publications and invented Cosmic Monopoly. He attended the 1938 Philadelphia Conference, the Second Eastern States Science Fiction Convention, and Nycon

Baltadonis was elected to the First Fandom Hall of Fame in 1998 along with two of his fellow PSFS members: Jack Agnew and Milton Rothman.

He died of lung cancer in 1998.

See his reminiscence of Nycon.

For an early short biography, see Who's Who in Fandom 1940, page 3.

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Person

1921—1998

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