Bruce Townley
Revision as of 03:09, 18 October 2024 by Leah Zeldes Smith (talk | contribs)
(April 4, 1954 – October 17, 2024)
Bruce Townley was an American fan and fanartist. He was active in fandom in the 1960s–70s from Alexandria, Virginia, and later lived in San Francisco. He belonged to WSFA and the Southern Fandom Confederation. He was a member of APA-50 where he may have used the pseudonym Canrad 'Vinnie' Naptar.
He was nominated for Best Fan Artist in the 1977 FAAn Awards. However, his artwork was controversial. For example, in a loc to Scientifriction 4 (January 1976, p. 68) fanartist Jackie Franke wrote:
I simply cannot understand how this (splutter-splutter) person's work keeps getting printed! My kids did better work in the second grade! Now Bruce is young, we ail know that, but youth, no more than age, doesn't excuse shoddy work or lack of talent. I'd love to read a reasonable rationale for the continuing presence of those abominable drawings in fanzines. It can't be due to personal friendships, his work appears in too many zines, and surely faneds aren't that hard up. Schalles' work was crude, undeniably, but it at least ofttimes showed a certain wit that Bruce, alas, lacks entirely. Why, then, does Townley warrant distribution?
Faned Mike Glyer replied:
I print Townley because his primitivistic caricatures express my own occasions of alienation in a suitably bizarre style. Besides, I don't print him at anyone's expense, I print him simultaneously with more than a dozen other artists. Townley is good at what he does -- if you don't believe it, look at Brad Parks or Simon Agree. Parks I can't stand, Agree still lacks Townley's sophistication. Townley isn't 90% technique and 10% expression, but his medium is cogent.
He was Karen Townley’s brother.
| Person | 1954—2024 |
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