Jake "Buddy" Saunders (born 1947) is an American author and businessman, working in the fields of comic books and science fiction.
Jake Saunders | |
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Born | Jacob Saunders 1947 (age 74–75) |
Pen name | Buddy Saunders Don Fowler |
Occupation | Writer and businessman |
Genre | Science fiction |
Spouse | Judy[1] |
Children | Conan[1] |
Saunders started out in the world of fanzines. As part of the "Texas Trio" (with Larry Herndon and Howard Keltner),[2] Saunders published the fanzine Star-Studded Comics from 1963–1972. It featured early work by George R. R. Martin,[3] Grass Green, Jim Starlin, Roy Thomas, Sam Grainger, Alan Weiss, Dave Cockrum, Mike Vosburg, Biljo White, and Keltner,[4] among others, and featured the early appearances of Dr. Weird, Xal-Kor, Wildman and The Eye.[5] Saunders' cover for its second issue won an Alley Award in the amateur division in 1963. In addition, during this period Saunders was a regular contributor (as an artist) to the seminal comic book fanzine Rocket's Blast Comicollector.
Saunders operated his own mail order service starting in 1961.[1] He owned and operated Lone Star Comics, a chain of seven Texas comic book stores founded in 1977.[6] With the sale of the Lone Star comic book store chain in 2013, Mr. Saunders and his family now operate the online Lone Star Comics, www.mycomicshop.com.[7]
As a writer, he co-authored A Voice and Bitter Weeping with Howard Waldrop, later expanded into the 1974 novel The Texas-Israeli War: 1999, as well as Time and Variance, with Waldrop and Steven Utley. Saunders' story "Back to the Stone Age'" was nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1976. Saunders' recent work includes two novels based on the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Martian Legion (2014) and Tarzan and the Cannibal King (2017).