Author Existence Failure: Difference between revisions
Updated example's tense
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"After all, as some of you like to point out in your emails, I am sixty years old and fat, and you don't want me to [[Person as Verb|'pull a]] [[The Wheel of Time|Robert Jordan]]' on you and deny you your book."''<ref>Someone created a cartoon pretending that he's deliberately planning to do '''exactly''' that. "They think they hate me now... wait til they see who I kill off next!"</ref>
|'''George R.R. Martin''' on ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire|A Dance with Dragons]]'' in 2009}}
A [[Fandom]]'s worst nightmare.
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Please note that this trope applies when a creator (writer, director, etc.) ceases work on a project, not a participant (actor, well... mostly actors) unless they had significant input.
Not to be confused with the criticism trope known as "[[Death of the Author]]". Or [[Apocalyptic Log]]. See also [[The Character Died with Him]], where the show goes on without the character a dead actor portrayed, and [[Fake Shemp]], where there is an attempt to disguise the absent actor. Contrast [[Outlived Its Creator]].
{{examples}}
== Anime
* When [[Osamu Tezuka]] died, he left his life's work ''[[Phoenix]]'' unfinished. Which is an absolute shame, as he quite clearly had great plans for it. Had he stayed alive to finish it, the separate stories of each time period in each volume would eventually converge at a central point, the "present", and tying all the loose ends of the Phoenix's story together. Now we can only wonder...
* Although Kentaro Miura is still quite alive and healthy, many fans fear that he will eventually die before completing ''[[Berserk]]'' due to the fact that only a handful of chapters are released every year.
* Noboru Yamaguchi tried to avert this trope by attempting to finish ''[[
* Ken Ishikawa, the creator of ''[[Getter Robo]]''. Though he did leave some notes behind, they were apparently only for Getter Robo Hien - a prequel. The cliffhanger ending of ''Getter Robo Āḥ'', the latest series chronologically, has yet to be resolved.
* The director of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team]]'', Takeyuki Kanda, died while the OVA was still being produced. One effect of that was that it took over three years to finish it, making it the longest-running single [[Gundam]] production until [[Gundam Unicorn]], except the long running period for that has been planned from the start.
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* ''[[Cerebus the Aardvark]]'' - Although Dave Sim did not die while making Cerebus (and is still alive as of 2010), he had "planned ahead" (and I'm using this term very loosely) in case this happened. He had mentioned in interviews that, if he DID die before completing the series, the series would continue all the way to issue 300, but all subsequent issues would only have the background art (by Sim's colleague Gerhard). There would be no characters nor text/narrative of any kind.
** If they had both died subsequent issues would have been kinda dull.
*** No joke. Before Gerhard joined him (around issue 80) Sim had said that if he died, he had left instructions for all the remaining issues to be published
* Marshall Rodgers died in the middle of ''Cap'n Quick and a Foozle''. The Captain's last known words: "Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you about this part."
* Willy Vandersteen left very specific instructions behind for the continuation of his ''[[Suske en Wiske]]'' franchise after his death. No character could ever age, or change, no main character may ever be dropped or added, and sex is a taboo, and a number of situations may never be altered (Lambik and Sidonia may never wed). Vandersteen died in 1990, but gave up artistic control of the ''Suske en Wiske'' franchise in 1972, to this day his wishes remain the guiding principles of the comic.
* [[Jack Kirby]] started a project called ''Phantom Force'' shortly before he died. [[Image Comics]] published the first two issues, with many of their top artists(Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Lee, Jerry Ordway, Jim Valentino and Keith Giffen, among others) inking Kirby's pages. The story arc was finished by Kirby collaborator Greg Theakston.
== Fan Works ==
* Fan author Brian Randall -- author of ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'' and many other fanfics -- [http://www.soulriders.net/forum/index.php/topic,102984.0.html took his own life on January 17, 2014], leaving ''Kyon'' and all his other in-progress work incomplete.
== Film ==
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** And then his son Brandon died from an accident involving a prop on the set of one of ''his'' movies, ''[[The Crow]]''. The film was finished using a body double, shot in shadows (such as when Sarah embraces Eric in his apartment), seen from the back (particularly noticable when Eric is walking back to his apartment after his ressurection), or [[Digital Head Swap|with Brandon's face added]] (in the fight scenes).
* H.B Haliki, the man that gave us the original ''[[Gone in Sixty Seconds]]'' (the independent film made in 1974 on a shoestring budget, not the 2000 remake with [[Nicolas Cage]]), died while filming the [[What Could Have Been|now unfinished]] ''Gone in Sixty Seconds 2'', when a stunt sequence malfunctioned and he was crushed by a water tower.
* Trinidad Silva died in an auto accident before he filmed all his scenes as Raul in ''[[UHF (film)|UHF]]'', so the movie had to abort his subplot before {{spoiler|the poodles got their revenge.}} The film is dedicated to him.
* Likewise, "Red" the fire truck in ''[[Cars (film)|Cars]]'' is silent as Joe Ranft, who was to voice the character, was killed in an road accident before the film was completed.
* [[Ernst Lubitsch]] died two weeks into shooting on ''[[That Lady in Ermine]]''. [[Otto Preminger]] stepped in to finish directing the film; he had replaced Lubitsch as director of ''A Royal Scandal'' for similar but less fatal reasons.
== Literature ==
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* Frank Herbert died in 1985, leaving his ''[[Dune]]'' series unfinished, though Herbert had been tacking books onto the series for some time. After his death, his son Brian Herbert, along with Kevin J. Anderson, wrote a handful of sequel and prequel books to the series.
* Arthur Ransome had an unfinished ''[[Swallows and Amazons]]'' book when he died. Nicknamed "Coots in the North,'' it had the Blacketts meeting the Death-and-Glories, and makes one weep for [[What Could Have Been]].
* Robert Jordan died before he could complete the "definitely, probably final" 12th book of ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' series, but he left behind extensive notes. Before his illness was discovered, he used to joke that if he died before the series was over, [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|his will was going to dictate that his notes be destroyed]]. Fortunately, he relented, and Brandon Sanderson was been picked to finish the series. Sanderson
* A lot of [[Franz Kafka]]'s stuff was unfinished, including the novel ''The Trial'' and a bunch of short stories. He still had fragments. What's more, he never intended to publish any of it; his papers were to be burned unread upon his death, and we only have them today because no one followed instructions. Many people have speculated that Kafka left his papers to Max Brod because he knew Brod would under no circumstances obey his request to have the papers burned.
* Stieg Larsson died of a massive heart attack in 2004 after having completed the third book of his supposed-to-be-decalogy ''[[The Millennium Trilogy|Millennium]]'' (''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'', ''The Girl who Played with Fire'' and ''The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest''). All of the completed novels were only published after his death.
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** As of late 2010, what is probably the last Stone/Randall novel, a crossover, is out, and while as noted the works were all ongoing series, as a final book, {{spoiler|it ends things well, with the two main characters, who had been struggling with personal issues, making a good effort to find happiness with each other much the way Spenser and Susan had in the Spenser novels.}}
* Jack Chalker set up a huge cliffhanger with Horrors of the Dancing Gods, leaving {{spoiler|his main hero (originally a Barbarian Warrior) now in the form of an immortal (even by immortal standards) wood nymph (oh, and she's pregnant by the Big Bad with who knows what), his son in love with a young girl with male genitalia, the second main character having switched to the evil side of thing...}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131010193523/http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=30610 Nothing else] is coming out after [[Harlan Ellison]] dies:
{{quote|"My wife has instructions that the instant I die, she has to burn all the unfinished stories. And there may be a hundred unfinished stories in this house, maybe more than that. There's three quarters of a novel. No, these things are not to be finished by other writers, no matter how good they are."}}
* [[Gordon R. Dickson]] died after completing the 9th of an unknown number of books in his [[Dragon Knight]] series, leaving Jim Eckert's journey from 20th Century grad student to Master Magickian incomplete. The 11th book in his more famous [[Childe Cycle]] series, ''Antagonist'', was completed by his assistant and friend David W. Wixon and published in 2007.
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* Z.A. Recht died with the third book in his ''Morningstar Strain'' trilogy unfinished.
* Andrew Keith, who co-wrote the ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] III'' [[Novelization]] and ''[[Wing Commander (novel)|False Colors]]'' with William Forstchen, passed away in 1999 before he and Forstchen could work on a planned sequel to ''False Colors'' that would have bridged the gap between that book's end and the start of ''Wing Commander IV''.
* [[Diana Wynne Jones]] was working on a fourth book in the ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (novel)|Wizard's Castle]]'' series before her death in 2011. Although series completion is thankfully not an issue with that series (like her ''[[Chrestomanci]]'' series, ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (novel)|Wizard's Castle]]'' is a series of individual stories connected by a few recurring characters), it was nonetheless a disappointment, as the series had received a recent [[Colbert Bump|popularity boost]] thanks to [[Studio Ghibli]]'s
* ''The Cat Who Smelled Smoke'' was to be the thirtieth volume in the popular ''[[The Cat Who]]...'' mystery series by Lilian Jackson Braun. It was to have been published in 2008, but was put on hold due to the author's failing health. When she passed away in 2011, the book was canceled entirely, and so the series will remain unfinished.
* [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]' ''Skeleton Men of Jupiter'', the last story in the ''[[John Carter of Mars]]'' series, was intended as the first in a series of novelettes with ongoing plot, so the story ends with the plot unresolved. The followups never got made, and ERB died a few years after the story's publication.
* Averted at one point by [[Stephen King]], who had finished only four out of seven books in ''[[The Dark Tower]]'' series when he was struck by a van and sent to the hospital with severe injuries. He later references this, at least indirectly.<ref>After he is written into the story, fictional King says he became motivated to finish the story after coming so close to death.</ref>
*
* [[Anne McCaffrey]] managed to avoid this with the long-running [[Pern]] series by collaborating with her son, Todd, on a few books before turning the franchise over to him entirely. So even though she passed away in November 2011, Pern survives. (YMMV as to whether this is a good thing or not.)
** Their final collaboration has been finished and 'in the can' for quite some time. The publisher is sitting on it for unknown reasons, perhaps to avoid a [[Too Soon]] release that could be construed as capitalizing on her death. There's also the "final" Pern book she worked on for years, with a working/joke title ''After the Fall is Over''. No word on whether or not Todd will finish it.
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* The lead singer of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, Charles Haddon, [[Driven to Suicide|committed suicide]] just before the release of their first ([[One-Book Author|and likely last]]) album.
* [[TLC]] member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes was killed in a car crash in 2002, during the recording of the group's latest album ''3D''. The album was eventually finished by T-Boz and Chilli (they were determined to finish it in Left Eye's honour), in some cases using Left Eye's previously-recorded rap solos.
** There was also a posthumous album of unfinished solo material that was released in 2009 and was finished with contributions from many artists, including [[Missy Elliot]], [[Chamillionaire]] and the remaining members of TLC, T-boz and Chili, as well as Left Eye's sister Reigndrop.
* Mark Linkous, leader/only constant member of cult indie rock band [[Sparklehorse]], had dealt with depression for most of his life and had notably attempted suicide in 1996 while his band was touring as [[Radiohead]]'s opening act. That suicide attempt caused damage to his legs which never quite heeled. Linkous eventually took his own life in 2010, shortly before the wide release of his ''Dark Night of the Soul'' collaboration with Danger Mouse and [[David Lynch]]. Another project, Sparklehorse's fifth album, was left in a near-complete state after his death and has not yet seen the light of day.
* [[The B-52's
* The sudden death of Peter Christopherson in November 2010 put an end to [[Throbbing Gristle]].
* Bradley Nowell, the singer, songwriter and guitarist for [[Sublime]] died a few months before the release of his band's breakout third album. This meant their label had a hit album, no band to send out on tour and no chance for a follow up album. Instead, the surviving two members and Brad's dog Louie starred in a series of music videos released for each of the three singles released for the album. The label proceeded to fulfill the rest of the band's record deal with an continuous (and morbid) series of rarity and greatest hits albums that continue to be released to this day. The two other members went on to a series of other bands of varying success before reforming as Sublime with Rome, which is legally not the same thing as Sublime due to Nowell's estate owning the copyright on the name.
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* Spoofed in ''[[PRIMARCHS]]'', where the {{
* SuperPie suffered a (fortunately non-lethal) version of this in Game 11 of [[Comic Fury Werewolf]].
* ''[[The Gungan Council]]'' has had two confirmed deaths of writers: Skelosh Delaroch and Raven Darkness.
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* Kathleen Freeman, the voice of Ms. Gordon in ''[[As Told by Ginger]]'', died before she finished her role in the episode "No Hope for Courtney." As a result, the character she played passed away instead of getting out of retirement. The whole episode was dedicated to the voice actor.
* Mary Kay Bergman, who originally voiced most of the female characters on ''[[South Park]]'' (including Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Broflovski, Mrs. McCormack, Mrs. Cartman, Wendy, etc.) had suffered from depression for years and committed suicide just after finishing recording her parts for the show's third season. "Starvin Marvin In Space" and "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" were dedicated to her memory.
* Tony Jay was the voice of Megabyte, ''[[
** Long John Baldry was the voice of guest star Captain Gavin Capacitor, and he died as well.
* ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 3'' features Slinky Dog, formerly voiced by Jim "Ernest" Varney, who died in 2000. Varney's friend Blake Clark supplied Slinky's voice for the third film.
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