Author Existence Failure: Difference between revisions

* Keiko Tobe, the mangaka of ''[[With the Light]]'', died of an unspecified illness in late January 2010, leaving the manga unfinished.

* [[Satoshi Kon]] suddenly died while making a film called ''The Dream Machine'', which he described as aimed at a younger audience but accessible for his older fans, with a cast made entirely of robots.

* ''[[MM!]]'''s author Akinari Matsuo passed away without warning on April 18, 2011. The phrasing of the letter, which does not mention accident nor illness, suggests suicide.

* Yasuo Yamada, most recognizable as the voice of ''[[Lupin III]]'', died of a brain hemorrhage in 1995, a month before the release of ''Farewell to Nostradamus'', the movie that would mark the series' return to the big screen in ten years. Fortunately, his will stated that, if he were to pass away, the baton should be passed to [[The Other Darrin|Kan'ichi Kurita]] (a popular comedian and impersonator), who currently voices him from that movie onwards. In honor of Yamada, a message was placed at the end of the film's credits: "To Yasuo Yamada, Eternal Lupin the Third: Thank you!".

== Comic Books ==

* Fellow comic book author Edgar P. Jacobs died while working on the second part of "Professor Sató's Three Formulae", the last volume of his ''[[Blake and Mortimer]]'' series. Unlike Herge, however, he had left plenty of notes and a complete outline of the story, which made it possible for another artist to complete the story... 13 years later. That's a cliffhanger for you.

* Steve Gerber died of complications from pulmonary fibrosis, after plotting the penultimate issue of his Doctor Fate story in the ''Countdown to Mystery'' miniseries in his hospital bed. The final issue features four hypothetical endings, written by some of Gerber's friends in the industry.

* Drew Hayes, the author of ''[[Poison Elves]]'', had been planning to create new issues of the comic after having had to stop working on it due to his poor health. He died of a heart attack in 2007 before he had a chance to create more than a few sketches for the new stories.

* [[Steven Spielberg]] brought ''[[A.I.: Artificial Intelligence|AI Artificial Intelligence]]'' to the screen after [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s passing on; in this case, though, Kubrick had had him in mind to direct (or at least produce) from the start.

* Kinji Fukasaku refused treatment in order to film ''[[Battle Royale]] 2,'' but died after directing only one scene. His son Kenta finished it.

{{quote|"You could be the first show on Broadway to make a profit without really opening."}}

* The Polish film ''Passenger'' (''Pasazerka'') suffered AEF when director Andrzej Munk died suddenly in a road accident. The film is a series of flashbacks. When Munk died, many of the scenes taking place in the present day were unshot. His assistant decided to use still images for these scenes.

* [[John Steinbeck]] spent the latter years of his life creating a modern English translation of the original ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur|Le Morte Darthur]]'', but died shortly after finishing Lancelot's story.

* The Chinese novel ''The Story of the Stone'' (a.k.a. ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]'') breaks off at chapter eighty, although it isn't entirely clear to what extent this is because the author died. Current versions usually use an ending provided by a different, somewhat inferior, writer.

* [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] died with ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', his life's work, in a fragmentary and unfinished state; his son Christopher polished it into a publishable work. The younger Tolkien additionally published the 12-volume ''[[The History of Middle Earth|History of Middle Earth]]'' series of drafts, poems, and notes from his father's collection, and most recently the novel of ''[[The Children of Húrin|The Children of Hurin]]''. Several statements Tolkien made during life would seem to indicate that he didn't want any of his other peripheral works (''The History of Middle-Earth'', et al.) to ever be published. Fortunately, his son disagreed and we now have a relatively good understanding of how incredibly detailed Tolkien's world really was.

* This trope (and even the bad fanfic continuations) is [[Older Than Feudalism]]: The ancient Roman poet Virgil died before he could finish editing his epic poem ''[[The Aeneid]]''. Some short passages and placeholder lines remain, as well as some incongruities with the characters. He left instructions for it to be burned, though a literate slave read it and saved it because he recognized the merit of the work. The ending is often considered contradictory to the hero's nature, resulting in medieval poets and scholars writing terrible conclusions with a "book 13."

* [[Robert Anton Wilson]] died after completing only 3 books in his projected 5-book epic romance ''The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles''. There has been some talk of that his friends and/or children might finish the story based on his notes, but only time will tell whether that's possible. Wilson himself refrained from publishing the fourth book even two decades after the third came out.

* Japanese Sci-Fi writer Sunao Yoshida died from lung disease just after it was announced that his science fantasy series ''[[Trinity Blood]]'' would be adapted into anime. He [[Orphaned Series|left it]] in a completely unfinished state, with the last book ending on a major cliffhanger {{spoiler|where main character Abel Nightroad apparently dies}}. He left enough notes for the next novel to see {{spoiler|that [[He's Just Hiding]]}}, but it still gives little satisfaction to the fans.

** His best friend Kentaro Yasui later stepped in to take over the novels, and the manga adaptation as well. Nobody ever bothered to continue the anime adaptation from its cliffhanger ending (closely related to that of Yoshida's last novel, but {{spoiler|including the scenes showing that Abel isn't really dead}}), though.

* [[Evan Hunter]] (also known as Ed McBain, the pseudonym he used for his crime fiction) left the novel ''Becca in Jeopardy'', the second in his planned "Women in Jeopardy" series, unfinished at his death. The unfinished novel has not been published. Hunter's death also ended McBain's long-running "[[87th Precinct|Eighty Seventh Precinct]]" series. Hunter had once expressed an intention to write a final 87th Precinct book called ''Exit'', to be published after his death, but no such book has materialized.

* [[Madeleine L'Engle]] left unfinished a novel called ''The Eye Begins to See'' about the adult Meg Murry O'Keefe. There has been no word on whether the incomplete novel will be published, or whether it sheds any light on the question of what happened to Charles Wallace Murry as an adult.

** Additionally, the ending of Bunch's "Corsair" leaves the reader with the sense that there will be an additional book forthcoming to explain some missing backstory. Unfortunately, this book was never published and it is unknown if there are any notes to enable another author to complete Bunch's vision.

* Michel Foucault destroyed most of his unpublished manuscripts before his death from an AIDS-related illness in 1984, and his will prevents anything he missed from being published, most notably the fourth volume of his ''History of Sexuality''.

* ''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.

* Cao Xueqin died before he could finish off and publish ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]''.

* [[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.)

 

== Live Action TV ==

** Of course, misuse of Computer Slang and the last minute reversal of Peri's death aside, most fans are OK with Pip and Jane Baker's ending and agree that Holmes' ending would have been a disaster.

*** Holmes reckoned the BBC had already made the decision, and wanted to give the Doctor an impressive [[Sherlock Holmes|"Reichenbach Falls"]] exit. He was wrong, but only by a couple of years.

* [[Deadliest Catch|Rest in peace, Captain Phil Harris.]] He had a stroke, ''was put in a medically-induced coma, woke up, wrote to the film crew to keep shooting, and '''then''''' died. In case you couldn't tell, he was something of a [[Badass]]. Phil was also the only member of the show who had previously come closest to dying (he broke a rib, which dislodged a blood clot).

* Steve Irwin, aka the ''[[Crocodile Hunter]]'', was killed in a freak accident with a stingray while filming the documentary ''Ocean's Deadliest'' with Philippe Cousteau Jr. He [[Posthumous Collaboration|was posthumously featured]] in his daughter's show, ''Bindi the Jungle Girl''.

* ''[[News Radio]]'' continued after the tragic death of Phil Hartman but the show was never the same. It only continued for one season, and only because Phil wouldn't have wanted them to stop.

** Same thing with John Ritter and the sitcom ''8 Simple Rules...'', only it lasted a bit longer.

** Six were released after being polished by Ono in 1984, along with six of Ono's compositions and released as the album ''Milk and Honey''. Four more were given to the surviving Beatles by Ono in early 1994. The other three Beatles and producer [[Electric Light Orchestra|Jeff Lynne]] reworked the demos into new Beatles songs, and "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" were later released as singles and on "Anthology" albums.

** These new songs - which [[Broken Base|rather split the fanbase]] - were parodied by [[Mitch Benn]] in "Please Don't Release This Song" in which John Lennon pleads for his unfinished music ''not'' to be re-recorded and released after his death.

** On the subject of the Traveling Wilburys, the band averted this by continuing after [[Roy Orbison]] died shortly after their first album's release, but it severely shortened their intended plans, and they released one more album in 1990 before splitting.

** George Harrison was also one of the producers of [[Cirque Du Soleil]]'s ''Love''; in the making-of special his wife and son are seen watching the troupe's dress rehersal some months after George died, and it's eerie seeing Dhani (with [[What Beautiful Eyes!|wide, bright eyes]]) looking through a giant projection of his nearly-identical father.

* [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]] left no less than ''four'' unfinished symphonies upon his death, including his 8th, the "Unfinished Symphony". He also left around half a dozen piano sonatas in partially completed states, most of which have been speculatively sketched to completion by some performers but all of which are generally either performed in their incomplete states or simply dropped from the repertoire. Schubert generally sketched pieces to the point where he could easily complete them if he found a publisher for them, but his success rate at finding publishers for his work during his lifetime was rather modest, meaning he left many unfinished manuscripts at his death.

* The day before Brazilian satirical band Mamonas Assassinas were to start an international tour (which would be followed by a break to record their second album), they were killed in a plane crash.

* [[Michael Jackson]] died in 2009, weeks before the scheduled start of his planned This Is It concerts in London. He had been working on new songs in the last few years of his life as well; some were completed posthumously (with infamous Michael soundalike Jason Malachi reportedly handling vocals on several tracks), bundled together with unused songs from older albums, and released as ''Michael'' in 2010.

* It didn't take [[Led Zeppelin]] long to decide to break up after John Bonham died. [[The Doors]] lingered a little longer...

** Although Freddie apparently gave Paul Rodgers his blessing to replace him, preventing total Band Existence Failure, it's still not quite the same.

*** Considering Queen+Rodgers only has TWO of the original Queen members in it, it's not much of a surprise they don't live up to the original. Deacon (the bassist) practically retired when Freddie died, only doing two appearances under Queen label since. He officially hung up the bass in 1997.

* There's been speculation that [[Otis Redding]] intended "(Sittin' on) The Dock of The Bay" to be part of a [[The Beatles (band)|''Sgt. Pepper'']]-like concept album, but he was killed in a plane crash 18 days after recording it, and he didn't record anything else before then.

* Buddy Holly [http://www.buddyhollyonline.com/apttapes.html wrote a bunch of new songs] in the months leading up to his death (including "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "Crying, Waiting, Hoping") and recorded acoustic guitar demos of them. We'll never know how he intended to arrange them, but that didn't stop his label from overdubbing and releasing them on two separate occasions.

* Jazz critics usually cite the 1961 live recordings by pianist Bill Evans and his trio at New York's Village Vanguard as Evans' [[Growing the Beard]] moment, but 10 days after those shows were recorded bassist Scott LaFaro died in a car accident. The incident traumatized Evans and worsened his already heavy heroin addiction. Evans himself died in 1980 (of a drug-related bleeding ulcer) just as he was entering a creative renaissance.

** LaFaro is an interesting case because, due to his elevation of the bass' role to counterpoint to instead of solely support to the soloist, he is frequently regarded as being one of the three most influential bassists in jazz. The other two, Jimmy Blanton and Jaco Pastorius, also died at similarly young ages.

* [[George Gershwin]] died after writing five songs for the movie ''The Goldwyn Follies''; when he died, he was intending to compose a ballet for the film's dancing star Vera Zorina to choreography by George Balanchine. After George Gershwin's death, Vernon Duke supplied the additional music necessary for the film.

* Hard rock band Snot was receiving a lot of attention in the late nineties from their major label debut ''Get Some'' and their infamous antics on the 1998 Ozzfest tour. They were working on a second album until singer Lynn Strait was tragically killed in a car accident. Because Lynn died before he recorded vocals for most of the album, the band used the recorded instrumental tracks for the tribute album ''Strait Up'' with guest vocals. The only track that had Lynn's vocals, "Choose What?", was later released as a bonus track on the live album ''Alive''. The band broke up immediately following his death, but a couple of the members started a new revision of the band ten years later called [[Sdrawkcab Name|Tons]].

* A year after her [[One-Hit Wonder|only top-10 hit]], "Lovin' You", Minnie Riperton was diagnosed with breast cancer, and passed away three short years later at age 31. Her daughter, Maya Rudolph, has found success in [[Saturday Night Live]].

* Both [[Hank Williams]] and Patsy Cline died extremely young (29 and 30, respectively), leaving plenty of unreleased material behind and inevitably having several posthumous hits. [[Hank Williams, Jr.]] even overdubbed one of his dad's unreleased songs as a "duet".

* Kino frontman [[Viktor Tsoi]] died in a car crash in 1990, and the last act of his band was to release the Black Album.

* Rich Mullins died in a car accident in 1997 while working on ''The Jesus Record''. It was released the following year as a double album - one disc of Rich's home demo recordings, the other disc featuring the same songs (plus one extra) given the full band treatment by Mullins' "Ragamuffin Band".

* Paul Gadzikowski of ''Arthur, King of Time and Space'' is another example - his plan involves synthesising the many Arthurian legends into an overarching story to be told in "real time" over the twenty-five years of Arthur's reign (although he has jumped forward by a couple of years and has hinted that he will probably do so again). He has stated on several occasions that he has kept detailed notes about the rest of the story in case he passes away before the comic is due to finish in the mid to late 2020s.

* Every so often, Megatokyo's Fred Gallagher will poke fun at his sometimes-glacial update pace, and [http://www.megatokyo.com/strip/874 on one occasion] kinda hinted at this trope.

* [http://captainn.net/main.html N-Fans: The Series] began to flounder in 2007, when creator Webster Swenson passed away unexpectedly. The people who inspired the other characters made a few attempts to revive the series and keep it going in his memory, but the entire website has stagnated since early 2008.

* Angel "Inqy" Yates of [[Wicked Alchemy]] wrote on her [[Live Journal]] about her declining health not long before her sudden death in the summer of 2009. In addition to the webcomic, she also had a slice-of-life comic strip, Onna Chance, and a pirate avatar game. Sadly, Onna Chance and her original site Mutedfaith are both down, a more than a year after her death.

* 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.