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Author Existence Failure: Difference between revisions
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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.
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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== 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.
** Of course, because he suspected he wouldn't finish "Three Formulae", Jacobs left the copyright of the series relatively open so it would eventually have an ending. Which worked, but also led to new ''Blake and Mortimer'' adventures made by two different writer/artist teams. One team [[They Just Didn't Care|actively tries to]] ''[[Dolled
* 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 ''[[Comic Book/Poison Elves|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.
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* ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney)|The Hunchback Of Notre Dame]]'' was the last film role of Mary Wickes; she played Laverne, the gargoyle. Jane Withers stepped in after Mary died of cancer.
* A unique subversion with [[The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus]]. [[Heath Ledger]] died suddenly while filming it. Since the film is set in a multiverse, [[Johnny Depp]], Colin Farrell and Jude Law portray him in alternate universes (they gave their paychecks to Ledger's daughter).
* [[Star Wars]]: Because George Lucas hated the process of script-writing he went through on ''[[A New Hope (Film)|A New Hope]]'', he hired noted pulp science fiction author and Golden Age Hollywood film scriptwriter Leigh Brackett to write the script for ''[[The Empire Strikes Back (Film)|The Empire Strikes Back]]'', based on ideas they came up with together in story meetings beforehand. She produced a first draft script, but Lucas wasn't completely satisfied with it. Sadly, though, Brackett died of cancer before she could revise her draft. Lucas was forced to write the next few drafts of the ''Empire'' story himself, after which Lawrence Kasdan came on board to polish the dialogue. (Incidentally, the passing of Brackett and Lucas's subsequent return to the drawing board was what led to the [[It Was His Sled|famous]] [[Luke, I Am Your Father]] revelation: in Brackett's draft Vader was not Luke's father, while Anakin was a Force ghost and best pals with Obi-Wan.)
* A unique example would be actor [[Peter Sellers]]. In 1980 he was co-writing a script for [[The Pink Panther]] series for the first time, ''Romance of the Pink Panther'', that he intended as a [[Grand Finale]] for his Inspector Clouseau character. He submitted a revised draft of it to [[United Artists]] shortly before his death in 1980. It ultimately was never produced. Blake Edwards, the director and co-writer of most of the previous entries, decided to continue the series his own way (he was quite specifically not to have anything to do with ''Romance''), writing out Clouseau and introducing [[Replacement Scrappy]] character Clifton Sleigh over two films shot at the same time, ''Trail of...'' (which featured clips of Sellers from the previous films) and ''Curse of...'' The results were disastrous.
* [[Steven Spielberg]] brought ''[[AI Artificial Intelligence (Film)|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.
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* James Agee is generally regarded as one of America's greatest and most lamented writers after his second novel, ''A Death in the Family'', was published posthumously (winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1958). Two novels, a handful of screenplays and some of the most influential film criticism of the 40's, cut short at age 45 due to depression and chronic alcoholism.
* [[John Keats (Creator)|John Keats]] managed to become one of the most influential poets of the Romantic era by the time he died at the age of 25. Many believe he could have been among the greatest writers in history if he had lived long enough. One candidate for his potential magnum opus is ''The Fall of Hyperion'', an epic poem left unfinished when he died.
* [[H. Beam Piper]] committed suicide before he could finish ''Fuzzies and Other People''. The manuscript was lost for 20 years (and thought destroyed), so they had ''two'' different authors write sequels, which were [[Canon Dis Continuity|contradicted]] when ''Fuzzies and Other People'' was finally published.
* [[Roberto Bolano]] died in 2003, shortly after submitting to his publisher the first draft of the novel that would become known as "2666". He had completed four and a half parts of the five-part anthology. This percentage of the novel being complete, as well as notes for the unfinished section that were found in his desk (notes that included the title of the story), allowed it to be published the next year. It has since been proclaimed by many critics to be Bolaño's greatest work.
* Seemingly healthy [[Douglas Adams]] died completely out of the blue from a heart attack in 2001, aged 49, before he could make up for the [[Downer Ending]] of the fifth book in the ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' [[Trilogy Creep|trilogy]] (which, by the way, is the [[Trope Namer]]). He never got to see [[The Film of the Book]] finally escape from [[Development Hell]] based on his scripts, and he was partway through writing the third ''[[Dirk Gently]]'' novel, ''[[The Salmon of Doubt]]'', which was assembled into a relatively cohesive narrative from a number of early versions he left behind.<ref>There is no point at which the text breaks off -- the published book contains only fragments, though you can figure out some of the links and where the story was going if you look for it.</ref> The book also has a collection of interviews, magazine columns, short stories, and many other otherwise-uncollected bits of Adams. To make it even more depressing, the third ''Dirk Gently'' novel was apparently planned to be a crossover between ''Hitchhiker's Guide'' and ''Dirk'' that was supposed to end both series together on a definitively happier note. Eight years later, the sixth book in the series, ''[[The
* Truman Capote had planned for ''Answered Prayers'' to be his magnum opus, but he died with only three chapters written. He seemed to have lost his will to write it in his last years, though there are still Capote scholars looking for any more of it that he may have had (while they have been unsuccessful, they did find the first novel he ever wrote, ''Summer Crossing'', which he had claimed to have destroyed.)
* [[Jane Austen (Creator)|Jane Austen]] first averted this fate for ''[[Persuasion]]'': she originally planned it for the three volume length of her other novels, and one can even see her building up for what would probably have been the cliffhanger for the second volume, but then she became terminally ill and hastily ended the novel early. However, she left a fragment of another novel, ''Sanditon,'' unfinished. It's been completed by other people more than once.
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* After five years of rising success, three members of [[Lynyrd Skynyrd]] were killed in a plane crash while the rest were seriously injured. The band's fifth album, ''Street Survivors'', was released three days before the crash; the album cover art originally superimposed a group shot of the band onto a city street engulfed in flames, and had to be pulled from store shelves and replaced with an alternate version of the group shot on a plain black background (recent CD re-releases have restored the original cover). Eerily, Steve Gaines, who died in the crash, appeared to have his eyes closed and had his head surrounded by flames on the original cover.
* When [[Jeff Buckley]] drowned in the Wolf River in 1997, he left behind an entire album worth of material that the producers had to guess the order of the songs that were going to appear. The double album ''Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk'' was released the following year, reflecting the album's [[Troubled Production]] - the first disc contained the basically finished songs he and his band recorded with Tom Verlaine as [[Record Producer]], and the second disc is home demos made on a 4-track recorder.
* [[The Exploding Hearts]] were a punk-revival band from Seattle best known for their catchy songs and melodies. They probably could have made it big if it weren't for the fact that in 2003 their van rolled over killing 3 of the members. This left behind [[One
* Heaven and Hell singer [[Ronnie James Dio]] (formerly of Black Sabbath) died of stomach cancer in 2010. Since Heaven and Hell only existed so the non-Ozzy members of Sabbath could play with Dio again, the band pretty much ceased to existed after he died.
** Ronnie's main band, [[Dio]], were working on two follow-ups to their ''Magica'' concept album prior to his death. The story will never be completed now. (Making the way he cuts off the narration of Magica's storyline with some teases cut off by a michevious "Ah! But that’s another story!" to make you wait for the next installment much [[Harsher in Hindsight]].)
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* ''Back to Black'' is the last album we'll ever hear of [[Amy Winehouse]]. She was working on her third album when she died in 2011. Her last song, a duet with [[Tony Bennett]] called "Body and Soul", was released not long afterward.
* Francisco "Frankie" Gutierrez, [[Face of the Band|frontman and face of]] the Eurodance act Captain Jack, made famous by the ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'' series, died of a hemorrhagic stroke in 2005, ending the group for all practical purposes.
* The lead singer of Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, Charles Haddon, [[Driven to Suicide|committed suicide]] just before the release of their first ([[One
* [[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.
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** [http://www.planetmule.com/ Enter Planet M.U.L.E..]
* ''Robotech: Crystal Dreams'' became [[Vaporware]] due to the folding of Gametek.
* A planned sequel to ''[[Twisted Metal]] Black'' called ''Harbor City'' was scrapped, but four completed levels were included in ''[[Twisted Metal]] Head On: Extra Twisted Edition'' along with a documentary claiming that ''Harbor City'' was canceled because six of the developers died in a plane crash. However, this was [[Based
* Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War breaks off abruptly partway through the eighth book. Fortunately Xenophon picked up where Thucydides left off, so we know how the war ended. Athens lost.
* WWE superstar Michael "Hawk" Hegstrand appeared with his partner Joe "Animal" Laurinatis on the May 17, 2003 ''WWE RAW'' and despite his history of severe drug and alcohol abuse, performed exceptionally well, as he had finally gotten completely clean. According to those who knew him, Hegstrand had dedicated himself to staying drug-free for the rest of his life; unfortunately, his years of drug abuse had taken such a physical toll on his body that he died of a heart attack six months later.
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