Sci-fi author Rachel Pollack has died aged 77. Her career saw her writing novels, poetry, short fiction and comic books, notably taking over as the author of Doom Patrol from acclaimed comic book writer Grant Morrison. Pollack was also an expert in divinatory tarot, publishing many books on the subject.
Her best-known work was Unquenchable Fire her run of authoring the comic book series Doom Patrol from issues 65 through to 87, which were published from 1993 – 1995. The 1950s title had been revived under cult favourite Grant Morrison and Pollack campaigned to be the writer who continued the series when he stepped down.
During her tenure of guiding the story she touched on topics not often covered in the genre including menstruation, sexual identity, and gender identity. She also wrote issues of the Vertigo Visions anthology series featuring Brother Power the Greek (1993), Tomahawk (1998) and the first 11 issues of the fourth volume of New Gods.
Pollack authored over 20 non-fiction works and seven novels, mostly in the realm of magical realism. Her output also included poetry works, essays, short stories and reviews.
As a transgender woman she ensured that transgender people began to be seen comic books, introducing the transgender character Coagula to the Doom Patrol series. She also wrote several essays on her experience of being trans saying it was wrong for it to be classified as a “sickness”, as she saw it as having a great passion.
Last year the author revealed that after overcoming Hodgkin lymphoma a few years ago she had been diagnosed with a different variant of lymphoma and had begun undergoing chemotherapy.
In August 2022 her wife Zoe Matoff shared that Pollack was in intensive care and started a GoFundMe campaign to cover her medical expenses. Many notable authors contributed to the fundraising effort. In mid-March it was announced that she had moved to hospice care. Rachel Pollack passed away on 7th April.
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