Connor Freff Cochran

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Connor Freff Cochran
Other namesFreff
Occupations

Connor Freff Cochran (also mononymously Freff) is an author, correspondent, and publisher as a founder of Conlan Press.

Contents

Career

By 2016, Cochran's self-published bio at Conlan Press also listed him as "an award-winning writer, artist, musician, producer, and performer […] comic book writer-artist […] and a graduate of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College". [1]

Creative work

Credited as Freff, Cochran designed the cover art for Galaxy Science Fiction 's January and March 1975 issues. [2]

Non-fiction

In 1984, Cochran was a US-based correspondent for BBC2's TV series Micro Live (credited as "Freff"), reporting on telephony and computing in the United States. [3] By 1993 and through at least 2000, Cochran wrote opinion pieces in a series called Creative Options; entrants were published in Keyboard magazine and the bulletin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. [4] Cochran wrote the owner's manuals for Alesis' NanoPiano and NanoBass, and while the style of their prose was praised in 1998 by Electronic Musician , they were also found lacking in a technical sense. [5]

Peter S. Beagle

By 2011, Cochran was the publisher for Peter S. Beagle, author of the 1968 novel The Last Unicorn . Cochran himself was featured on the audio commentary for The Last Unicorn Blu-ray, noted for "repeatedly plugging of a Last Unicorn comic". [6] In early 2016, Cochran was listed as a publisher and executive editor for Conlan Press, a publishing house he founded that described itself as "launched in 2005 as a way to help author Peter S. Beagle". [1]

In 2015, Beagle sued Cochran for US$52 million (equivalent to about $67M in 2023), "disgorgement of illegal gains and restitution, and dissolution of two corporations he co-owns with Cochran, Avicenna Development Corporation, and Conlan Press, Inc." On June 21, 2019, Judge Michael M. Markman of the Alameda County Superior Court found in favor of Beagle, awarding attorneys' fees plus $332,500(equivalent to $396,248 in 2023) for "financial elder abuse, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and defamation." In his decision, Markman said of Cochran, "[he] presents as an extremely intelligent, articular, overly-aggressive hustler and pitch-man. Cochran's written work product attempting to promote Beagle's work is written as Cochran speaks – with a flair for the dramatic that is at best loosely based in truth." [7] On March 23, 2021, Beagle regained from Cochran the intellectual property rights to his works. [8]

Despite discharging his debts to Beagle via bankruptcy, Cochran appealed his sentence "as a means of disputing Beagle's claims of financial elder abuse, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and defamation." In December 2021, a California Court of Appeal did not rule on the matter, dismissing his appeal as moot. [9]

Published works

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References

  1. 1 2 "About Conlan Press". Conlan Press. Archived from the original on February 8, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Appendix 4: Directory of Magazine Cover Artists". Gateways to Forever: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1970 to 1980. Liverpool University Press. 2007. pp. 459–478. ISBN   9781846310034.
  3. ↑ Micro Live. Series 1. Episode 2. November 9, 1984. BBC2.
  4. 1 2 Cochran, Connor Freff (2000). Hanna, Jon (ed.). "Left Hand, Wide Eye" (PDF). MAPS Bulletin. X (3). Sarasota, Florida: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies: 12–14. ISSN   1080-8981. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 8, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  5. ↑ Obee, Jeff (February 1998). "Alesis Nanobass and Nanopiano". Electronic Musician . Vol. 14, no. 2. pp. 191–194. ISSN   0884-4720. Small but mighty sound modules.
  6. ↑ Vaux, Rob (March 12, 2011). "THE LAST UNICORN Blu-ray Review". Collider . Archived from the original on August 13, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021. THE LAST UNICORN Blu-ray Review. Directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr., THE LAST UNICORN stars Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, and Angela Lansbury.
  7. ↑ Glyer, Mike (June 24, 2019). "State Judge Awards Peter S. Beagle $332K in Damages". File 770 . Archived from the original on March 25, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  8. ↑ Glyer, Mike (March 23, 2021). "Peter S. Beagle and Ownership Group Regain Control of Rights to His Work Following Sale Approved by Bankruptcy Court". File 770 . Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  9. ↑ Glyer, Mike (December 29, 2021). "California Appeals Court Rejects Cochran's Effort To Overturn Judgment Favoring Beagle". File 770 . Archived from the original on January 23, 2022. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Tuning in to Wendy Carlos". Official Wendy Carlos Online Information Source. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  11. ↑ "What's a sampler? : a basic guide to the world of digital sampling". Los Angeles Public Library. Archived from the original on March 27, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
  12. ↑ Holmes, Thom (2016). Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture (fifth ed.). Third Avenue: Routledge. p. 534. ISBN   978-1-138-79272-2.
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