Design professor, Fantagraphics author, film noir blogger (WHERE DANGER LIVES) and one-time NC e-zine contributor Mark Fertig has passed away. He was shockingly young--just 48 years of age.

Mark was very confident about his opinions, and he eventually drifted away from the magazine/e-zine format, focusing on books about film poster design. The most recent (and by far the most ambitious) of these is Fantagraphics' foray into the hard-cover "coffee table" book, HANG 'EM HIGH, which one might interpret as Mark's answer to Eddie Muller's THE ART OF NOIR. Over 500 poster images will appear in this 340-page book, which was apparently completed prior to Mark's death and is scheduled to become available on October 12th.

More information about this book is available here:
https://www.amazon.com/Hang-Em-High-Western-1911-2020/dp/1683964721/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=mark+fertig&qid=1618165818&sr=8-1

The fate of Mark's film noir blog, WHERE DANGER LIVES, is uncertain. For ease of access, I'm considering bringing over the texts related to individual films as a way to ensure that the material will not disappear depending on future circumstances. Mark indicated that he was slowing down his writing about film noir (which had already happened by 2015 or so) but that it was his intention to maintain WHERE DANGER LIVES "forever"--but "forever" is not quite so lengthy when your life comes to a premature end.

RIP, Mark.