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| photo of rbadac courtesy of Alisa Botto | |
Johnny "rbadac" Eatman
Remembrances by his friends
Preface by Jessica
On December 29th, I received sad news from Alisa Botto that Johnny Eatman had just that morning been found dead in his garage apartment along with his cat Bosco. The cause is not yet known though his housing situation was not entirely adequate & I presently suspect poisoning from a heating unit. I will post a complete obituary when I receive that, so this notice is a little incomplete at the moment.
He was best known to the on-line community as "rbadac" though he signed his e-correspondence "Johnny." He posted primarily to the newsgroup alt.books.ghost-fiction & has been a major contributor to The Weird Review here at Violet Books, & contributed to other websites. He also wrote effectively witty satires that were mostly take-offs of classic ghost stories; frankly I expected him any-week-now to take his fiction a bit more seriously & gain an audience through magazines & books, but he never seemed interested in the hassle of submitting stories. With his fellow weird fiction fans, he left all of us with an impression of a man who was openhearted & affectionate toward his pals, supportive of our dreams, forgiving of our foibles, unnecessarily insecure in his own talents.
Though most of us knew rbadac only as a personality on the world wide web, the loss has been deeply felt by many, who have rallied to make certain his writings are preserved, with a memorial volume of his satires & nonfiction already planned with some of us "quality small press" activists (Mark Valentine in England, John Pelan & myself) one way or another guaranteeing a permanent legacy in the form of a fine limited edition of some of his best writings.
An e-persona can be "different" from the real person. But rbadac was everything he seemed on the net, as his in-town buddy Alisa can attest. The impression most of us internalized about Johnny sight-unseen through his words alone were not the least misleading — an man of kindness & humor, with just enough cynicism to keep him from being merely blithe, polite, or blind to the destructive lunacies of the world.
Since Alisa knew Johnny for twenty-five years & most of the rest of us were his more distant compatriots, I asked her to write an article on her long friendship which you can access separately as A Romantic on a Misshapen Day: a remembrance by Alisa Botto. Supplementing her moving document, I want to quote a poetically tragic commentary excerpted from one of Alisa's e-letters to me about Johnny's death:
No one had heard from him in a couple of days (not that unusual), he had been ill with flu, & today someone finally went by his house to try to get him to the door.
It's extremely fitting...his black cat, Bosco, was also dead. Somehow, this is the only thing that seems right to me right now.
I've known John since I was 19. My oldest son is named after him. He was my Muse for many, many years.
He was my only magical friend. He always encouraged & recognized the witch in me. He taught me about myself in many, many subtle ways.
I don't really know what to say, either. Thank you for your kind words...I'll let you know more as I find out. I'm sure he would be most pleased with an obituary or announcement on your site. And, I would be happy to write a little something about him after I've had a little time to think.
I can only hope that he chooses me to haunt sometimes!
Soon after the above communication, the Memphis television news covered Johnny's death, trumping up something of a mystery, as no one yet knew if the cause of death was CO2 poisoning or what. Alisa wrote me on:
The story was reported twice on the news tonight — complete with a live feed & video of cops, etc. milling around outside his backhouse. They are reporting it as "a very large mystery" & "man & his cat found dead." I can't help but smile. It's so Johnny.
That strikes me as a simple, acute observation — that Johnny would get a grin knowing "The Mystery of a Dead Man & His Cat" made him newsworthy for Christmas.
I have hastily put this page together. My own feelings I have not entirely put together, as I've focused on making sure Johnny's writings are preserved as a legacy. I was fearful someone would just clean out his garage apartment with no very great care for his manuscripts, but that seems now a smaller worry, & I'll have to think more of what it means never to correspond with rbadac again, never to have his commentaries for my on-line critical journal, no longer to exchange opinions with him on the newsgroup where he was more of a "star" than his ego ever realized. I liked him so much, & pretty much expected eventually to meet him face to face, & now that can never happen.
I am for now soliciting remembrances of rbadac from anyone who knew him even "just" as an e-pal. This is going up at violetbooks.com a bit hastily; I will gussy it up as time passes as a permanent rbadac memorial. For now, I begin below some of the first commentaries & remembrances & appreciations that I've received directly or which were posted at alt.books.ghost-fiction in the wake of my unhappy announcement of his early passing. If you're someone who knew Johnny, please send me your additions for this memorial.
I have a desire to at least attempt to tell a little more about Johnny Eatman the person (he always identified himself to me in correspondence as Johnny rather than John, & the more informal nickname does fit the accessibility & general Old South mannerliness he had about him). I knew Johnny about as well as someone could know a person from a medium this electronic. For a couple of years we exchanged e-mails daily, if only to harass & hector each other, & during the period between his having AOL provided at his office, & when he figured out that he could use the library computers, we actually wrote letters. For now I'll just give a basic fact or two. I'm interested in trying to talk with some of his friends in Memphis & discover some facts & impressions that might be offered (by me of someone else) in any book that may be compiled to celebrate his contributions. Once or twice I asked a probing question about his personal life which he unfailingliy deflected with acerbic finesse. I think he enjoyed the mystique possible through an electronic identity, but I believe he had no dark secrets.
Johnny worked, when we first came to know him five or six years ago, at a company in Memphis that manufactured pull chains — the little ornaments at the end of the chain that turns on a ceiling fan. He had been there for many years & become production manager. A PR agent & casual book dealer (known as Rowdy Rod) started the Classic Ghost Stories discussion group in America Online, & Johnny & I & several others discovered it at the same time. I was new to this genre & began to save the posts, particularly those by "cadabr" as he was then known. After a number of months, AOL had a notorious period when their servers couldn't handle the traffic, & it was nearly impossible to get on AOL. Matt Schwartz stepped in & offered space on his horrornet.com site so we could keep the discussion going if we cancelled AOL, which I did, & for a brief period some of us convened there. It was an imperfect forum for several reasons, & some of us thought about a newsgroup. Our good friend Bill Allison did the footwork starting this one, but cadabr didn't show up for a good while. I told him about it in a letter, but by this time his company, Pull Chains of Memphis, had been bought out & he had, having seen the handwriting on the wall as he put it, turned in his resignation. He sent me a resume at that time — I'm not sure it survives. He also lost his old house, one he was leasing, for reasons that elude me. I had a video tour of it that he made, featuring his bookshelves & many other surprises. He played the guitar & sung on the video — quite well, for he was generally in a band — & even read a Thomas Ligotti story for the video camera. Happily the tape survives.
After a while Johnny got a position with a law firm as a courier & assistant, as I understood it, & also became comfortable with the public library's computers. It was a happy, happy day for me when he figured out how to access the newsgroup. Bill A & I, at the beginning, were taking turns posting anything we could think of to keep the newsgroup on the servers of major ISPs. It wasn't quite as difficult when the newly rechristened "rbadac" showed up. I think his wit & intelligence nailed down the franchise; it helped us attract many of you worthy & wise individuals who have made the group what it is today.
As for other facts, I know Johnny attended one of the larger high schools in Memphis, & that he had no college or advanced education (all of his broad literary cultivation was a product of self-education, a fact that still astounds me). I once told him I was offered a small scholarship at the liberal arts college Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College) & he said that he was too, almost the same year. But he seems not to have ever accumulated college credit. Johnny, by the way, was about one year older than me. I turned 45 today.
"Johnny, we hardly knew ye" indeed. The above are very spare little facts & ultimately insignificant ones. What you already know about rbadac from alt.books.ghost-fiction is much closer to the mind & heart of Johnny, for we know what he thought, what he valued, how he created & how he treated his fellow human beings. Anyone showing up here for the right reasons was greeted cordially & jovially, whether new or veteran in this field. However, spammers received the full & amusing wrath of rbadac. Over the past six months I had faded away from this group due to extreme transition in my career. Also there are so many more adept contributors, I've felt I had little to offer. But in the process Johnny & I had nearly lost touch as well. At almost precisely the moment when he must have passed on, over the last week, he crossed my mind several times. I sought the newsgroup again, and, being relieved to see immediate signs of rbadac's presence, posted a book review. As always I looked forward to his wise-ass response — I never posted anything that didn't draw a response from him. On my second return visit, I saw paghat's death notice instead of rbadac's words. When my wife came into the room several minutes later, she found me in tears & trembling, & I couldn't speak to tell her what was wrong.
-Rob
It strikes me that my friend Johnny Eatman with his delicious sense of irony would perhaps find the spectacle of me being somewhat at a loss for words more than a bit amusing. & under other circumstances it would be, after all, I'm a writer & what we do (supposedly) is write. Moreover, if we're pros, we're supposed to be able to turn out meaningful prose no matter what the occasion. I'll admit to being terribly ill prepared to write about the loss of a friend, particularly when the friend in question is Johnny Eatman.
One of the great blessings of this electronic age has been the Internet's ability to bring together people of similar interests that otherwise might never have met at all. Shortly after Matt Schwartz began the Horrornet message boards, a new board was added with the subject of "Classic Ghost Fiction." The other boards were fine, but they consisted mostly of message boards for contemporary authors to chat with their fans or exchange electronic high-fives over their latest sales. The Classic Ghost Story board, which I quickly gravitated to, had been formed out of the ashes of an AOL group by Rob Suggs, Bill Allison, & Bill Barnett. Others soon followed along, "Woolrich" & "Violet" & many others. I remember Bill A.'s excitement when a post appeared with the enigmatic tag of "rbadac." Apparently, rbadac under the handle of "Cadabr" had been a mainstay of the old AOL group & it was promised that he'd post a LOT & that it would all be well-worth reading. Bill was right, rbadac revealed himself to be amazingly well-read & not just in the area of supernatural horror. I think we all learned a bit here & there from his many erudite posts.
Some weeks later I was surprised to see rbadac appear in the Horrornet chat room. Chat rooms are by definition doomed to a sort of banality, one has to speak in truncated sentences or type in silly icons to convey emotion. The Horrornet chat room sometimes rose above this a bit & damn sure did when Johnny was in the room. I don't know how many hours in the late afternoon (for me) & early evening (for him) we spent chatting about everything from Davis Grubb to the peculiar temperament of black cats & sundry other topics. Unfortunately my job changed & in the last year or so I rarely had the luxury of dropping in to chat, our e-mail exchanges were frequent, & when I was given the almost impossible job of trying to resurrect Horrornet, Johnny was the first person I turned to for reviews. As always, he came through, & with a level of writing that's seen all too rarely these days.
I'd always hoped that we'd get a chance to meet in person, & I regret the unfinished business: the stories that he never got around to sending me for an anthology, the books from Midnight House that he'd mentioned looking forward to that I didn't get finished in time. Most of all I regret never taking the time to tell him how much his friendship meant to me; I'm far too eccentric, curmudgeonly, & just flat-out too much of a loner to have many friends, & thus I treasure those friendships I do have. I considered Johnny Eatman a friend.
I've always thought of the group of devotees that frequent the alt.books.ghost-fiction newsgroup as a group of friends gathering in a well-appointed club room, sitting in comfortable wing-back chairs as we chat about our favorite sort of fiction & whatever else strikes our fancy. One of those chairs will be forever empty now, but those of us that were lucky enough to know Johnny were enriched by that acquaintance. For those that didn't have that privilege, there's the legacy of his writing left behind I commend his non-fiction to all as example of how literary criticism ought to written, with style, wit, & never mean-spirited. In fact, in all the many posts, reviews, & correspondence I've only found one statement to take issue with: Some months ago in one of his posts Johnny joked about being single & made the comment that if he passed away he wouldn't be missed. On that note, he couldn't have been more wrong.
-John
Hi Jessica. I too was one of Johnny's close friends here in Memphis. In fact, most of my closest friendships started over the coffee table at Johnny's house.
Johnny was my birthday buddy, one day apart, we always had the best parties; my musical mentor (I took guitar lessons from him until we annoyed each other too much & my favorite bass was on permanent loan from him); & band mate. He always made me learn Elvis Costello songs on the spot. He & I also shared the same taste in horror movies & fiction. That was great because my husband was never a devoted fan of Dario Argento, etc. In fact, one of the last times I saw him we visited a new video store dedicated to hard-to-find stuff. He needed someone with a credit card to put him on their membership.
I really don't know what to say because Alisa has pretty much said it all. I also find it very right that Bosco went with him & the entire atmosphere of his death is very mysterious. I personally decided not to find out what the actual cause of death was, just because I think he would have liked it that way.
I just wanted to write & thank you for the website. Johnny spoke of you often & he was really happy to find a supportive community for his writing. I know you loved him as much as we did.
Take care,
Amy
P.S. If you can contact Rob Suggs, tell him that that is me & my husband Jack waving hello in Johnny's home movie. I would love a copy of that if possible.
The news about rbadac is indeed very sad. Johnny was one of those fine people it's almost impossible to know other than through newsgroups & e-mail, but to know him that way was a joy. His witty & wise contributions to this group spoke loud for his great knowledge of our genre & for his wide reading & enjoyment of ghost fiction. & he was an Editor's joy, too: always ready to come up with an erudite & fair review when it was asked of him.
Reading his comments on the Philip Alan Creeps series earlier this evening, I couldn't help but note the following remark:
". . .I'm also fond of the well-done conte cruel, & get a lot of enjoyment from the likes of Birkin & Maurice Level — but then, I'm a jaded ne'er-do-well, unheralded by men, unloved by women, & a notoriously bad influence on children (except for the ones who want to grow up like me), so my argument is a tad subjective."
Well, I for one think that , given the reaction of the past few days, our humble scribe might feel better about himself, were he able to review these remarks. One thing I don't think we could call rbadac is "jaded" — and, as we know, he was certainly not unheralded by the men & women among us.
It was a pleasure to know him, albeit only electronically. It's just so sad that he left us in this way: we'll all be the poorer now his contributions have ceased, yet the richer for having had association with him.
-Chris
For the past two days now, I've been in a state of shocked reflection, as I consider my relationship with our dead friend. I'm placed in mind of many real life ironies & also of a recurring conceit in supernatural literature — that found in such disparate works as "The Friends of the Friends," or "William Wilson," or "W.S." in different degrees — that of the doppelganger, or at least, if not an exact double, that of two human beings linked together by fate in some inexplicable way. For, to be truthful, I had that sort of bond with Johnny, whose real name now sounds so odd to me compared to that familiar, friendly alias. Likewise, I'm an equally private person, comfortable with obscurity, & have used a similar one-word mask for a number of years now. The fact remains: we were very much brothers/reflections of a sort — in our likes, our sense of irony, what we regarded as worthwhile in the realm of ghostly literature, our affection for the small absurdities of life itself.
How closely did we correspond? One dry wit on the ghost stories board once quipped to rbadac: "Are you sure you & 'Woolrich' aren't the same person?" Much like Clark Kent & his caped alter ego, many noted we never appeared to be in the same electronic room simultaneously. But, that same Brit wit who made that clever observation had no idea of how many parallels there were. Once, when I mentioned out of the blue in an e-mail that I hoped to discuss Malpertuis by Jean Ray on the ghost story board, rbadac told me how much he had longed for such a discussion himself, then proceeded to tell me at length what a neglected genius the Belgian was. How similar to the own inchoate thoughts that had clustered in my brain for many weeks! Likewise, he appreciated the bizarre Jan Potocki, could quote his weight in Lovecraft, & would defend Frederick Cowles versus his detractors. When my new work at a legal publishing house threatened to devour all of my free time, rbadac came searching for me & insisted I rejoin the new ghost stories discussion after my long departure from the defunct Horrornet ghost story board. I never felt I enjoyed the same depth of knowledge or the same tremendous writing skills as many of the contributors to either the new or old board, but rbadac always encouraged me, welcomed me as a contributor, & even joined in on one notable outside folly of mine: a continuing fictional serial parody on another electronic bulletin board of the English ghost story, Hammer films, Victorian occultist/S.P.R. writings, & all else but the kitchen sink. His contributions remained about the only reason for my keeping that project going: they remained droll, effortlessly knowledgable, & well-written even with minimal preparation.
But, I never realized how truly close he & I actually were until after the end. For, in a nice twist of fate, it turns out that he lived in my home state, within a short distance of where I had once worked & nearby old friends. As a matter of fact, I had been on holiday within a two-hour drive of his home a few days before his untimely demise & might have spent a few hours with him, had I been aware of his actual identity. I don't think he would have hesitated to let me know what face lay beneath that mask of words, but, like myself, we held our comfort with aliases.
So, I might imagine a quiet dark winter's evening, as he & I drink a few warm cups of Darjeeling while seated upon two old comfortable chairs in his small lodgings, & he shows me his collection of rare volumes with boundless enthusiasm & hilarious asides about their contents — but it will never happen now. As we grow older, our catalogue of regrets, for things left undone, grows steadily longer, & this fictional evening now resides near the top of the list.
-"Woolrich" (R.J. Warren)
It is with great, great sadness that I learned that rbadac is no more. Although I never even exchanged e-mails with him, I do recall that I always read his postings with more than the usual carelesness & that I subconsciously saved his name as one of those who is "in the know" so to say.
His seemed to represent another world; a world where there is no vitriolic, useless spam, no hollow ego-boostings & certainly no empty headedness. Instead, a gentle, erudite side of life, always willing to share his profound knowledge.
I do hope that his work will be preserved. And, living in a small apartment myself, these days make me wonder, what does happen with all our belongings, our notes, our collections & our knowledge?
Would perhaps, next to a nice hardcover edition, a website be a proper means to preserve his legacy? others who we don't even know of, might send in their rbadac stuff. Just some thoughts.
-Theo
(Note to Theo: Yes, as you now know, enough interest in a collection of his work that a memorial volume is inevitable, & in the meantime, this "rbadac memorial webpage" can grow to any length required to meet our collective requirement. -Jessica)
from Steve Harbin
I've been mainly a lurker on this list since discovering it, but rbadac was one of my favorite posters, & once politely responded to an inquery of mine. This is really sad news. There are some great posters on this group, but he will most definitely be missed, both for his intelligence & his courtesy.
-Steve
From Scott, aka "Whateley"
Rbadac possessed a keen critical intelligence that could have made him one of the leaders in the field had he cared to submit his work to the print journals. It is a shame that his efforts in this area will be collected only posthumously.
With the deepest respect to a fallen comrade,
-Scott
From John Brower
Words fail me. rbadac was an essential ingredient to this newsgroup. I've saved so many of his posts.
This has been such a depressing year. Too many friends & loved ones gone, most too young.
-John
From Julie Long
I'm an infrequent contributor but a constant lurker here. This is a real tragedy & a blow to the forum. His contributions will be so sorely missed.
-Julie
from Iaian Rowan:
Likewise. I've been a very infrequent participant in the group, but have been reading it since the week it was created. Rbadac's posts were always a delight to read, witty as well as informative, original as well as pithy, astute as well as well-written. But what shone through all of his posts was something that I find hard to describe: usenet is a notoriously deceptive medium, it is easy to misinterpret, to misjudge, but the impression I gained from his posts was one so strong that I don't for one minute doubt that it is correct. More than being a witty man, more than being a clever man, more than being someone who was a perceptive & thoughtful critic, rbadac came across as being a good man, possessing that elusive quality of humanity. I can only miss his posts; I am sure those who knew him more closely will miss him terribly.
-Iain
From Bob Newman [aka "RPN"]
What absolutely hideous news. I usually check out a.b.g-f immediately after coming into work each morning, & I can't count the number of times that rbadac has provided me with my first (and occasionally my only) laugh of the day. It's hard to imagine this newsgroup without him.
-Bob
from Randy Money
He was one of the first to greet this relatively ignorant newcomer with encouragement, good will & good humor. I do hope you find this is all misinformation, paghat. This news is very distressing.
-Randy
from Mark Dillon
Words fail me, rbadac.
Which may be oddly appropriate, because I only knew you through your words. They were eloquent, cultured & spiced with wit.
All I can manage to say right now is that I'll miss those words. I miss them already, rbadac. Right now, in fact.
And it feels so odd to think that you will not reply to this, or to anything else. It makes me cry, rbadac.
-Mark
from Todd T.
This is the first e-friend I have lost. Sure enough, it feels like a punch in the stomach just like losing a 3D friend. There are many splendid companions in this group, yet the quality & scope of his contributions put rbadac in the front rank.
When I first stumbled upon a.b.g-f, I printed out a lot of the archives to read on the train. If those should be of use in assembling rbadac's writings, I would be delighted to help. I will go through them & see what suggests itself, & get back to you with the dates covered.
Damn it all. Damn, damn. RIP to our comrade in yarns, a personality golden enough to be valued highly by strangers far away.
- Todd T., in bitter midwinter
Continue to
Johnny's Obituary Notices Plus more Farewells & Appreciations.Also, Many of rbadac's reviews are permanently part of The Weird Review I have a backlog of his commentaries so our departed pal will be a posthumous contributor to the Review for some weeks to come.
Copyright © 2001 by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, for the contributors
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