Connor Freff Cochran

Connor Freff Cochran ("Freff") is an American author and illustrator of comic books and science fiction / fantasy literature,[1][2][3][4] journalist,[2][5] musician and songwriter,[2][5][6] graduate of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College,[2][7][5] actor,[5][8] screenwriter,[8] producer,[5] product interface and robotics demo designer,[2][5] BBC Television technology reporter,[2][5][8] and founder of Conlan Press, a publisher originally formed to assist creators in overcoming personal and career problems.[5][7]

Cover art by Freff for 1st ed. of Roger Zelazny's The Courts of Chaos

In addition to computer industry journalism,[2] Freff wrote Creative Options, an award-winning 14-year series on creativity, for the musician magazine Keyboard, and these essays have been reprinted in college English curriculum materials, the journal of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, and in books.[9][10][6] Writing for Keyboard and Electronic Musician, Cochran also interviewed electronic music luminaries such as Bob Moog and Wendy Carlos.[11][12] Freff appears on the commentary track of the Shout! Factory DVD and Blu-ray editions of Rankin/Bass Productions' 1982 animated adaptation of Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn.[13]

In 2015, Beagle sued Connor Cochran for 52 million dollars. In June 2019, in a seventeen page decision, California Superior Court judge Michael M. Markman found Cochran liable for financial elder abuse, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty, awarding Beagle $325,000, as well as an additional $7,500 for defamation, and an undetermined amount in attorney's fees. The suit also included claims of conversion, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, which the judge found to be unproven. Due to Cochran and his companies filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, these awards cannot be collected until the bankruptcy proceedings are complete, at which point legal action against Conlan Press and Avicenna Development Corporation may be pursued (in addition to the now-concluded suit against Cochran as an individual). In his decision, the judge stated:[14]

The Court was convinced that Cochran really did believe he had Beagle’s best interests in mind when working for Beagle. Cochran was convinced that he needed to take care of Beagle’s finances, rationing cash and paying bills, and to otherwise help Beagle with day-to-day tasks (most of which involved money). At a certain point, however, the evidence reflects that Cochran allowed his role as the trusted advisor to get the better of him. He crossed the line from business manager to over-paternalistic friend, exercising a surprising degree of control over Beagle’s finances and, in effect, Beagle’s life. His own testimony reveals that he had convinced himself that controlling Beagle was in Beagle’s best interests because he viewed Beagle as a spendthrift (and Beagle viewed himself that way). He also convinced himself that only he could rescue Beagle and transform Beagle’s works into an intellectual property mega-estate. And, Cochran convinced himself, he should benefit accordingly.

References
  1. "Connor Freff Cochran - 'Freff' - Comic Book DB". Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  2. Micro Live. Episode 2. 1984. BBC. [...] the Chicago Robotics Convention [...] One of the most popular exhibits was on the Westinghouse Corporation stand, where a number of industrial robots performed a stage show with an actor. [...] Much of the design for the show was created [...] by [...] Freff. He's an artist, musician, and journalist, who's trained as a clown, drawn comic books, and written everything from science fiction to articles for serious computer magazines.
  3. "Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections: Stories, Listed by Author". www.philsp.com. 2015-03-19. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  4. "Freff". LibraryThing. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  5. "Connor Freff Cochran Bio". TheGreenManReview.com. 2015-11-23. Retrieved 2017-06-30. Connor Freff Cochran is the only human being on the planet who has been a comic book writer and illustrator, a BBC-television computer science reporter, and a graduate of the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Clown College (class of '74). His resume is long and extremely silly, the result of having been self-employed since January 1974 as a writer, artist, composer, musician, actor, producer, magazine columnist, public speaker, product interface designer, TV journalist, and business consultant. These days he works mainly in film and television and as publisher of Conlan Press.
  6. Cochran, Connor Freff (2000). Thyssen, Sylvia; Hanna, Jon (eds.). "Left Hand, Wide Eye" (PDF). Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. X (3): 12–14. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  7. "About Conlan Press Publishing". Archived from the original on 2016-02-08. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  8. "Connor Freff Cochran - IMDb". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  9. "Conlan Press Publishing | Creative Options Series". Archived from the original on 2016-02-08. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  10. Cochran, Connor Freff (2001-07-15). "The Keyboard Staff - MusicPlayer Forums". Music Player Network. Retrieved 2017-06-29. If you are going to write about creativity, it would be inappropriate to either repeat yourself or shy from testing boundaries. Another big factor was the support of Keyboard. The magazine printed, without blinking, several essays that I was *very* uncertain of at the time of writing. This gave me the freedom to experiment widely. (In fact, in 14 years they only spiked two pieces [...]
  11. Holmes, Thom (2015-10-08). Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture. Routledge. p. 534. ISBN 9781317410232. Retrieved 2017-06-29. Mark Vail, Vintage Synthesizers (San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman, 2000), 41. Reprint of an interview with Bob Moog by Connor Freff Cochran called “The Rise and Fall of Moog Music,” which originally appeared in Keyboard magazine.
  12. Cochran, Connor Freff (2007). "Tuning in to Wendy Carlos". WendyCarlos.com. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
  13. Vaux, Rob (March 12, 2011). "The Last Unicorn Blu-ray Review". Collider. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
  14. Glyer, Mike (2019-06-25). "State Judge Awards Peter S. Beagle $332K in Damages". File770.com. Retrieved 2019-08-03.


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