Connor Freff Cochran
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Connor Freff Cochran is a creative artist (in multiple fields) and businessman. He began his professional career at 17, shortly after graduating early from high school.
On the creative side he has worked professionally as an illustrator, cover artist, essayist, magazine writer, comic book writer and artist, author, screenwriter, graphic designer, BBC television science reporter, musician, composer, songwriter, improvisational comedian, actor, set designer, recording engineer, producer, public speaker, editor, technical consultant, interface designer, photographer, and is a graduate of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College (Class of 1974).
On the business side he has been a consultant to multiple technology companies, the president of a music tech startup, and is currently president of Connor Cochran, Inc. One CCI subsidiary is Conlan Press, which was founded in 2005 to publish books and audiobooks. Through another CCI subsidiary, Church of Superdog, Connor is business manager for several science fiction/fantasy/comic writers and artists, including Peter S. Beagle, Parke Godwin, Algis Budrys, Peter Gillis, Rebekah Naomi Cox, and the estates of Avram Davidson, Mary Pangborn, and Edgar Pangborn. Other current CCI activities include extensive development in commercial music, theater, collectible art, and feature films.
As an illustrator, Connor is best known for his early science fiction work for Galaxy, if, Cosmos, and Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine. He also illustrated the novel Titan by John Varley, and multiple magazine and book appearances of different volumes in Roger Zelazny's AMBER series. Other places his artwork and design have appeared include Keyboard, Frets, Berkley Books, Dell Books, Ace Books, Doubleday Books, Voyetra Technologies, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Daystar Records, Electronic Games, and Defenders of Wildlife. He was also a Selected Artist on the 1975 NASA/Smithsonian Apollo-Soyuz Artist's Project.
From 1984 through 1987 he was a regular correspondent and co-presenter on the BBC-2 computer science television series Micro Live.
His 101-essay series on creativity, "Creative Options," ran in Keyboard magazine from 1986 through 1999, won a Maggie Award for best regular magazine series, and has been used in several university-level English curricula. The complete original series, plus new material, is scheduled for book publication in 2007. Other magazines he has written for include MacUser, MacGuide, PC, A+, Hardcopy, Enter, Science Digest, InfoWorld, Musician, EQ, Bass Player, Drums & Drumming, Guitar Player, Electronic Musician, Frets, One-Two Testing, Music & Sound Retailer, Making Music, Roland Users Group, Andy Warhol’s Interview, The Record, Music Sound-Output, Science Fiction Digest, Celebrity, Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu, Teen Age, Planet of the Apes, and Comics Interview.
His short fiction has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Whispers, The Berkley Showcase, Amazing, Isaac Asimov’s SF, and Galaxy.
In the comic book world he produced, wrote, penciled, and inked the 1983 independent title D'ARC TANGENT, working with Phil Foglio. He now controls the rights to that property and is pursuing film development on it.
In the music technology field he has been a consultant to Kurzweil music Systems, Alesis, AKG Acoustics, Opcode Systems, Voyetra Technologies, and Sequential Circuits.
As a journalist he covered the launches of Apollo 17, Skylab One, Skylab Three, and Apollo-Soyuz; the Skylab Three crew recovery; and JPL during the Viking landing on Mars, where he got to mix his worlds after hours by taking Carl Sagan (a friend and closet circus buff) to a Ringling Brothers show.
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BBC Microcomputers: Model A, B and B+ • Master range • Archimedes range and A3000
Television programmes and services: The Computer Programme • Making the Most of the Micro • Micro Live • Telesoftware via Ceefax
People: David Allen • John Coll • Connor Freff Cochran • Chris Curry • Steve Furber • Hermann Hauser • Fred Harris • Lesley Judd • Gill Nevill • Ian McNaught-Davis • Chris Serle • Ian Trackman • Roger/Sophie Wilson
Software: Acorn MOS • Advanced Disk Filing System • Disk Filing System • BBC BASIC • Doctor Who (BBCSoft) • White Knight (BBCSoft)
Companies: Acorn Computers • BBC • Cambridge Systems • Castle Technology • Cumana (manufacturer) • Micro Power • Pace Micro Technology • Solidisk • Superior Software • Torch Computers • Technomatic • Watford Electronics
BBC-branded peripherals: 6502 Second Processor • IEEE488 Adapter • Prestel Adapter • Teletext Adapter • Z80 Second Processor
Miscellaneous: BBC Domesday Project