Remembering Steven
By 
I never met Steven in person. We came very close to meeting once in New York City, but because of a variety of transportation snafus it didn’t end up happening. In the online conversations that we shared he was never anything other than deeply cordial and remarkably thoughtful. When you have the chance to meet someone that you respect and admire, don’t let that opportunity slip away. While we were remarkably fortunate to host some of his work, LGM was only a small part of Steven’s story; he was extraordinarily prolific and spread his work across a variety of platforms. Ironically, Steven and I had discussed in the immediate wake of SEK’s passing the possibility of putting together an edited volume of the Scott’s works. Steven’s own contributions would surely deserve the same treatment.
Please let me know about any platforms that I’m missing in comments:
- Lawyers, Guns and Money
- Race for the Iron Throne (wordpress)
- Race for the Iron Throne (tumblr)
- Graphic Policy
- People Must Live By Work (book)
- Race for the Iron Throne (book v.1)
- Race for the Iron Throne (book v.2)
Here are collected tributes to Steven. I’m sure that there are remembrances I’m missing, please let me know in comments. I’ll be putting together a page in memory of Steven, and I’m happy to include as much material as possible.
Elana’s tribute bears reproduction at length:
His non-fandom book was: People Must Live by Work: Direct Job Creation in America, from FDR to Reagan. Worker justice was his mission. He brought class analysis and deep knowledge of economic systems and labor organizing to everything from Star Wars to The Venture Brothers. His series A People’s History of the Marvel Universe is giant in its scale. In it, he wove together real history and sprawling fictional worlds with great depth, and with unprecedented mastery. Who else would write Cap Saves Altamont or Anti-Mutant Prejudice and Mutant Rights in the Long Durée?!
When there were topics he wanted to write about that were outside of his immediate personal experience, he would go out of his way to make sure those perspectives and experiences were taken into account. Ordinarily, if a non-Romani person wrote about how Romani characters were used as placeholders for Jewish identities in comics I would have been worried that they would say something offensive, but Steven always did the homework and respected people. The result was a piece that everyone could admire.
I love that everyone addressed him as “Maester Steven” on Tumblr. “Maester” is an honorific George R. R. Martin created for scholars and healers in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. That was apt for Steven. He was a voice of wisdom in fandom who was able to address complex realities with sensitivity.
Steve’s podcasts (almost always with SEK) are available on Scott’s Youtube channel.
The outpouring of grief in reaction to Steve’s passing on X was remarkable: