Who knew that James Colvin was MM?

[Marca]

That techique of writing letters for a letter column is the best way to encourage readers to write in and I used it on Tarzan, Sexton Blake and even some fanzines.

And indeed the letters page in New Worlds 142 had a short comment by a Mr R Lumley....

[Michael Moorcock]

charles platt slipped an obituary into nw
as a joke
and one contributor actually burst into tears, i learned, and brooded about it for months.

[johneffay]

it struck me that Stephen Fry might actually make a decent Cornell

Surely he's not sleazy and lecherous enough? Russel Brand might be able to carry it off...

[Michael Moorcock]

but does brand drive an alvis ?
i mean, yoo might have to drive your own motor

[Sir John Barbican Begg]

Mondo Moore: Alan Moore on New Ideas, Old Ideas - Newsarama

Mondo Moore: Alan Moore on New Ideas, Old Ideas
Newsarama, NJ

...In the text backup to this volume of the League [Century:1969], we’ve got a story called “Minions of the Moon.” It’s serialized in Lewd Worlds of Science Fiction, edited by James Colvin in 1969.

Lewd Worlds of Science Fiction was a joke name that the science fiction writer Brian Aldiss made up for Michael Moorecock’s New Worlds of Science Fiction when it was being attacked by the censors for all of its sexual content in 1969. And James Colvin is a pseudonym of Michael Moorcock. So as with everything in the League, everything is some reference to some obscure piece of literary or cultural trivia.

Read m(o)ore...

[Reinart der Fuchs]

We love you newsbot.

[Michael Moorcock]

Of course New Worlds never, to my knowledge, had 'of science fiction' as a tag. And Colvin was conceived by Carnell (John Carnell though we all called him Ted) an killed off by Charles Platt. JC was a coincidence. Maybe we live in a Christian culture for which the initials resonate. After I'd ceated Joseph Kiss (a name taken from a shop in Notting Hill -- like Cornelius) I realised I was still using the same consonants -- and Jack Karaquazian was equally accidental (the surname taken from an Armenian in Cairo). I'd forgotten that Lewd Worlds joke. Some people called it 'Lewd Words' or 'Nude Worlds'.
I don't think it was much of a secret that James Colvin was a pseudonym of mine. Don't forget that I had a lot of contacts with fanzines and fans and made no secret of the name. It was commonly done in magazines if an author had too much work in an issue to put a pseudonym on a story and that's why Wrecks of Time, written when I couldn't get hold of a serial from anyone. Colvin became a house name for reviewers, too. Famously, Jim Blish became convinced I'd written a bad review of one of his books because the reviewer was 'Joyce Churchill' (I think Mike Harrison) and he said to me 'everyone knows you use JC for your pseudonyms'. I'm pretty sure that pseudonym was connected in some way with Mike's partner of the time. He hadn't chosen JC deliberately in other words. To this day I find myself coming up with names I like and have to change them because I've inadvertently used JC or JK.

[Aurelius]

I'm surprised Mike didn't fall victim to Multiple Personality Disorder, with all these pseudonyms being used left, right and centre, and having to comment on his own work as if it had been written by someone else.

The idea of the creator of the Eternal Champion having multiple 'identities' of his own seems appropriate though!

[Flame Fang]

This was exactly where my thoughts were leading too, definately a precurser to Erekose!!

[Michael Moorcock]

At that time my wife Hilary said 'One day you're going to wake up in the morning and not know who you are -- and I'm not going to tell you...'

[David Mosley]

It's well documented that the real Michael Moorcock died of lung cancer in 1971, so I don't know who you are either.

[Michael Moorcock]

Bugger! I knew something felt funny...

[Tales from Tanelorn]

David Dont tell him! Mike will be fine so long as he doesnt realise!
Incidentally thats my plan also.