Well known science fiction and horror author Richard Matheson passed away yesterday at the age of 87, after a long illness.  Matheson was the author of I am Legend, The Shrinking Man, Hell House, What Dreams May Come, the Star Trek episode "The Enemy Within," numerous Twilight Zone episodes, and much more.
 
The author's passing was first announced yesterday via a protected Facebook post by his daughter Ali Marie Matheson.
 
Matheson was born in New Jersey in 1926, raised in Brooklyn, New York, and published his first science fiction short story in 1950.  He was a prolific writer of novels, short stories, and scripts for TV and movies.  He has received a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement, and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010.
 
Stephen King has stated that Matheson is "the author who influenced me most as a writer."  He and son Joe Hill collaborated on Road Rage for IDW Publishing in 2011 for a two-part comic adaptation of their co-written story Throttle,  which was created for an anthology honoring Matheson (inspired by Matheson’s classic story Duel, see "'All in the Family Department'").
 
Moonstone Comics has released comics, graphic novels and a prose collection based on Matheson’s Kolchak the Night Stalker property (see "Johnny Depp to Play 'Kolchak'").  IDW Publishing adapted a number of his stories into comics and graphic novels (some now apparently out of print), including I Am Legend (see "Horror Classic 'I Am Legend' Resurrected") Hell House (see "IDW Plans Second Matheson Project") and some stories in the anthology Doomed (see "IDW's 'Doomed'").