Connor Freff Cochran
Connor Freff Cochran is an American author and illustrator of comic books and science fiction / fantasy literature, journalist, musician and songwriter, graduate of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, actor, screenwriter, producer, product interface and robotics demo designer, BBC Television technology reporter, and founder of Conlan Press, a publisher originally formed to assist creators in overcoming personal and career problems.
In addition to computer industry journalism, 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. Writing for Keyboard and Electronic Musician, Cochran also interviewed electronic music luminaries such as Bob Moog and Wendy Carlos. 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.
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 his decision, the judge stated:
