The Zine Dump #6
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Ansible #200-1 / Dave Langford / 94 London Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 5AU, U.K. / U.S. Agent: Janice Murray, P.O. Box 75684, Seattle WA 98125-0684 / SAE or. / The redoubtable British newszine celebrates its bicentennial issue with ... more of the usual. News of SF people, ofttimes reported by their own selves, a very comprehensive and desperately sad list of those who have recently passed beyond, this time including Julius Schwartz, and the ever-hysterical "Thog's Masterclass". Quoted literary expositions include a cruel view of Stranger in a Strange Land we've never heard in fandom. Perhaps mindful of April Fool's Day, Langford assures us that Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is due to be translated into classical Greek. The next issue reports that Klingon editions will not follow.
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Baryon Magazine 94 / Barry R. Hunter, 114 Julia Dr. SW, Rome GA 30165-7999 / $3 by mail, free at www.baryon-online.com / Multitudes of apt reviews of multitudes of books, many written by the insightful Harriet Klausner, others by the editor. Among the tomes gazed and opined upon this time, Catherine Asaro's The Charmed Sphere, In Fire Forgot by Laura Resnick, and Apprehensions & Other Delusions by the divine Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Is it my imagination or is there a lot more fantasy being published these days than science fiction?
Batteries Not Included Vol. X #12 - XI #1-4 / Richard Freeman, 513 N. Central Ave., Fairborn OH 45324 / $3@ US, $4@ outside / TZD doesn't restrict itself to SF fanzines, of course - I'll review other-oriented publications if they grab me somehow. Which must make me some sort of pervert, since BNI deals with video porn. But I can't help it: this monthly zine is always well-written (especially when one-time performer Richard Pacheco or David Steinberg loose language on the topic), and often thoughtful. It's occasionally gross, too, as when Freeman reviews his Xmas favorites (he does this for a living; I'm surprised his brains aren't 100% guacamole), but fortunately, it can also be hilarious (as when Jeff Jarvie writes about his beloved Kylie Ireland), and insightful (as with Steinberg's great interview with big-girl Candye Kane). For those who can confront the subject matter without flinching, BNI is a challenging and fascinating pub - but this is a society that had a moral aneurysm when Janet Jackson flashed a pasty during the Super Bowl.
BCSFAzine #369, #371 / Garth Spencer, Box 15335, VMPO, Vancouver BC V6R 2H7 Canada / hrothgar@vcn.bc.ca / http://www3.telus.net/dh2/bcsfa / I'm a bit confused by the template of the British Columbia clubzine - I can't quite tell who wrote what. The editorial is Garth's, of course - it advances but doesn't answer some interesting questions about fantasy and SF. But who wrote this LOC? Can't tell. After a very complete con listing - including a curling event - there's some neat stuff from the listservs ("Martian Air Force Denies ... UFO Crash") and bless you, boys, a DUFF announcement. Ray Seredin signs his article on media news - it's good to see my favorite sur-reality show, Mad Mad House, reviewed, but Nicole Kidman in a Bewitched movie? Horrors. Michael Morse chimes in with convention and comics natter, and Lloyd Penney reports on a LotR convention. If Spencer signed his work I'd have no complaints. In #371, there is Canvention news, a funny list of club birthdays (with cartoons), news about the deathless Doctor Who, and my own come-on for DUFF. From the account of the Feb. 28 Kaffeeklatsch, it's clear BCSFA is my kinda club. Pay our way up there, guys.
Bento / David Levine and Kate Yule, 1905 SE 43rd Ave., Portland OR 97215 / david.d.levine@intel.com; kyule@spiritone.com / "editorial whim or the Unusual" / David has a short story, "Tale of the Golden eagle", from the June F&SF, on the Hugo ballot this year. Way to cook!
*brg* 36 / Bruce Gillespie, see SF Commentary / A fan fund has been established to Bring Bruce Bayside - import Gillespie from downunder for next year's Bay Area Corflu. Even though I've yet to attend a Corflu and can't possibly afford a trip to SanFran in '05, I'm a great admirer of Bruce's and heartily endorse the idea. Contact Joyce Worley Katz, 330 S. Decatur Blvd., PMB 152, Las Vegas NV 89107 for details. Though this zine looks as professional and perfect as every other Gillespie pub, and sports another full-color Ditmar (a.k.a. Dick Jenssen) masterpiece on the cover, it's very fannish, featuring mailing commentary on ANZAPA, astute book reviews, and a long, fascinating reflection by Dick Jenssen on "the image vs. the word" in our genre. Some fine photos of Australian fans finish the zine. Also: John Maxwell Foyster 1941-2003 - three zines, all edited by Gillespie, in memoriam of a life too big for a single set of staples. Each is fronted by a (different) photograph of Foyster and each contains (different) farewells to the great Aussie fan by any number of his compatriots. Each eulogy, each zine is by itself moving and compelling stuff, but taken as a whole they compose an awesome monument to an awesome fella. I never met Foyster, but several of the faces here depicted - Bill Wright, Robin Johnson, Dick Jenssen and Bruce himself, are familiar from our DUFF trip and elsewhere, and anyone who numbers such among his friends is lucky in life. Beautiful and touching zines.
Bogus #7 / Sandra Bond, 7 Granville Road, London N13 4RR U.K. new address / the usual, it seems / sandra@ho-street.demon.co.uk / Sandra's perzine makes its first appearance in a year and a half - she's been drowning in legal studies, which consume every nanosecond of one's time (as I well remember). She laments the inability of London fandom to find a proper gathering spot - one by one, the pubs they've sampled have failed them in some way. So Sandra anticipates the forthcoming, now past, Las Vegas Corflu - I shriek in anguish that she didn't visit New Orleans on her way home - and declaims on Ian Sorenson's musical parodies and the ubiquity of Buffy references in fannish circles of every diameter. Tony Keen, guesting in what is normally a one-person publication, notes with shock the number of fanzines abandoned in the Seacon bar, and is off on a rumination on the value of these whachamacallums we spend so much time, energy and money producing. Let me know when you find out something, Tony.
Brooklyn! No. 43-44 / Fred Argoff, 1800 Ocean Pkwy
#B-12, Brooklyn NY 11223-3037 / $10 per 4 quarterly issues /
Into the usual wonderful natter about everybody's favorite city-within-a-city.
Fred injects a bitter note, about not-getting a job with a professional
Brooklyn magazine. Fortunately, the zine's usual joyous tone
reasserts itself in pieces about Brooklyn sports, treasure-hunting
on Coney Island, more entries to the borough lexicon, a Brooklyn
Alphabet ("D is for the Brooklyn Dodgers. They've been on
an extended road trip since 1958"), anecdotes, photos, a
borough trivia quiz - good pieces on Brooklyn Heights, "wild"
intersections, bridges in Brooklyn other than the fabulous Brooklyn
Bridge. Fred, relax: you might make money writing about Brooklyn
for a pro publication, but in a fanzine, your love can
shine.
Burstzine / Michael & Nomi Burstein, P.O. Box 1713, Brookline MA 02446 / burstzine@nomiburstein.com / http://www.burstzine.net / $3@ or the usual / Congratulations to Michael for placing a real live short story on the Hugo ballot - "Paying it Forward" from the 9-03 Analog!
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Cacophony Too: The v Generation Vol. XXVIII, Issue 2 / Tracy Majkol c/o KaCSFFS, P.O. Box 36212, Kansas City MO 64171-6212 / tmajkol@mindspring.com / A deep sadness opens this issue of the K.C. clubzine, as "Kaxfen" note the untimely passage of Deanna "Dee" Willis from this world. An artist in glass, Dee chaired the World Horror Convention in 2003 - despite a heart attack. Obviously, a tragic loss. After some reviews of mainstream movies, the editor recounts the taping of club public service announcements - a near first in my experience. The 1983 DSC (their GoH was Stephen King) filmed a spiffy commercial featuring Jack Nicholson lookalike John Mayer sitting in the hotel lobby, typing away - "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so come to the DeepSouthCon ..." But I've never heard of a local club using TV to recruit before. At this year's DSC I got to congratulate "Cricket" and another Kaxfan on a cool idea.
Cherry Monocle no. twelve / Phlox Icona, 1174-2 Briarcliff Rd., Atlanta GA 30306-2634 / Delightful personal pub, opening with a photo-collage cover inspired by Dresden dolls, continuing with a photo and paean to her scotty dawg Biscuit, a list of her mail art correspondents (Queen Rubberheart and Nadaphreak among them), pictures of some nifty sugar packets - she also edits the deliciously-titled Sugar Needle, about candy - and a photo of Phlox herself. Acknowledging that her zine turns upon lists, she provides one of her beta fish and the perzines she's done during their tenure in her tank. Welcome, Edelweiss Opera Doll. Phlox is phun; she should show up at an SF convention, not that our grizzled, menopausic fandom could for more than a moment clasp the interest of such a spirit.
Chunga #6 / Randy Byers, 1013 N. 36th, Seattle WA 98103 / $3.50 or trade / A hilarious Dan Steffan cover opens this strong entry from the Seattle mafia, which includes Andy Hooper and carl juarez in addition to TAFF winner Randy, who opens matters revealing that he's fallen in love. Hooper contributes a long and fascinating article about world expositions, beautifully illustrated by Stu Shiffman, who also provides artistic counterpoint to his own article, mixing cinematic fact and mad fantasy about Rider Haggard's She. Stu sees films from an alternate dimension. (His is better than ours - Robert E. Howard lives to see 80.) Hooper adds some arch fanzine reviews, the lettercol centers on Randy's TAFF trip, and Byers comes up with some recollections of the journey that make one hope he publishes more about it, soon. Sadly, the zine's most moving page is also the saddest: Alun Harries and Lucy Huntzinger eulogizing Martin Smith, dead far too early at age 40.
Comic Book Artist #2 / Jon B. Cooke, Top Shelf Productions, P.O. Box 1282, Marietta GA 30061-1282 / $7.50 @ / Super high-quality publication sent by my friend Mike Friedrich, one of the featured interviews in this issue. Exceptional stuff - a great Frank Cho portfolio (cover/dream girl Brandy is, in a word, perfect), Alex Ross' sketchbook (demonstrating his growth as an artist - he showed superior talent at age 6!) - it's a superb product, well-illustrated, replete with ads but really nice. Also bittersweet: also on its contents is perhaps the last wonderful interview with "Fandom's Faddah", Julius Schwartz. I had the luckless distinction of relaying February's awful news about Julie to Friedrich, a chore I could have cheerfully put off for a hundred years or so.
Comic Effect #s 37-38 / Jim Kingman, P.O. Box 2188, Pasadena CA 91102-2188 / jkcomeff@aol.com / www.comiceffect.com / 6 for $24 / Beautifully-designed comics zines, with pieces about The Haunt of Fear, Tomb of Dracula, and horror comics in general. I really enjoyed Michael Jacot's list of "10 Silver Age Comics You Have to Have in Your Collection" - I agree about some, like Swamp Thing #1. Such rankings are a common denominator when comics fans talk. The article on Zatanna reminds me of the wino who used to call DC while I worked there begging us to put out a comic devoted to that gojuss magical mama, and the doofus who sent us a photo of himself in Zatanna drag. I should have arranged an introduction.
ConNotations Vol. 14 Issue 2 / Stephanie Bannon, c/o CASFS, P.O. Box 62613, Phoenix AZ 85082-2613 / leigh@casfs.org or dyer@maricopa.edu / six issues for $12 mailed bulk rate / Headlining this comprehensive SF news tabloid is a new ride at the Las Vegas Hilton - I said this zine was comprehensive. Lee Whiteside provides complete media news, very interestingly, comics and anime are given their fair due, both new and old books are reviewed, not to mention movies and videos a'plenty. Fandom is not neglected, either, with a mess of con and club listings.
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Dagon #566-584 / John Boardman, 234 E. 19th St., Brooklyn NY 11226-5302 / The energy to keep these monthly zines going for Apa-Q is really impressive. Every new paragraph turns to a new topic, a new argument, different arcane info - more variety than in any other publication I receive. All is presented through Boardman's provocative point of view. There are other consistencies. Each cover consists of politically apt comic strips and each cover is backed by an example of "mystical gullibility," ads for magic pyramids and UFOlogist seminars and the like. Disgust over W's Amerika brings forth an ongoing series on how "Patriotism Is" distorted so obscenely in this day and age. And each issue features "The Colin Ferguson Award", lambasting "War Bores", writers who, in Boardman's view, praise war and slaughter, I join in his outrage at America's current culture of terror, but can't in good conscience associate science fiction authors with the author of the New York commuter train massacre. But his anger bears tasty fruit as well as bitter: there's a brilliant satirical extrapolation of the War on Terror into the Star Wars universe - or is it vice versa? - and a page on "Frodo Baggins, War Criminal" that should be engraved in gold plate. His reflections on the Columbia disaster are fascinating, and his long report on a boat tour of Germany is rich in detail and history. What else? What not? The Cthulhu mythos - the Katzenjammer Kids - book fairs - underground comix - Frau im Mond (helluva final shot) - how Phil Klass (William Tenn) inspired Rambo - and how Winston Churchill did write an alternate history about a Confederate victory. If John hasn't yet turned his pen - occasionally outraged, never tedious - to a subject, give him time.
DASFAx Vol. 36 #2-4 / John Fiala, 741 King Street, Denver CO 80204 / jcfiala@comcast.net / http://www.dasfa.org / A new editor, a new look for the Denver clubzine. It's John's first fanzine, and if it means anything, this 35-year veteran of the hobby pronounces it a success. There's some creative art - neat DASFA logo - book reviews by Fred Cleaver (including one Greg Benford novel), club news. I liked the Word Search puzzle!
Data Dump 69-70 / Steve Sneyd, 4 Nowell Place, Almondbury, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD5 8PB U.K. / $2 / Handwritten zine about SF poetry, interesting factoids mixed in with reviews, sometimes hard to follow because of Sneyd's quirky handwriting but intelligent in its insights. One vital point: the short poem "Long Riders" that appeared in Challenger #15 was not the work of Poul Anderson - I wrote it, and was extremely complimented by Steve's mistake. He notes the correction in issue #70.
De Profundis 372-5 / Marty Cantor, c/o LASFS, 11513 Burbank Blvd., N. Hollywood CA 91601 / www.lasfs.org / LASFS begins 2004 with "menace" of the various meetings since the December issue, whereat Milt Stevens, Frank Gasperik and others were hailed as Patron Saints, Looney Tunes was reviewed by Jerry Pournelle, the Board of Directors was elected, and so on. In March, the Saints hailed include Bruce Pelz, Dan Alderson and Gary Louie, gents I had the honor and pleasure of knowing and whom we all miss terribly; in April one notes the honors given Marjii Ellers. LASFS never forgets its history or the greats who made it; I like these tributes very much. Also mentioned, the "furry fandom" episode of C.S.I., which made me envy Mib the Panda.
The Devniad / Bob Devney, 25 Johnson Street, N. Attleboro MA 02760 / bobdevney@aol.com / Bob is nominated for Best fan Writer this as many another year; we'll see if his Boston citizenship gives him an advantage.
Drawings of the Vancouver Goth Scene / Michael Morse, 10871 Roseland Gate, Richmond BC Canada V7A 2R1 / Cool mini-zines depicting various people with earrings and spiky haircuts, along with another series called This is What Happens When You Don't Eat Your Vegetables, more of the same, and Who Copies the Watchmen?, nary a sign of Ozymandias, and The Insult that Made a Man out of "Op", and damned if I get it, but there's a LOC from Lloyd Penney in here, so they must be fanzines ...
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Emerald City #103 / Cheryl Morgan, cheryl@emcit.com / http://www.emcit.com / Possibly the best sercon zine going, Emerald City is a constant on the Hugo ballot and will, I predict, win either this year or in 2006 (2005 is bound to honor Plokta). This issue deals with the ICFA convention in Florida this spring - we saw Quinn Yarbro on her way there - which is about the only personal material in this issue. The rest is reviews - detailed, involved , interesting in and of themselves - of a shelf-full of tomes. I now really want to read Steph Swainston's Year of Our War, due in the next year or so. A great interview with small press publisher Ben Jeapes is the issue's centerpiece. Note: Emerald City is available only on-line, which is smart of Cheryl - it's expensive to print these things for distribution. But it makes even cursory reviews like mine difficult to manage, which is why I haven't even tried to tap into the glorious pool of quality in eFanzines. Anyway, this is one zine, at least, worth running off so you can take it with you - wherever.
Erg 164-5 / Terry Jeeves, 66 Red Scar Dr., Scarborough, N. Yorks. YO12 5RQ U.K. / erg40@madasafish.com / Hmm ... does Erg rhyme with brg (by Bruce Gillespie)? "Celebrating its 45th annish," Terry trumpets - which makes it the senior entry in The Zine Dump. It and its editor carry on despite a recent diagnosis of prostate cancer and a minor car wreck. "Wish me luck," asks Terry, and we do. Continuing his World War II reminiscences in these two issues, Terry describes his technical training in Belfast. He faced no Germans but did risk a British firing squad for stealing a windowpane, and ended up a certified wireless mechanic. Elsewhere, Jeeves muses on the bad parts of great old movies - Sfers have always picked nits - and orates to a blackbird about SF's lack of prognostication. That's what I said. Penelope Fandergaste and James Verran provide columns. Verran's article on "Broken Promises of Things to Come" reflects with mock bitterness on the disasters promised in early SF for such futuristic dates as 1999, and how they never came to be. Terry considers the same issue as he remembers such failed Sfnal gizmos as digital watches, hovercrafts, and ever-lasting razor blades. His column on antique airplanes - always a hit with Rosy's stepfather - centers first on the Fairey Hendon, a clumsy old bomber remarkable for being the first monoplane in the RAF stable, and then on various aircraft with forward-swept wings. I must also note Terry's evocative, and occasionally elaborate, artwork. Erg is always a joy, showing us the way the future was, with an energy and enthusiasm dwarfing any teens' zine I've seen. For some of us it only gets better. 45 more years to this dean among us.
Ethel the Aardvark No. 109 / Emilly McLeay, c/o Melbourne S.F. Club, P.O. Box 212, World Trade Centre, Melbourne, Vic. 3005, Australia / MSFC_Ethel@eGroups.com / $15 (for Australia), $25 (overseas) for 6 issues / The "ghost issue" of the Melbourne SF Club's clubzine, published last fall. It announces a Christmas function, introduces new officers, talks recent club events (Food and Trivia?). Danny Heap's "Fandom is My Life" is riotously self-referenced and self-indulgent, but also riotously good fun. Alison Barton mourns a local bookstore and Edward McArdle reviews a Best of Both Worlds convention and a few books. Ahh, I can cast my mind to our DUFF trip and see the converted church hall where MSFC meets! We'll be there again!
Event Horizon, Vol. 17 No. 1, Issue 199-201 / Leslie R. Hammes, OASFiS, 4324 Fetrow Dr., Orlando FL 32812 / lhammes@cfl.rr.com / In this brief clubzine President Terry Dahl praises the membership for donating used paperbacks to the local prison, and editor Hammes eulogizes Julie Schwartz as he should be eulogized: personally and affectionately. The 201st issue describes preparations for the Oasis convention, which we plan to attend next May 28-30 (convention address, P.O. Box 592905, Orlando FL 32859-2905). Juan Sanmiguel reviews Megacon, with which I am blissfully unfamiliar, for it sounds like another crush of gamers.
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Fanzine Fanatique Winter 2003/Spring 2004 / Keith & Rosemary Walker, 6 Vine St., Greaves, Lancaster LA1 9WF U.K. / FanzineFanatique@aol.com / trade / Nifty listing of zines received in trade. I don't know how faneds read all of these publications! Perhaps because he and I share only 11 of 41 zines mentioned in this issue, I found it fascinating reading; there are a lot of voices on a lot of topics doing a lot of pubbing in this world of ours.
File 770 / Mike Glyer, 705 Valley View Drive, Monrovia CA 91016 / MGlyer@compuserve.com / $8 for 5 issues / File 770 made the Hugo shortlist on the basis of a single issue published early last year.
For the Clerisy #s 53-4 / Brant Kresovich, P.O. Box 404, Getzville NY 14068-0404 / kresovich@hotmail.com / $2, LOC, or trade / At least I think the second issue, adorned with photos, is #54 - I can't find an issue # anyplace. We were disappointed Brant wasn't at Torcon, since this zine by a reader for other readers is always well-written and compelling. He begins the 53rd issue with a page of script. "Readers are sexy," he says, and what can one say except, "Dream on!" Within, he pans self-help books, sometimes hilariously, describes various memoirs of World War II, and dips into my favorite leisure reading, mysteries. Doesn't touch on James Lee Burke or Richard Stark, alas. He hails Sequoya's creation of a written language for his people. He finds a quotation from Hermann Goering that resounds in today's America: "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." In the next (?) issue Brant deals more with the book from which he took that quote, and others on the fundamental distortions of the human spirit.
Fosfax 208 / Timothy Lane c/o FOSFA, P.O. Box 37281, Louisville KY 40233-7281 / $3 or. / Closet liberals in the post office got their hands on my copy and ripped it to shreds; I had to restaple the whole thing. Well worth the effort for the exceptional and eclectic reviews, covering a wider than wide range - baseball, true crime, Holmesiana, poetry - the many detailed con reports, and Elizabeth Garrott's natter about religion (practically the only mention of this fascinating and vital topic we see in the Zine Dump). I do wish that Tim's review of Challenger 18 had mentioned something about the issue, and that he wouldn't call people like Lloyd Penney names, and I must admit that I ignore his tiresome Clinton-bashing and the rationalizations for Iraq. Symptomatic of the schism in the whole country, there is no common ground on the war. We can't even argue about it.
Future Times Vol.7 #1-2 / Jayne Rogers, Atlanta Science Fiction Society, P.O. Box 98308, Atlanta GA 30359-2008 / www.asfs.org / The bulk of this excellent clubzine consists of the results of its annual readers' poll of various bests and worsts. No surprise: LotR was named the best flick of 2003, The Hulk and Underworld the worst. The rest of the responses are insightful; I like this kind of personal input. There are also squibs on the Mayans, of all things, and a Star Wars game, and an extensive calendar of upcoming events. Most interesting page: a list of scientific events from '03 "which you'll likely see worked into an SF story," even though it wrongly dates the Columbia disaster. The neatest: a note and a drawing (of sorts) scribbled by, on a letter to, Ray Bradbury! Remembering how fans in the L.A.Con hucksters room reacted when Ray wandered through with Julie Schwartz, and how I felt when he contributed to a 1974 article I wrote about Julie, I understand the feeling. The followup issue has mazes on the front and the back. I swear to God they're impossible...
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