The Zine
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SF Commentary 79 / Bruce Gillespie, 59 Keele Street, Collingwood, Vict. 3066 Australia / gandc@mira.net / $A35 for 5 issues / I just ran a word search program over this Zine Dump to see how many times I'd used the word "best," because I'm about to use it again, twice: SF Commentary is the best zine done by the guy who produced the best-produced fanzines on this planet. Professional-quality color work on the covers, professional-quality writing within, professional-quality layout and production - and he's a helluva guy, too. Here's a special issue (second edition) about another helluva guy - Bob Tucker. Reprinting some material from 1976, with added material by our beloved Toni Weisskopf (including the cover portrait, which Ditmar has turned into a work of art), he has given the master of Smooth a grand tribute. The emphasis is on the career of Wilson Tucker, underrated SF novelist, author of Year of the Quiet Sun and The Long Loud Silence, but my favorite piece here is by Bob Tucker, about his "mundane" career as a movie projectionist. No Hugo yet awarded has borne Gillespie's name. Why not?
Southern Fandom Confederation Bulletin Vol. 8 No. 4-5 / Randy Cleary, 138 Bibb Dr., Madison AL 35758 / rbcleary@bellsouth.net / www.southernfandom.com / SFC membership $15 annually / Randy is doing a fine job editing the Bulletin, the voice - and the substance - of the SFC. I am impressed by the breadth of goods and services offered by the Confederation - handbooks, patches, tee shirts, plus comprehensive club and zine and con listings for fans based south of the Mason-Dixon. Randy's artistic skill and puckish humor serve him well in his editorial and writer capacities; his "Cleary Comments" about Southern fannish goings-on is hysterical (but ... "Guy and Rosie Lillian III"?). Tom Feller, like me a former SFC President, reviews some regional conventions (including the ultimate relaxacon, Outsidecon, indeed held outdoors at a Kentucky lake resort) and gives a semi-full listing of current fanzines (Challenger's web address is missing). Randy and Mike Kingsley review books, there's news, a humongous con list, a membership roster, and letters of comment, with the sparring between Joseph Nicholas and Southern legend Hank Reinhardt over various political nonsense in sweet swing. Cleary's puns on authors' names ("King Takes Bishop, Stephen King and Michael Bishop discuss chess usage in genre stories") are delightfully irreverent. Impressive artwork throughout; Randy - Central Regional Director of ASFA - provides work of his own, and issue 5 sports a beautiful cover by Julia Morgan-Scott. The Bulletin keeps getting better as Cleary's confidence grows, and the sky's the limit.
Statement #313-5 Vol. 28 #1-3 / Sandi Marie McLaughlin,
OSFS, 18 Norice St., Ottawa ON K2G 2X5 Canada / sfs@ncf.ca /
memberships or trade / Tasia Papadatos reviews Torcon 3 (surprising
negative reaction to Robert Sawyer's Hugo), Elizabeth Holden
a Tolkien convention, Kyn Saunders a Tad Williams tome. Mars,
featured on the cover, is mentioned often within, as the first
success of Spirit is cheered. Opportunity followed soon after.
The column on "Tame Your Computer!" is informative,
and I could use the advice. #314 features the only news I've
heard about John Trimble's heart attack. I visited Bjo's home
briefly in 1978; our best to him.
T
Terminal Eyes 10 / Tim Marion, c/o Kleinbard, 266 E. Broadway, Apt. 1201B, New York NY 10002 / I actually recognize the trio of babes on Tim's slick color cover: they're the stars of Lord of the G-Strings, about which the less said the better. On the many pages of distinctive lime-green paper within, Tim discusses his fannish dreams (I dream about worldcons all the time), cat websites, bad movies - Queen of Blood has one virtue aside from Forry Ackerman and Basil Rathbone; that green vampire plant-woman had a fantastic figure - and a movie that everyone else thinks is bad except for Tim, like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He notes the predictions for the end of the world on December 12, 2012 - I'll send him a Christmas card on December 13 - and remembers fondly the Durham NC minicons put on by Edwin and Terry Murray, to whom he dedicates the issue and about whom he publishes an article. I was at the gathering he mentions, and hope the Murrays come to the 2006 DSC in Durham. Many LOCs and FAPA mc's accompany an excellent portfolio of Vertigo covers. Tim writes with strong passion and features terrific artwork, and if the subject matter thereof is rather uniform - gorgeous girls - you won't catch me complaining this side of paradise.
Torch 127-8 / Dwight R. Decker, 20003 N. 23rd Ave. #193, Phoenix AZ 85027-4160 / deklane@aol.com / Dwight and I are old,. Old friends, dating back to our youth in the '70s, in comics fandom, and K-a. These are his zines for the great comics apa. The first continues an autobiography, "Confessions of a Teenage Funnybook Fan", a detailed and insightful tour of his formative years, which reads as painful and as forgivable as would any of ours. I'd like to see some of the comic strips and stories he wrote and drew as a teen. #128 deals with Dr. Fredric Wertham, the author of Seduction of the Innocent, the psychobabbling expose of comic that brought an end to E.C. Comics and the rise of the Comics Code. Dwight points out that the good doctor's follow-up book, The World of Fanzines, which bears a cover by our mutual pal Carl Gafford, contradicted many conclusions of the earlier tome. Decker's analysis of the analyst is relatively compassionate, and quite apt.
Tortoise 18 / Sue Jones, Flat 5, 32/33 Castle Street, Shrewsbury SY1 2BQ U.K. / sue.tortoise@btinternet.com / trade / One of Britain's best perzines features a different theme for each issue, and this one's is Heroes. Those cited by Sue and her contributors are interesting surprises: Mary Granville Delany, correspondent of Swift and floral artiste in cut paper, musician Brian Eno, and Krazy Kat kreator (& New Orleans native) George Herriman. All are the sort of mad geniuses who light the world. Graham Higgins caps things with a reflection on the nature of heroism, which would seem to be - at least in this context - the ability to hearten and inspire. Sue's theme isn't the bulk of this issue: she - and her tortoise Siberia - gleefully anticipate a trip to Australia (by now concluded). She forbids the importation of "chunky" Zine Dumps into her e-box while she's away. Her "Lettuce Column" is enormous and enthused - and features voices new to me; Challenger hears from but a few of these happy folk. Next issue promises composition entirely in the air, en route to and from downunder. Good for her; I was too nervous on my flight to write more than a few lines in my diary. Lively, witty, inspiring - Sue's a hero here, too.
Trap
Door / Robert Lichtman,
P.O. Box 30, Glen Ellen CA 95442 / locs2trapdoor@yahoo.com /
the usual or $5@ / Congratulations to Robert on his recent FAAn
Award at the Las Vegas Corflu!
V
Vanamonde Nos. 523-542 / John Hertz, 236 S. Coronado St. No. 409, L.A. CA 90057 / Trade / These issues of John's weekly publication for Apa-L date from May through August, and so are a bit dated, but Hertz' eclectic interests still shine through. Whether his subject is Irish tenors, John Donne's sermons, baseball, or forever, haiku, he is always interesting, but when he eulogizes Roy Tackett he is compelling. A huge booster of the Japanese bid for the 2007 worldcon, John has won the E.E. Evans Big Heart Award, and should be nominated for a Hugo until he wins one, damn it..
Visions
of Paradise #98 / Robert
Sabella, 24 Cedar Manor Court, Budd Lake NJ 07828-1023 / bobsabella@nac.net
/ As VoP approaches its centennial issue, its
editor decides on a change in format, a bimonthly deadline and
creation of a blog. Fei Fei Li, Bob's former student, contributes
a long letter from Europe - Vesuvius, Amalfi, Napoli, she sees
beauty and history at every turn. Bob's diary "The Passing
Scene" concentrates on his work as a schoolmaster, and in
"Wondrous Stories" he reviews such varied genre work
as Keith Roberts' classic Pavane - remember
those wonderful Ace SF Specials? - and an obscure Jack Vance.
Sexist thug that I am, I enjoyed his closing blonde jokes. The
kidnapping gag is priceless. In a separate zine, stalwart members
of the Chorus give voice to opinions on prior issues, and try
to live up to the literacy and wit of the editor.
W
Warp 54-56 / Cathy Palmer-Lister, MonSFFA, 396 rue des Jacinthes, Ste-Julie, Quebec J3E 1H6 Canada / cathypl@sympatico.ca / Quarterly publication of the Montreal SF&F Association (www.monsffa.com), available for swap. Classy pub, reminiscent in a way of Plokta, with literate and well-illustrated features on a delightful variety of topics - model reviews in at least two issues, a great piece on how the club logo was created, a squib on the real Abydos (not just the Stargate planet), how Torcon made its unique masquerade awards, the story of the pre-Stonehenge edifice at Newgrange - very interesting, intelligent, lively, opinionated, a real discovery. Beware, however, of Beavra.
Westwind #269 / George Nyhen, NWSFS, P.O. Box 24207,
Seattle WA 98124 / westwind@nwsfs.org / free to members; dues
$20/year / This is the last edition of 2003; surely there's been
one for spring, 2004. This issue features a spiffy drawing of
a voodoo priestess - a familiar theme around these parts - on
the cover, invitations to socials and "favorite restaurant"
meals, announcement of Seattle's first Nebula banquet, a big
article on Forry Ackerman's huge donation to the American Cinematheque,
a rather thin interview with Jack Vance, area convention news,
club birthdays.
Y
Yclept Yarbro #18 / Lindig Hall Harris, 217 Merrimon Ave., Asheville NC 28801 / lindig@mindspring.com / $3@ / A twice-yearly zine devoted to the work of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, creator of the Court St. Germain, vampire chronicles and one of the supreme friends of my life. (Grand to see her at the NOLa airport in March.) It's delightful to see Quinn receive such attention. Lindig's zine lists forthcoming Yarbro books, material in print, plaints about publishers, and news about a new Yahoo discussion group. I urge all lovers of grand fantasy to visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CQYarbro and Quinn's own webpage, www.chelseaquinnyarbro.com.
This issue of The Zine Dump is dedicated to Julius Schwartz, founder of the modern science fiction fanzine, creator of the Silver Age of comics, and my great friend.
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