Fanzines in the news...

[gerisullivan]

...and not where I'd expect to find them, either.

With Dragon*Con starting this weekend, at least one Atlanta media outlet has chosen a fascinating way to publicize it.

First, the AccessAtlanta homepage.

Don't know how long it'll last, but the main photo currently shows several issues of the Fanscient, followed by this headline: "Dragon*Con beams in" and blurb: "This weekend's sci-fi,l fantasy & pop culture convention owes a debt to the fanzine culture of the 1960s."

Then, following the link, this fine article all about fanzines and Ned Brooks.

The most amusing and fitting line is near the end: "Brooks still publishes It Goes on the Shelf each month on the Internet. He has never gone to DragonCon. He sees little connection between that event and himself."

Also quoted: Toni Weisskopf, and Melissa Conway (the -"head of the special collection of fanzines at UC-Riverside"-).

Yes, I'll admit to being more tolerant of reporting clumsiness than most fans, well, so long as the article captures enough of the spirit of whatever aspect of fandom it's covering. But even considering that, this seems like a darned decent piece of reporting in the mainstream media. Kudos to reporter Michelle Hiskey and AccessAtlanta.com!

With a tip o'the link hat to Dennis McCunney.

Comments

Ned Brooks/fanzines

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

An excellent article. When I was first in fandom, I was 13, so Ned must have been 24. I thought of him as a respectable elder statesman -- but now he has *really* earned that title. Note: There have been times, and cons, more interactive with fanzine fandom than others, and they aren't all named Ditto or Corflu. I think it was the 1974 worldcon in Washington, D.C. (a Discon) where I met Ned -- no, come to think of it, I think he and I were both at the 1966 worldcon in Cleveland as well. At both these cons, the fanzine fans were well integrated into the non-fanzine fans; I had not yet gotten the sense that "fanzine fandom" had become a "fringe" or "specialty" group. At any media con these days, though, there would be a very limited crossover, and Ned may be thinking of that when he fails to attend Dragoncon. But it's his choice. Thanks for the link.

Nate

Re: Ned Brooks/fanzines

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

And, whatever his reasons and feelings, what he's quoted as saying is entirely polite.

I didn't remember his name (might, I suppose, not have heard it before), but Atlanta is a ways away and after just a tiny bit of poking in that direction early on I was never really much involved in fanzine fandom. If he was at Discon in 1974 we've been to at least one convention in common, though. (Recently found my photos of Asimov and Zelazny from Discon in Mike Resnick's facebook fannish photo collection, which is actually okay with me.)

I've heard reports from people who seem to find a written SF set of people and activities within Dragon*Con that they like; a relatively small percentage of a very large number can end up being quite a few people. I don't recall hearing that from the fanzine fans about Dragon*Con, but then as I just said I'm not much connected to fanzine fandom.

LUNAtic #6 fanzine

[retooned.livejournal.com]

You may be amused to know that the LUNAtic #6 fanzine (held in one of the photos) was (probably) published by Frank Stodolka in Hopkins, Minnesota. It was an unusual miniature size: He printed it on a postcard-sized mimeograph (4" by 6"). That's one of the first fanzines I actually saw, back in 1964. (Although I had read about them in some of the regular sf prozines). (Waves cane in air.)

Re: LUNAtic #6 fanzine

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Neat!

You ol' timebinder, you.

Ned

[(Anonymous)]

Ned has a conrep on my site to which I hereby commend you:

http://www.cartiledgeworld.co.uk/nedcon.html

--

Graham Charnock