What Passes for History

Cheryl Morgan points out Tim W. Brown’s poorly-researched post on Galley Cat masquerading as a brief history of zines, chortling over the prospect that Core Fandom will stroke out when they read such “facts” as —

The most widely credited ancestor of the contemporary zine was the “fanzine” first appearing in the 1970s. An offshoot of the fan club newsletter, fanzines published bits of fact and rumor about favorite rock bands in pamphlets mimeographed in editions of fifty or a hundred.

Cheryl’s not the only one who enjoys the idea of Core Fandom finding a little grit in its oyster, but this post should offend anyone who uses the Internet as a learning tool. The correct information about 30’s sf fandom’s role in inventing fanzines is readily available without having to sift the Eaton Collection. Brown would not even have had to personally read Fredric Wertham’s World of Fanzines if he’d sought out articles like this one by Steven Perkins, author of the far more accurate essay “Science Fiction Fanzines.”

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