Category Archives: Fanzines

Publications by science fiction fans.

Spend One Day on Journey Planet on November 27

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By Chris Garcia: Ever wanted to be a part of an issue of Journey Planet, but never knew where to start? 

Have an idea for a thing, but don’t think it’s got a place?

You like doing stuff with fun folks with a completely artificial deadline? 

Then join Team Journey Planet on Saturday, November 27th as we spend One Day on Journey Planet! 

We’re making an issue starting the minute it becomes November 27th (just at the International Dateline) and be continuing until it’s not November 27th anymore (or, more realistically, when Chris decides to go to bed…) 

We’ll be providing prompts for pieces, but we’re open to a whole lot of everything! Been thinking about writing an article about your favorite 1970s ghost comic? Do it! Wanna draw a series of works of El Vez fighting dinosaurs? Sure! Wanna pre-flight and write now, but send on Saturday? DO IT!!! We’re looking for art, articles, reviews, comics, photos, and just about anything! 

One prompt we’re giving away ahead of time is you can send in letters of comment on our older issues at http://journeyplanet.weebly.com or on https://efanzines.com/JourneyPlanet/ and let us know what you think? Have they aged like wine? Let us know!

And be sure to look out for the issue on November 28th (maybe the 29th…)

Questions? Send ’em to [email protected]

“Cancelled Too Soon” Is Theme of Journey Planet 58

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Hugo Award winning fanzine Journey Planet’s issue 58, co-edited by Steven H Silver, Evan Reeves, James Bacon, and Chris Garcia, is themed “Cancelled Too Soon” and explores television shows from the ‘60s to the ‘10s that were cancelled within two seasons of their debut.  

Ranging from for the four-episode Wonderfalls to the impressive single season of 85 episodes of Battle of the Planets, the writers share their favorite shows that disappeared as well as shows that acquired another life in syndication, video release, or streaming.

Featuring more than 55,500 words covering 31 television shows with authors ranging from Alan Smale to Rich Horton to Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki the authors welcome you to the shows that helped shape their imaginations. The issue includes articles on Dark Skies by showrunner Bryce Zabel, on StrangeLuck by screenwriter Michael Cassutt, on The Middleman by screenwriter Margaret Dunlap, and on FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer, upon whose novel the show was based.

Download Journey Planet 58: Cancelled Too Soon at the link.  This is the fourth issue of Journey Planet co-edited by Steven H Silver and the first with Evan Reeves.

Tim Lane (1951-2021)

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Remembrance by Joseph T. Major:

Bruce Gardner knew another wargaming guy.

It was after I had graduated from the University of Louisville, back in 1976.  I was back up in Louisville, trying to put things in order, and there was this guy who was a wargamer.  So I went along.

Tim was portly.  I soon found out that he was fatherless, too: his father had died in Vietnam.  But more to the point, he was also into science fiction.

He blended in quickly.  He went to Rivercon, our convention in Louisville, then to MidAmeriCon 1976 with B. J. Willinger, Grant McCormick, and me.  We had a splendid time, except for the problems you get when you share a room.

Tim flourished.  He joined FOSFA, our local club (the Falls of the Ohio Science Fiction Association), participated in the meetings, and managed to expand his field of operations.

Time passed.  The group changed.  After two or three turnovers, he ended up being the editor of FOSFAx, the clubzine (with Janice Moore as co-editor to curb his enthusiasms).  We started running reviews, had a large and often acerbic letter column, and regular monthly publication (I’m sure this astounded many people).

One thing we did was to send the zine to writers who were reviewed in it.  As a result, we ended up getting letters of comment from people such as L. Sprague de Camp.  On the other hand, we got letters of comment from people such as Piers Anthony, which stirred controversy.

FOSFAx was where most of the articles which were collected as my book Heinlein’s Children were first published.  And there were other reviews and reviewers.  We would do perhaps twenty to twenty-four pages a month, with maybe twenty letters or more, and about as many reviews.  For example, Tim himself would write about baseball, and politics.

Not that we were entirely sercon.  One would have but to get the zine Phosgene (or PhosGene), composed of humorous and satirical (not always the same) articles, some new, many old.

But, as age and debility crept up on us all, things changed.  Tim’s conservative political views became more acerbic, which provoked long and strident debates in the letter column.  He lost his job due to an inability to adapt to changing computer technology.  Finally, his health broke down, and he had to abandon the publication, back in 2011.  He spent some time in various residential hotels before having to move to a care facility.

He was bedridden, but still alert, and trying to express himself in various venues.  Lisa and I would go see him.  We had been used to having Friday dinners with him and Elizabeth Garrott, his housemate, and sometimes Grant McCormick, our tenant, and now that he was unable to get out, we tried to bring him information.

Then the lockdown came.  He had email, he communicated, but it became less and less.  I heard from him on my birthday and then the next day on Christmas.  Grant said he heard from him January 6th.  He seemed all right then.  After that . . .

It turned out he had died on January 15, a little more than a month after his 69th birthday, and was buried in the family funeral plot he had.  So ended a faned with multiple Hugo nominations.

Timothy Brian Lane

December 12, 1951 — January 15, 2021

eFanzines Drops N3F Zines After Group’s President Seeks to Promote It on Parler and Gab

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Bill Burns announced eFanzines.com has stopped hosting announcements about National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F) publications since yesterday, after N3F President George Phillies sent an email to his list asking for recipients to promote the N3F on Parler and Gab.

Burns says his response to Phillies’ email (which File 770 also received) was that he found “it hard to believe that this was a serious request.” Burns wrote back: “George: I assume you’re not aware that Parler and Gab are the sites frequented by those who planned and executed the recent attempted insurrection at the Capitol, which resulted in five deaths” and included links to the Wikipedia articles about Parler and Gab which explain their popularity with “Donald Trump supporters, conservatives, conspiracy theorists, and right-wing extremists” “including neo-Nazis, white supremacists, white nationalists, and the alt-right…”

In a related exchange about the decision on a public Facebook group, Phillies justified his interest in making contacts through the two platforms:

Your assumption is simply wrong. I am entirely aware of the namecalling contests that have replaced political discourse in this country.

Whatever their political inclinations — I am mostly not interested in politics these days — these people who use each of the sites I listed are also science fiction fans. If they have been banned from other sites, well, that makes it difficult to reach them using those other sites, now doesn’t it? Curiously, while they are doing stfnal things, they are not doing political things.

Phillies today sent another email to his N3F list:

I will repeat my request for people interested in publicizing the N3F with short posts in places like twitter, parler, gab, etc.  I have already heard complaints from people who think that Parler is full of neo-Nazis or Twitter is full of Communists. (Parler, by the way, is inoperative and empty.)  That completely misses the point, namely both those places are also full of people who are primarily SF fans who could be lured into joining us.

Parler sued Amazon last week after the cloud services provider cut off service, and it has been working to get back online. The Guardian reported today “Parler website partially returns with support from Russian-owned technology firm”.

The network vanished from the internet after it was dropped by Amazon’s hosting arm and other partners over a lack of moderation after its users called for violence and posted videos glorifying the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January.

On Monday, Parler’s website was reachable again, though only with a message from its chief executive, John Matze, saying he was working to restore functionality.

The internet protocol (IP) address it used is owned by DDos-Guard, which is controlled by two Russian men and provides services including protection from distributed denial of service attacks, infrastructure expert Ronald Guilmette told Reuters.

DDoS-Guard’s other clients include the Russian ministry of defence, as well as media organisations in Moscow. Until recently, it offered 8kun – which was previously known as 8chan – protection from DDoS. Last week, DDoS-Guard became the latest company to cut ties with 8kun’s hosting company, VanwaTech, following inquiries from the Guardian.

Gab also has been offline at times over the past couple years, dropped by domestic hosts who cited that many accounts engage in the “perpetuation of hate, violence or discriminatory intolerance,” and then by hosts in Norway for unspecified reasons. It is now hosted by Epik, which the Wikipedia describes as “a domain registrar and web hosting company known for providing services to websites that host far-right, neo-Nazi, and other extremist content.”

The National Fantasy Fan Federation was founded in 1941 by Damon Knight with the support of Art Widner and Louis Russell Chauvenet. George Phillies has been President of the N3F since 2015, and has edited some of its publications. He won the N3F Franson Award for club service in 2015, and in 2019 won one of its speculative fiction awards, the Neffys, Best Novel, for Against Three Lands.

Bill Burns adds:  

I stopped hosting the N3F fanzines a couple of years ago, when I realized that they couldn’t be bothered to update their own website and were using me as an unpaid webmaster instead.  Since then I have been posting announcements whenever Phillies sent me a note that their site was updated, but he was only sending these intermittently, and has been badmouthing me not posting updates he didn’t send.

When I got the unwanted email that included his absurd request, I felt I had to respond, but this was not connected to the previous hosting situation.

Before this I would have kept posting the announcements, but Phillies, despite his protestations on Facebook, had not sent me an update since May 2020. If he had I would have posted them, but now I’m done with them altogether.

Update 01/19/2021: Corrected that it is the announcements which will no longer be hosted at eFanzines, because the hosting of copies of the zines had already ended some time ago for another reason.

Journey Planet 56:
The Mandalorian Issue

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By James Bacon: John Coxon and Alissa McKersie joined Chris and James on a Journey Planet with a focus on The Mandalorian and Star Wars. Originally John suggested a Star Wars issue focusing on the sequel trilogy to James and Chris at the Dublin Worldcon, and then Alissa suggested expanding it to cover The Mandalorian. The groundwork for this zine was laid earlier in 2020, and then with determination and a huge amount of support at short notice over the holiday season from all contributors, the zine came together for a strong finish to the year. 

The stylised cover by Auton Purser is joined by a selection of art from a number of professionals and fans, including 2000AD artist Patrick Goddard, Marvel Artist Ryan Brown, Star Wars cards artist Col-Art and Hugo and Chesley nominee Sara Felix. We also got to share a number of artists’ work, from Deviant Art. We are very grateful to Col Art as he is working over the season with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, in a voluntary capacity. 

The editors were especially pleased to have contributions from younger fans, Rosie Gray who made a Mando costume and shared that experience with Anne and Brian Gray and Alex Heltzer who contributed to our instant fanzine section, with many others. 

With articles by Carol Connolly, Abigail Nussbaum, Jacq Monahan, Warren Frey, Hamish Walker, David Ferguson, James Mason, Ken Marsden and two photo selections from Hedge Scout and Christine Burnham, we hope there is something for everyone here 

The zine can be found here.

Journey Planet 55: Russian Space — a Free Download

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Cover by Sara Felix

By James Bacon: This unique issue of Journey Planet comes in two languages in parallel text, Russian and English. With bilingual text on every page we look at the Science, Engineering, Science Fiction, Films, Comics and poetry that the theme of Russian Space has to offer. 

Moscovite Co-Editor Ann Gry (Anna Gryaznova) was committed to ensure the issue was as accessible as possible to the readers, interested in the subject and spent a tremendous amount of time working on translations as well as seeking out new voices, and hearing from voices who may be very new to Journey Planet readers. This issue is a curated glimpse into the creative realms mostly inaccessible due to the language barrier and is an attempt to give an idea of how space theme connects us all. 

With articles from Maria Ku, Mikhail Katyurichev and Danila Chvanov, a comprehensive look at space-themed comics by Andrey Malyshkin, as well as interviews with the creators of “Meteora” from Bubble comics, Askold Akishin and Alexandra Shevchenko, prose and comics are well covered. An interesting part is dedicated to visual poetry along with some traditional verses by Andrey Suzdalev.

An extensive article on space-themed films, we also have an interview with Konstantin Bronzit (Oscars nominee) and Christopher Riley (BAFTA & Emmy nominee). 

With writings on visits to Museums or exhibitions by Nicholas Whyte and Dr Emma J. King, and Ann Gry visiting Kaluga — the place where Konstatnin Tsiolkovsky lived and worked, we have first hand reportage of some amazing space places and artifacts. 

Finally with articles on TEM2 and R7’s, a paper model of the MIG 105 by Oleg Ivanov and a selection of postage stamps featuring space, this issue offer many aspects of Russian Space and we hope readers enjoy it. 

This issue’s cover is a melding of art, collage work by Christopher J. Garcia, layout by Ann  Gry and a star field background by Hugo and Chesley finalist Sara Felix.

You can find the issue here:

Journey Planet Takes on
The Future of Policing in Science Fiction

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By James Bacon: Journey Planet announces the publication of their 53rd edition of their Hugo Award winning fanzine, JP53: The Future of Policing. Co-editor, author, and fan Errick Nunnally suggested the theme for this issue because he felt that it was a rich and timely subject that could be explored from a diverse set of perspectives. As he explains in his “enditorial”:

“The concept of law enforcement in speculative fiction is an old one… The entire world was just beginning to wake up to the plight of Blacks, trans-folk, Native Americans, and other minority populations with law enforcement officers and justice systems. Then the pandemic hit. And George Floyd’s name was added to the seemingly neverending list of Black people killed by the police. What has followed are the most significant and enduring protests since the Civil Rights era, altering the world’s perception of law enforcement systems. Enter fans. What you’re reading is the raw enthusiasm of fans for the theme of this issue.”

With a wonderful cover by Afua Richardson, an exclusive preview panel from The Legend of Luther Arkwright, a work-in-progress by Bryan Talbot, and a fabulous rendition of a classic film poster by Mike Carroll, the imagery is presented alongside incredible essays about the future of policing. Also included in the zine is a micro focus on the TV programme Watchmen. 

With over thirty contributors, we are pleased to offer these fabulous examples of thoughtfulness and sincerity that consider just what the hell is going on right now. 

Essays include “The Tears Of A Policeman” by Brendan DuBois, “Suspension Of Disbelief And Policing In SF.” by Christopher Golden, “The Future Is Now,” by Nicole Givens Kurtz, Brenda Noiseux’s examination of hard-pressed, cibopath detective Tony Chu from Chew, and David Ferguson’s look at Doctor Who. “The Algorithms of Policing” by Anton Marks offers a Black SF writer’s perspective from London. We also have voices from Ireland, Pádraig Ó Méalóidm and Noelle Ameijenda; China, Regina Kanyu Wang; and Germany, Tobias Reckermann. All with their own very different perspectives. 

We were especially pleased about our “Instant Fanzine” response from Jeannette Ng, who offers a realistic and determined view on the future of policing as well as fabulous insight into her thoughts on the Watchmen TV series as well as many other responses that truly capture this moment in time. 

As co-editor Erin Underwood says, “We were looking for impressions from our community within fandom and that is exactly what we received. This edition of Journey Planet is powerful. I think that may unsettle some people. Some may even argue that it has an anti-police feel because of the unvarnished truths that this fanzine shares.”

This issue was edited by Erin Underwood, Errick Nunnally, Christopher J. Garcia and James Bacon. We all hope you find this zine thought-provoking.

Click here for a PDF copy.

Journey Planet 52: Pen and ink.

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Sara Felix joins Chris Garcia and James Bacon this issue as the focus of journey planet turns to the artistic and communicative uses of ink. Available here to download: Journey Planet issue 52.

James Bacon comments:

With a strongly visual theme, there is an abundance of images created using ink. While contemplating the art, we have articles looking at some amazing envelope art and calligraphy by Marguerite Smith, pens by Rhonda Eudaly, John Dodd and John Vaughan, a look at personal importance of doodling by Helen Montgomery, poetry and Soviet pens by Ann Gry and articles and art by the editors. 

The importance of keeping in touch has not been lost on the editors who have themselves enjoyed sending post out into the world, creating joy as best they can through the postal system.  

As we encourage contact at this time, be it festive cards or just a note, we hope that thoughts of pens, ink, art and envelopes encourage you, dear reader, to dash off a quick letter, and fire it into the oblivion that is the waiting void of the letter box that transports your words to the recipient almost by magic – or the postal services that have worked so hard to maintain communication.

Call for Submissions:

Looking forward, the same editors have been astounded by the levels of crafts that have occurred this year, a. dreadfully hard year, but one where arts and crafts have helped fans through the trial of 2020.  

We plan a “Craft during Covid”’ issue for Easter and would love to hear from fans who have found, regained, returned or developed any crafting whatsoever. We also recognise how beneficial creativity has been for the well-being, helping with mental health and welcome voices on this subject, especially if you’ve found, escape, solace, contentment or peace of mind in crafting. 

Artistic, creative, useful, ingenious, beautiful, whimsical, we just would like to see and hear about what fans have made.  

Contact us at [email protected]

Outworlds 71 Is A Labor of Love and One of the Largest Fanzines Ever

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Issue 71 of Outworlds was assembled and ready for layout (articles, editorial, plus 140 pages of LoCs) when Bill Bowers died on April 17, 2005. It finally appeared today.

First published in 1970, Outworlds was nominated five times for the Hugo and won the FAAn Award in 1999. Bill was the Fan Guest of Honor at the 1978 Worldcon in Phoenix.

Stephen Leigh called Bill “a man of lists, who recorded the books he read, the movies he saw, the words he published; who wanted nothing more than to live surrounded by the books, the music, the movies he enjoyed so much; an intensely private individual who would still rip open his heart and display it publicly in his fanzines.”

Unlike Last Dangerous Visions, the last issue of Outworlds wasn’t necessarily expected, although Dave Locke sent the files to Pat Virzi in the hopes that Bill’s last zine could be pubbed.

Fifteen years later, at this year’s Corflu, Pat recruited Jeanne Bowman, Alan Rosenthal, and Rich Coad as co-editors, and with the help of myriad fans they have completed the project.

Designed as a “Ace Double(:Bill)” zine, Outworlds 71 is on one side, and “Afterworlds” with commemorative writings about Bill on the other. [Update: Jeanne Bowman says the publication is unidirectional as Amazon would not publish an Ace Double format for the final edition.]

The 506-page epic is available today on Amazon for $20.

It’s possible that only Richard Bergeron’s Warhoon 28 is bigger — Lloyd Penney counted 616 pages in that zine.

And there is an army of contributors —

OUTWORLDS 71: Cover Graphic by Ditmar (Dick Jenssen). Contributors include Gregory Benford, Bill Bowers, Wm. Breiding, Joe Haldeman, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Devon Leigh (Interview with Tanya Huff), Stephen Leigh, Denny Lien, Susan A. Manchester, Chris Sherman, A.L. Sirois, Skel, Sherry Thompson, Bob Tucker, Harry Warner, Jr.

The Lettercol (as of 3/26/99) includes Lenny Bailes, Gregory Benford, Sandra Bond, Syd Bounds, Richard Brandt, Wm. Breiding, Ned Brooks, Brian Earl Brown, rich brown, Marty Cantor, Joe Christopher, Buck Coulson, Al Curry, Gary Deindorfer, Larry Downes, Carolyn Doyle, Ahrvid Engholm, George Flynn, Brad W. Foster, E.B. Frohvet, Bruce R. Gillespie, Mike Glicksohn, Merlin Haas, David R. Haugh, John Hertz, Irwin Hirsh, Lee Hoffman, Alan Hunter, Dirk Jenssen, Karen Johnson, Arnie Katz, Jerry Kaufman, Linda Krawecke, Robert Lichtman, Dave Locke, Joseph T Major, Susan A. Manchester, Art Metzger, Murray Moore, Lloyd Penney, Patty Peters, Curt Phillips, Dave Rowe, Chris Sherman, Skel, Bob Smith, Dale Speirs, Milt Stevens, Mae Strelkov, Sherry Thompson, Roger Waddington, Michael W. Waite, and Harry Warner, Jr.; WAHFs from Harry Andruschak, John D. Berry, Sheryl Birkhead, Jeanne Bowman, G. Sutton Breiding, Kevin L. Cook, Dick Geis, Ed Gorman, Terry Jeeves, Randy Mohr, Jodie Offutt, Al Sirois, Craig Smith, Toni Weisskopf, Paul Williams, and Billy Wolfenbarger. 

Interior Art by ATom, Randy Bathurst, Sheryl Birkhead, Grant Canfield, Derek Carter, Jackie Causgrove, Jim Cawthorn, Vic Kostrikin, Kurt Erichsen, Brad W. Foster, Jack Gaughan, Mike Gilbert, Derek Grime, David R. Haugh, Alan Hunter, Terry Jeeves, Ivor Latto, Linda Michaels, Randy Mohr, Peggy Ranson, William Rotsler, Stu Shiffman, Craig Smith, Steve Stiles, Taral Wayne. 

Photos by Wm. Breiding, Christina H. Hionides, Stephen Leigh, Andrew Porter, Chris Sherman, Skel, Michael W. Waite. 

AFTERWORLDS: Cover art by Rick Lieder. Contributors include: Alyson Abramowitz, Steven Black, William M. Breiding, Cy Chauvin, Larry Downes, Carolyn Doyle, Michael Glicksohn, D Gary Grady, Andy Hooper, Rob Jackson, Denise Leigh, Stephen Leigh, Susan A. Manchester, Patty Peters, Chris Sherman, Leah Zeldes Smith, Geri Sullivan, Pat Virzi, Billy Wolfenbarger, Joel Zakem, and (of course) Bill Bowers. Memories, Musings, Classic Letters of Comment (old and new), and more, from Gregory Benford, Dick Bergeron, Sheryl Birkhead, Sutton Breiding, Wm. Breiding, rich brown, Linda Bushyager, Grant Canfield, Terry Carr, Derek Carter, Buck Coulson, Al Curry, Michael Dobson, Brad W. Foster, Mike Glicksohn, Mike Glyer, John Hertz, Arthur Hlavaty, Norm Hochberg, Frank Johnson, Jerry Kaufman, John M. Koenig, Tim Kyger, David Langford, Hope Leibowitz, Devon Leigh, Robert Lichtman, Eric Lindsay, Dave Locke, Rich Lynch, Sam McDonald, Art Metzger, Paul Novitski, John Purcell, Dennis Quane, Schirm, Chris Sherman, Skel, Rick Sneary, Suzanne Tompkins, Taral Wayne, Billy Ray Wolfenbarger, Susan Wood, Joel Zakem. 

Interior Art/Fillos by Sheryl Birkhead, Bill Bowers, Jeanne Bowman, Grant Canfield, Derek Carter, Al Curry, Alex Eisenstein, Kurt Erichsen, Connie (Reich) Faddis, Brad W. Foster, Bill Glass, David R. Haugh, Alan Hunter, Jonh Ingram, Terry Jeeves, Tim Kirk, Stephen Leigh, Linda Michaels, Pat Mueller, Peggy Ranson, William Rotsler, Dave Rowe, Schirm, Stu Shiffman, Dan Steffan, Taral Wayne. 

Photos by Fred A Levy Haskell, Andy Hooper, Rob Jackson, Denise Leigh, Stephen Leigh, Rich Lynch, Sam McDonald, Andrew Porter, Jeff Schalles, Chris Sherman, Skel, Joel Zakem.

[Update 11/13/20: Added Alan Rosenthal as co-editor. Added new info about only unidirectional format being available in final edition.]

Remembering Andrew Plotkin’s
17-year-delayed LOC to PyroTechnics #38

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By Bill Higgins: In August 1986, Jamie and Gail Hanrahan published PyroTechnics #38, a fanzine founded by Jeff Duntemann.  It served as a club newsletter for General Technics, a loose organization of SF fans interested in do-it-yourself technology.  That was 34 years ago.

In 2003, Andrew Plotkin found a copy of Pyro 38 stored in his dad’s basement.  He decided to write a lengthy and thoughtful Letter of Comment.  On September 10, 2003, uncertain whether 1987 postal addresses would still be valid, Andrew posted his letter to the rec.arts.sf.fandom newsgroup for all on Usenet to read.

One may find a copy of the letter on Andrew’s Web site.

His Usenet posting still lurks within Google Groups.

Today I noticed that it has been just about as long between Andrew’s charming LoC and now as it has between the publication of Pyro 38 and the day Andrew posted his letter. I think this is a moment to celebrate.

The most recent issue of PyroTechnics, number 57, was published in 1997, six years pre-Plotkin. Nevertheless, we of the Pyro editorial staff are always glad to receive comments from readers. (I was one of two editors for #57.)

John Ridley, a GT member, has archived most of the issues of Pyro.  One may read Issue 38 at this link.

General Technics still exists, and more or less thrives, though we haven’t published a zine in quite a while. We throw room parties a couple of times a year at Chicago and sometimes Detroit cons.  We hold a weekend club outing annually.  We correspond on a busy mailing list.  Some of us have gafiated, but a goodly number are still active fans and/or pros.  We still chatter about SF, science, and do-it-yourself technologies.  In the Seventies we called ourselves “techies;” the closest modern word, I suppose, would be “makers.”

Anyway, I salute Andrew Plotkin’s noble gesture.  He reminds us that fandom is, among other things, a long conversation.  Here’s to friendships that stretch across decades.  And long may the conversation continue.