Lloyd Penney and the Regents

By John Hertz: Letters of Comment, it’s been said, are the lifeblood of fanzines; not only for any boost they give to the recipient’s self-esteem, but even more because fanzines are communication and at best communication goes both ways: fandom is participatory. We write “LoC” and “loc” which we pronounce without preference ell-oh-see or to rhyme with flock. Comedy, when successful, may cause LOL (short for LOLFFSC i.e. Laughing Out Loud, Falling on the Floor and Startling the Cat).

The other day while being shown the Great and Terrible Internet (“who are you, and why do you seek me?”) I came across a remark by Lloyd Penney, who said – quite rightly – we must loc, loc, loc the zines. Even Claire Brialey has urged this. Maybe it should be sung.

Bass
Loc loc loc, loc loc the zines.

Baritone joins
Loc loc loc, loc loc the zines.

Tenor over them
Oh, loc the zines.
Go make their scenes.
Oh, loc the zines.

All
Get out there loc’ing and a-lol’ing,
Flocking and a-feeling,
Loc the zines.

Try Doctor Who,
Try manga too,
Try Mary Sue,
But you know they’ll never do.
So loc the zines.

The title seemed better – the word appealed to me somehow – than troubling Hawthorne, California, by suggesting Penney, who practices what he preaches, was a son of the beach.

3 thoughts on “Lloyd Penney and the Regents

  1. When Harry Warner Jr died, a few people wondered who would take his place. Lloyd inherited the mantle. You don’t have a real zine until you publish a loc from Lloyd. If he is run over by a bus on his way to work, we wouldn’t have anyone to succeed him.

  2. Nowadays a LoC is more often an Emoc–e-mail of comment–but that word doesn’t have the emotive content that “LoC” (however pronounced) has.

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