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 —

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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. 

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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.

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