Tag Archives: R. Graeme Cameron

Graeme: CFF Award Certificates in the Mail

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By R. Graeme Cameron: Taral Wayne has completed the Certificates for the winners of the 2011 Canadian Fanzine Fanac Awards. Copies have already been emailed to the winners, to be followed up by hard copies printed on acid-free 25% cotton paper. I attach a copy of the Life-Time Achievement certificate as an example.

I requested the certificate show a 1950s style astronaut (with a mimeo for his back pack) gazing over an alien terrain, with any bits of SF business Taral might care to add in homage to SF TV, Film, Comics, Movies, etc. He put in ten that I can see. I list them at the end of this article.

Taral has produced a wonderful piece of art that captures the wimsey, fun, and joy of fanzine publishing. I’m blown away by it. More than I expected. I am confident that future winners of the ‘Faneds’ will be pleased to receive these certificates in the years to come.

Note that the actual ‘Faned’ Award figure is still being sculpted by Lawrence Prime and is coming along quite nicely as depicted on the cover of my Fanactical Fanactivist #5.

Cheers!   Graeme (CFFA Administrator)

1)      Upper left corner – Avro Arrow.
2)      On planetary rings – Red Dwarf space bug.
3)      In helmet – shock of hair  = Tin Tin.
4)      Beneath backpack – Kirk vs. Gorn.
5)      To right of knees – City from The Jetsons.
6)      Next right – Apes & 2001 Monolith.
7)      Next right – Galileo 7 Shuttle from Star Trek.
8)      Next right – Tardis from Dr. Who.
9)      Next right – Robot from Roger Ramjet.
10)   Below – Barlennan from ‘Mission of Gravity’.

First Canadian “Faned Awards” Given

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R. Graeme Cameron announced his selections for the first Canadian Fanzine Fanac Awards on October 2 at VCON 36:

  • Best Fan Artist: Taral Wayne.
  • Best Fan Writer: Garth Spencer.
  • Best Loc Hack: Lloyd Penney.
  • Best Fanzine: WARP, Cathy Palmer-Lister, Editor.
  • Life-Time Achievement: “The Unknown Faned” who published Canada’s first SF fanzine in early 1936 under the title The Canadian Science Fiction Fan. (Unknown because in his 1936 review of the zine Donald Wollheim neglected to mention the editor’s name!)

All winners will receive “The Faned” figure sculpted by Lawrence Prime, and a certificate designed by Taral Wayne.

Cameron knows his new award needs lots of publicity if it’s going to have a bright future:

These first awards are entirely by fiat, being my personal decision based on what I consider to be the most obvious choices, the CFF Awards being entirely a one-man show at this point.

I’m hoping this is so outrageously abnormal compared to the usual peer-determined, incestuous, in-fought, excessively emotionally violent fan activity (of any sort) we are all used to that vast amounts of publicity will be generated by fan reaction to the awards (and this sentence).

Got to seep into widespread fannish consciousness somehow!

Next year I will be taking peer input into account. After that? Maybe an actual vote (rigged or otherwise).

Since I currently publish five fanzines (and am about to launch a sixth) I withdrew my name from my own consideration to create an illusion of impartiality. My first impulse, to award myself all five Faneds, took at least an hour to argue myself out of… for this year anyway. I make no promises.

(And if the above paragraph doesn’t generate yet more publicity I’ll be greatly surprised. I’m discovering that ‘doing’ publicity can be fun!)

Suggested Design for Canadian Zine Award

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R. Graeme Cameron is in the process of founding The Canadian Fanzine Fanac Awards (nicknamed the “Faneds”) and has published the first suggested design for the trophy in The Fanactical Fanactivist #2 [PDF file]. It was submitted by Eric Chu from Hong Kong. Cameron explains:

In my original proposition I had described the backpack as a mimeograph machine shaped device, functioning as either a rocket or air supply system. On receiving his submission I wrote back:

“The fountain pen backpack rocket was definitely a surprise. Very retro and very appropriate to an old-fashioned faned. Were you thinking of all of it being sculpted? (The actual ink ‘nib’ or whatever it’s called looks complicated to sculpt.) Or were you thinking of a piece of an actual pen to be inserted in each award?

Eric replied: “Yes, I changed the jet pack to a pen because I felt that a mimeograph was a something that would not be easily recognizable to most people. I understand your reasons for requesting it, but in the end, I felt that a pen would get the same message across and also look better as a retro jet pack.”

I like the spirit of Eric’s design. However, The Graeme is still open to other suggestions – see the zine for more details.

I, Canada

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R. Graeme Cameron, the Dean (or at least Boys Vice-Principal) of Canadian fanzine fandom has unilaterally created “The Canadian Fanzine Fanac Awards” (nicknamed the “Faneds”).

There will be awards in five categories: (1) Best Fanzine, (2) Best Fan Artist, (3) Best Fan Writer (editorials, columns, articles, etc.), (4) Best LocHack (letters of comment writer), and (5) Hall of Fame (lifetime achievement).

He plans to present them annually at VCON beginning this year.

The Graeme explains in Auroran Lights #5:

Let’s get something straight here. This is not a big deal. As far as general fandom is concerned, it is of marginal interest. It’s basically a promotional stunt, a publicity ploy, a gimmick to stimulate interest in the fanzine niche fandom.

But also, I admit, an effort to awaken awareness of the “Best Fan Publication” category of the Aurora Awards.

Cameron would know how badly that is needed, for he is a director of the association that runs the Prix Aurora Awards. The award, though, is his own personal project.

There’s precedent for this sort of thing. In the Seventies, Sheryl Birkhead made her own set of awards – dog biscuits in Lucite – and sent them to faneds whose zines she appreciated. I was lucky enough to get one.

However, Cameron has something more traditional in mind for his “Faneds.” He’s already enlisted Taral to design a certificate and hopes to find someone to design a figure that can be cast from a mold for a physical award.

The first time around – for this year’s VCON — Cameron will select the winners himself from “a few obvious choices.” In 2012 they’ll be picked with the help of “peer consultation and suggestion” and by 2013 he hopes to institute a formal vote by Canadian fans.

Betz, Hutchings Pass Away

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Vancouver fandom has lost two of its best-known members this year.

Ed Hutchings passed away February 22, of leukemia. He was involved in BCSFA for 30 years, and a regular at Vancouver’s alternate gathering, FRED. He pursued a wide range of professions over the course of his life, at times an electrical engineer, an oboist with the Toronto Symphony, a programmer, a glass blower, and after earning a PhD in mathematics, teacher at local colleges and universities.

Al Betz, author of the long-running fanzine column “Ask Mr. Science,” a Prix Aurora nominee, died April 14 of kidney and heart failure. He had been part of the British Columbia SF Association since 1973.

You missed something if you weren’t a regular reader. Here’s a sample of Betz’ most recent “Ask Mr. Science” column from WCSFAzine:

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF A VOLCANO ACCIDENTALLY GOT TURNED UPSIDE DOWN?

MR. SCIENCE: … During an eruption the volcano would pump a significant fraction of our atmosphere into the core of the planet, causing it to inflate like a balloon. If the volcanization lasted more than 3.1 days the Earth would burst, also like a balloon. Calculations show that 74% of the objects on the surface would be ejected at greater than escape velocity.

[Via R. Graeme Cameron]

Update 04/23/2011: Corrected name in headline.

SF Canada Funds Aurora Prize Money

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SF Canada, the national association for Canadian sf professionals, has created the SF Canada Award, a $500 prize that will be awarded to winners of the Best Novel categories of the Aurora Award [English) and Prix Aurora-Boréal (French), voted on annually by Canadian fans.

This news appeared in the first issue of Auroran Lights [PDF file], the new monthly newsletter of the Canadian SFF Association, which runs the Aurora awards. R. Graeme Cameron edits the zine.

Marking Torcon’s 60th Anniversary

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Torcon, the first Worldcon held in Canada, took place in 1948 in Toronto. R. Graeme Cameron celebrates the 60th anniversary in WCSFAzine #11. The gem of this carefully-researched issue is Leslie Croutch’s conreport, annotated by Cameron with brief bios of all the fans he mentions, few of whom are remembered today.  There follows an array of contemporary conreports and artwork.  A lesser item is the Toronto Star’s pathetic article about the convention referencing guest of honor “Robert Block.”