( J ) — CONTENTS

JOE FANN / JOPHAN / JULES VERNE PRIZE CLUB / JUSTIFICATION

JOE FANN

— The original everyfan character, created by Bob Tucker during the run of his zine LE ZOMBIE circa1938 to 1948. It began as a penname he put under some gag lines and locs he wanted readers to think had been written by someone other than himself. Catching on, Elmer Purdue sent him postcard locs signed ‘Joe Fann’. Eventually “Joe was finally adopted by fans in general as the fan’s idea of the typical fan,” i.e. filled with unbounded enthusiasm and dedication, possibly to excess.(DE) (HWJ)

JOPHAN

— Jophan is the fannish Ulysses, the hero of THE ENCHANTED DUPLICATOR, the fannish Odyssey written by Irish fans Walt Willis and BoSh ( Bob Shaw ) in 1954. Jophan is the everyfan; he represents us all. The name was derived from Tucker’s Joe Fann. (WW) (HWJ)

[ See THE ENCHANTED DUPLICATOR ]

JULES VERNE PRIZE CLUB (JVPC)

— Long before Raymond A. Palmer became pro editor of AMAZING STORIES and promoted Shaver’s ‘Deros’ to a gullible public, he was simply a fan contributing a regular column to the SCIENCE FICTION DIGEST fanzine pubbed out of New York City. In its January 1933 issue he printed a notice which read in part:

“Help select the three best stf stories of 1933. Join the JVPC and do your part in carrying the torch ignited by the immortal Jules Verne. Help make the world science-fiction conscious.”

“The Jules Verne Prize Club is non profit-making, all receipts going to the selection of the stories and the awarding of suitable prize cups to the winners.”

Palmer declared himself Chairman of the JVPC, and invited fans to become ‘members’ so that they could a) vote, and b) contribute to expenses by paying an annual due of 25 cents. No one joined. No cup was ever awarded. A great idea which fizzled.

A ‘Daugherty Project’ is a fannish term for a fan project which is never completed, but what is the term for a fannish project which, once conceived, never even gets started? There isn’t one. (SM) (DE)

[ See DEROS, DAUGHERTY PROJECT ]

JUSTIFICATION

— Given that many of the earliest fanzines were inspired by and imitative of the prozines, part of the effort to achieve the ‘look’ involved left-hand AND right-hand justification of lines which, while arguably rendering text less easy to read than the right-hand ragged technique, does indeed look more professional.

But this is not easy with typewriter courier 12 font since, when typing normally with just one space between words, every sentence will vary in ‘width’ depending on what words are used.

However, if you start inserting extra spaces between words, you can imitate justification:

But this  is  not easy  with typewriter  courier 12 font since, when  typing  normally with  just one   space   between  words,  every  sentence    will   vary  in  ‘width’   depending  on  what words  are  used.

I say ‘imitate’, because professional publishers, even before the computer age, were able to adjust the spacing between words in increments less than the width of the letter, and even adjust the space between the letters so that, overall, the eye tracked a very smooth flow of letters and white space with no jarring gaps. This process is called ‘Kerning.’

You will note I do not employ right-hand justification for this Fancyclopedia, even though my Word computer program makes it easy. I find it tends to confuse the eye a trifle compared to ragged justification, potentially slowing down the reading. If you don’t believe me, contrast and compare this ragged paragraph with the exact same paragraph repeated below albeit with right-hand justification.

You will  note I do not  employ right-hand  justification for  this Fancyclopedia,  even though my Word computer program makes it easy. I find it tends to confuse the eye a trifle compared to ragged justification, potentially slowing down the reading. If you don’t believe me, contrast and compare this ragged paragraph with the exact same paragraph repeated below albeit with right-hand justification.

Which do you prefer? I prefer ragged.

But how did struggling faneds, before the computer age made it easy, guess how many spaces they needed to insert to achieve right-hand justification? They didn’t guess; instead they created a ‘Dummy’ test copy of their zine which allowed them to see exactly how many spaces were required for each line and therefore how many spaces they needed to insert.

For the actual technique involved:

[ See DUMMY ]