THE BACKWOODS BLUES 1 & ONLY
— Faned: Linda Ross-Mansfield, Winnipeg, MB. Issue 1 (& only) produced as a one-shot for distribution at the 1986 Worldcon in Atlanta. Essay about the founding of Keycon, and the possibility of a Worldcon bid for Winnipeg in the distant future (which came to pass in 1994). (Source: Lloyd Penney.)
BARDIC RUNES
— Faned: Michael McKenny. Semi-pro fantasy/fictionzine pubbed out of Ottawa in the 1990s. Digest sized, with a distinctive green cover. (More details to be added)
BCSFA MEMBERS’ HANDBOOK
— Faned: Garth Spencer. “A completely unauthorized production” which is a model of its kind. In 24 digest-sized pages he concisely explains the following topics: BCSFA, membership rates, current executive, club activities, BCSFAzine, VCONs, the ELRON Awards, turkey readings, club bylaws, fanzines, trade zines, zine repositories, Mr. Science, writer’s workshops, Fictons, Writer’s resources, the V-Con Society, other local clubs, clubs elsewhere, upcoming conventions, Canadian SF awards, Congoing, the Canadian Unity Fan Fund & “interesting online stuff”. In short, an excellent guide not only to the B.C. SF Association, but to Canadian fandom in general. Free to all club members. Alas, quickly dated, but a great snapshot of the club at the time. [ See THE WHOLE TORONTO FANAC GUIDE ] as another example of a fan guidebook.
2001 – (#1 – Feb)
[ See BCSFA, BCSFA NEWSLETTER, BCSFA NORTH, BCSFAZINE, BCSFA PRESS, THE BCSFA WAR OF ’74, & FICTONS FREE-FOR-ALL ]
BCSFA NEWSLETTER
— 1) Faneds: Mike Bailey & John Park. The BC SF association being created as an off-campus club in January of 1970, there was at least one attempt to pub a newsletter apart from the newsletter of the parent body UBC SFFEN. Dated Mar/Apr 1971, it pushes the upcoming BCSFA convention (VCON 1), describes two recent BCSFA meetings (the 2nd & 3rd meetings of the club), & recent elections. The first newsletter on a Gestetner for both UBC SFFEN and BCSFA, the results were horrible: multiple black splotches. (RGC)
— 2) . Title of the first 33 issues of BCSFAzine.
[ See BCSFA, BCSFA MEMBERs’ HANDBOOK, BCSFA NORTH, BCSFAZINE, THE BCSFA PRESS, THE BCSFA WAR OF ’74, & FICTONS FREE-FOR-ALL ]
BCSFAZINE
The monthly newsletter of the BC SF Association. Though the club was founded (by the UBC SFFEN) in Jan 1970, a regular newsletter did not emerge till the Summer of 1973 when numerous fans who had graduated from UBC, and who had been inspired by ‘THE FIRST FAN AND FANTASY FAIR’ held in June at the Washington University in Bellingham (U.S.A.), decided to revive the moribund off-campus club. #1 came out in August 1973. The title was changed by #34 (April 1976) to BCSFAzine. (More details to be added)
LE BEAVER
— Faneds: Ralph Alfonso & Cliff Letovsky. Media/fanzine pubbed out of Montreal, Quebec, in the late 1960s & early 1970s.
Taral wrote: “Ralph Alfonso and Cliff Letovsky published LE BEAVER, a media oriented but fannish zine that they both took a hand in illustrating. Neither was especially talented but Ralph had verve — you would always look at it — and a certain amount of wit which Cliff lacked. Ken Steacy was a friend of theirs and did illos for LeB and other titles they published between them. He was your basic comics fan artist — uninteresting superheroes and passable cartoons, unprofessionally rendered.”
Ralph Alfonso writes: “Stumbled upon your site during a web search & had a laugh at the listing for my old zine… LE BEAVER was actually a pretty good zine that covered comics, SF, films, & whatever else caught our fancy. It was beautifully printed by hand on our Gestetner mimeograph machines. We gave a lot of exposure to European artists & all kinds of weird stuff…. Ken is an official Lucas sanctioned Star Wars illustrator now and quite a respected comic artist with several books out…” (Sources: Taral & Ralph Alphonso.)
1973 – (#21 – Apr) (#26 – Sep) (#27 – Oct)
BEAVER RIPPLE
— Faned: Garth Danielson. Perzine.
1976 – (#1 – Apr)
BEAVERZINE
— Faned: Peter Roberts. Perzine pubbed out of Guelph, Ontario.
1980 – (#1 – Sep)
BECAUSE THE NIGHT
— Faned: Michael S. Hall. Perzine.
1978 – (#1 – ?)
BEHIND THE RABBIT
— Faned: Janet (Small) Wilson. A frequent one-sheet pubbed out of Toronto circa 1976. At least first five issues as a perzine.Eventually transformed into an Apazine. (Source: Taral.)
[ See also DISTAFF ]
1976 – (#1 – Mar) (#2 – Apr) (#3 – May) (#4 – Jul) (#5 – Sep)
BEYOND THE FIELDS WE KNOW
— Faned: Charles de Lint. Semi-pro fantasy fictionzine pubbed out of Ottawa, Ontario, circa 1978, by Triskell Press.
1978 – (#1 – ?) – “Whereas DRAGONBANE displayed most ably its interest in brawny barbarians whetting their swords against all & sundry, Triskell Press’ new zine (again , in large format) BEYOND THE FIELDS WE KNOW is a collection of fantasy less heroic in nature…”
“‘A Tapestry Of Dreams’ by Galad Elflandsson is a simple tale which combines very well some aspects of Rumpelstiltskin & Cinderella. Heather Brown’s illustrations (like the rest of her pieces throughout the issue) are exquisitely textured: full of life & feeling. Charles Saunders’ ‘Amma’ is another one of those pieces he is becoming noted for, one of the best pieces in the issue, illustrated very well by Gene Day. Michael Ambrose’s look at the poetry of William Morris, though well researched is too short & barely whets the appetite…”
“There is poetry galore, with the inclusion of various pieces by such persons as Joy Chant, Marrion Zimmer Bradley (a delightful verse), & Jessica Amanda Salmonson… (You can tell a zine is high class when it prints work by authors who’ve three names.)”
“The layout & design is uniform, clean & pleasing to the eye, and much like the layouts used by other similar minded publications.” (Source: Dale Hammell.)
BIBLIOFANTASIAC
— Faned: Cliff F. Kennedy. 23 page offset bimonthly fanfictionzine pubbed out of Toronto in the mid-1980s. Layout haphazard, but worth reading. Kennedy’s dog, Fido Dogstoevski, contributed a regular column. (Source: Robert Runte.)
“Cliff had been on the fringes of SF fandom for many years, and had only a few connections. This zine was never really a fanzine, but a little magazine. Cliff managed to bridge the gap between the two. Much of this zine was short stories, poems, personal recollections and art clippings. I responded to each zine as I received it, and I’d like to think I got a letter column started. Cliff’s birth name was Wayne Alexander MacDonald.” (Source: Lloyd Penney.)
1982 – (#1 -?)
198? – (#2 -?) (#3 – ?) (#4 – ?)
Under the title: THE BLOTTER.
1986 – (#5-June) – The mostly poetry issue.
– (#6 – Aug) – The Religion Issue.
– (#7 – ?)
– (#8 – Dec) – Success & failure in the 1980s.
198? – (#9 -?) (#10 – ?)
“Cliff moved to the title DRIFT, and after he completed a run ( of 100 issues ) of that zine, returned to THE BIBLIOFANTASIAC as title.” (Source: Lloyd Penney.)
199? – (#11 – Winter) – #11 – Winter 2000 according to cover, but could not have come out at that time
1999 – (#12 – ?) (#13 – Spring) (#14 – Summer) (#15 – Autumn 1999)
2000 – (#16 – Winter) (#17 – Spring) (#18 – Spring/Summer) (#19 – Autumn)
– (#20 – Nov) – All issues were the usual 8.5″ tall by 5.5″ wide, but issue 20 was 5.25″ tall by 4.25″ wide.
“THE BLOTTER returned in 2001; issue 11 was the only modern issue before Cliff’s death.” (Source: Lloyd Penney.)
BIMONTHLY MONTHLY
— [ See MONTHLY MONTHLY ]
BLACK TRIANGLE
— Faned: Jim Sheddon. Genzine. At least four issues published.
1983 – (#1 – ?) (#2 – ?) (#3 – ?)
1984 – (#4 – Feb)
BLANC CITRON
— Faned: Mario Giguere. Tiny (3 by 4 inches) humour/fanzine out of Quebec City, beginning 1984. (GS)
Luc Pomerleau described Quebec zines imitating BLANC CITROEN as “faanish fanzines, devoted to silly interviews with the not-so-well-known fans and dissertations on every subject except FSF. The systematic copying of the formula is becoming a bit boring and predictable and one can only hope this effervescence will lead to something more than a dead end.” But as for BLANC CITRON itself: “I want to make it clear that this zine has not become tiresome, its imitators have. Mario Giguere is still as funny as ever.” (Source: Luc Pomerleau.)
BLAST!
— Faned: Ronning Harland. Genzine. At least six issues published.
1971 – (#1 – Mar) (#2 – Jun) (#3 – Oct)
1972 – (#4 – ?) (#5 – ?) (#6 – Oct)
BLUE JAUNTE
— Faned: Taral Wayne. At first a one-shot pubbed out of Toronto for Balticon 10. A second issue done 4 months later. (More details to be added)
1976 – (#1 – Apr) (#2 – Aug)
BOB & DAVE
— Faned: Michael S. Hall. Perzine.
1978 – (#1 – Dec)
A BOLT OUT OF THE BLUE
— Faned: Lloyd Penney. Newsletter of the Creative Costumers Guild pubbed out of Toronto. (GS)
Lasted only two issues, for as Lloyd reported in MAPLE LEAF RAG #9 (Oct 1984): “A BOLT OUT OF THE BLUE is defunct, as is the Creative Costumer’s Guild. Both have died of the Fannish Plague, otherwise known in mundane circles as apathy.” (Source: Lloyd Penney.)
1983 – (#1 – Sep)
1984 – (#2 – Mar)
[ See THE CREATIVE COSTUMER’S GUILD ]
THE BOOKS OF ROSCOE
— Faned: Scott Patri. Pubbed out of Cumberland, B.C. Roscoe is the third major Ghod in Fannish religion, revealed by Art Rapp, Rick Sneary & Ed Cox in 1949. He takes the form of an invisible beaver (obviously a Canadian deity!) wearing a propeller beanie, who looks after fans everywhere. THE BOOKS OF ROSCOE is the shacred bhible of a variant sect, in which Roscoe is believed to be squirrelish in nature. THE BOOKS OF ROSCOE include: Ghod Rescue – The Creation Of Fandom, The Acts Of The Fen, The Release Of The Fen From Hell, and The Creation Of Fen Heaven. Belongs in the same league as the ‘Gholy Ghible’ of Ghu worship.
1994 – (#1 – July)
[ See ROSCOE ]
BOOWATT
— Faned: Garth Danielson, one of the members of “Decadent Winnipeg Fandom.” [ See ] A perzine pubbed out of Winnipeg in the late 1970s. Garth described BOOWATT as a “Frenzine” because it was done for his friends and no one else. Interviewed in SCHMAGG #2 he stated: “I really like the distinction of a crudzine. It means I don’t have to do any work and people don’t expect much from me.”
BOOWATT was notorious for typos, as well as its bizarre humour. For instance, Garth claimed to be into “Lard Fandom… a collected group of people who are interested in the use of lard as a sexual aid. You can rub it on anything.” Considered one of the “longest-lived crudzines” of its day. Not a fair description, because its lack of polish disguised generally high standards of writing. One contributor was the legendary Mae Strelkov of Argentina! And often good art as well. A 1978 issue had colour airbrushed front & back cover by Winnipeg artist Roldo. (Source: Garth Danielson.)
1975 – (#1 – Oct) (#2 – Nov) (#3 – Dec)
1976 – (#4 – Jan) (#5 – Feb) (#6 – Mar) (#7 – Apr) (#8 – May) (#9 – Jul) (#10 – Aug) (#11 – Sep) (#12 – Oct) (#13 – Oct) (#14 – Nov) (#15 – Dec)
1977 – (#16 – Jan) (#17 – Feb) (#18 – Mar) (#19 – Apr) (#20 – May) (#21 – Jun) (#22 – ? ) (#23 – Sep) (#24 – Nov)
1978 – (#25 – Jan) (#26 – ? )
– (#27 – Sep) – “This product of ‘Decadent Winnipeg Fandom’ can usually be counted on to be rather bizarre, not too serious, to contain at least some fair and often good writing, to have an atrocious number of typos, and to be legible & creative, but not terribly neat or polished in physical appearance….BOOWATT is okay, if you can hack the typos.”
“This issue concludes an engaging series by Mae Strelkov which is basically reminiscences from various periods of her life…The other writing is of a more personal and actually worthless nature. This includes part of James A. Hall’s diary (at least, it might as well be), and an abortive one-shot which degenerates into a drunken attack on some poor typewriter by Steve George.” (Source: Vaughn Fraser.)
– (#28 – Dec)
1979 – (#29 – Dec)
[ See LARDZINE ]
BOOWATT WEEKLY
— Faned: Garth Danielson. An apazine published on a frequent basis from about 1975 to 1980, 119 issues in all. For which Apa? I assume the approach was similar to that of his perzine BOOWATT.
BORDERLAND
— Faned: Robert Hadji. Fictionzine pubbed out of Markham, Ontario. “BORDERLAND is a… semi-pro magazine, devoted to ‘Dark Fantasy’ (ghost stories, contemporary urban horror, & many other subjects), but not SF stories, sword-&-sorcery, pop fantasy, the Cthulhu mythos or grand guignol. Some humour is welcome, though… The editor says…. that BORDERLAND is to be a hobby pursuit, but professional in attitude & standards… will pay 3.5¢ per word for stories, & $1 per line for poetry.” (Source: Garth Spencer.)
“The Spaced Out Library deserves credit for their promotion of BORDERLAND…. Hadji spoke about the type of magazine he was trying to develop… The first issue, while a little slim, is very good and the publishers have some interesting plans for the future.”
1984 – (#1 – ?) – “Contains stories by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Michael Bedard, & Galad Elflandsson, and also features poems & articles by David Aylward of the Spaced Out Library.” (Source: Garth Spencer.)
1985 – (#2 – Jan/Feb) (#3 – Dec)
SCAVENGERS NEWSLETTER commented (in May 1985): “BORDERLAND has a rather long response time but remains a viable market,” and in a later issue: “BORDERLAND is surely the finest fantasy magazine coming from Canada.”
BOREALIS
— Faneds: John Bell & (1st issue only) Alain Chabot. Pubbed out of Halifax by Northern Star Press circa 1978. BOREALIS said to be the very first fanzine out of Halifax. (Unless the Halifax SF Society, founded in 1948, had produced a clubzine…) Only 2 issues. Writes Taral: “The archivist John Bell…. announcing in 1981 that the publication, which takes a serious and scholarly interest in Canadian SF&F, especially any written by writers from Atlantic Canada, will henceforth appear as a book-like annual.” This did not happen. (Source: Taral.)
“I gather that BOREALIS only went through these two issues, but with articles & features by & about Canadian authors & artists, it looks like it could have continued easily. The lithography production is excellent.” (Source: Garth Spencer.)
1978 – (#1 – Jun) – “Full colour cover paintings by Tim Hammell & Cathy Hill… Don Grant (BOREALIS’s Godfather, it seems; he printed the cover free of charge), contributes an article on a fantasy writer to look out for: David Crombie. Spider Robinson has a neat story. Chabot reports on Boskone (Boston Con). There is a portfolio of Gene Day’s work, (not his best, but not his worst, either). There is also an article on SF in Quebec, an interesting area which BOREALIS promises to pursue further. Finally, the editors put in some plugs & reviews and finish off with a tribute to former Haligonian Hal Foster…The layout is clean. Tremendously easy to read & nice to look at. The only thing they can do to improve is to put more of the same into an issue.” (Source: Vaughn Fraser.)
1979 – (#2- Mar) – “This 2nd issue of BOREALIS has been delayed by the departure of Alain Chabot, one of the co-editors. A single colour cover & other less costly production methods as compared with the first issue also hint at the intrusion of financial reality. There is no fiction in this issue, but otherwise the same mixture of non-fiction, poetry & art is continued.”
“The non-fiction articles are varied & generally well done. John Bell writes about James DeMille, a 19th century Canadian writer of Fantasy. Spider Robinson provides a too-short piece about the reasons behind his decision to move to Canada. And finally, Charles Saunders correlates all the different ape-men in Philip Jose Farmer’s work.”
“The first selection of poetry is from DeMille’s papers, and the 2nd consists of 4 Found Poems, selected by John Robert Columbo. Several book reviews, a listing of Canadian fanzines and a reasonably varied letter column round out the written content.”
“As in the first issue, a considerable amount of space is devoted to artwork. A cartoon strip (The Space Beavers) by Dave Sim & a portfolio by Rand Gaynor highlight this issue, along with a considerable amount of fantasy-oriented art.”
“While this issue is not quite up to #1 in physical standards, it is developing in terms of content and is worth watching for, especially in view of the Canadian content.” (Source: Ed Beauregard.)
Writing in 1984, John Bell commented: “After an abortive attempt to resume publishing late in 1981, BOREALIS is officially defunct.” Part of this effort was an ad appearing in NEW CANADIAN FANDOM #2/3 (Aug/Sep 1981) which offered a forthcoming “Issue Three & Four combined” of BOREALIS, featuring “new fiction by Charles Saunders, a Louis Little Portfolio, Gene Day & George Freeman art, Tanith Lee on Charles Saunders and more…”, and then promised: “Beginning in 1982, BOREALIS will expand into a giant new annual of Canadian SF & fantasy.” Alas, twas not to be.
(Sources: Taral, Garth Spencer, Vaughn Fraser & Ed Beauregard.)
BRIC A BRAC
— Faned: Harry Robinson. #2 of a perzine pubbed out of Montreal February 1885! This wonderful example of early Canadian mundane amateur journalism was unearthed by Dale Speirs and reprinted as a rider with OPUNTIA #27.1 in Feb 1996.
BRIC A BRAC editor Robinson declared: “We publish this paper for our own mental improvement…” But alas, “…Canada has been a considerable factor in the strength of the ‘dom; but one by one, the Canadian Amateurs have fossilized, until at the present day, THE NUGGET, THISTLE, BOYS FOLIO and BRIC-A-BRAC are all that are left to represent the ‘dom in Canada…” Similar to the problem facing Canadian SF zines today!
Poetry, fiction, & news round out the zine. “Khartoum has fallen…Canadians are as loyal subjects as any the Queen has… so we share the sorrow that this great disaster has given her.” … He’s talking about Queen Victoria!
And then there’s an astounding description of the Montreal Winter Carnival: “…the storming of the ice palace… Two thousand five hundred snow-shoers, dressed in the most picturesque costumes of modern times, armed with torches and Roman candles, stormed the castle; then from the castle shot rockets, bombs, and fireworks of every description…” By Ghu they knew how to have fun back then! (Source: Dale Speirs.)
THE LE BULLETIN
— Bilingual news Bulletin pubbed out of North York, Ontario, by the Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Foundation from 1995 on. (More details to be added.)