UBC SF FEN NEWSLETTER
— Faneds: Ed Beauregard, Daniel Say, Mike Bailey, Robert Scott, & Robert Leung. Newsletter of UBC SFFEN, the University of B.C. SF Club (founded (1968) from 1969 to 1972 (when the club went dormant, later to be reborn as the UBC SF Society). Generally consisted of news of club activities, parties, fund-raising schemes, the need for more members, etc., sf news, and lists of new books available in the club’s library. Size varied from 2 to 6 pages. (Detail to be added)
1969 – (#1 – ? ) (#2 – ? )
1970 – (#3 – Jan) (#4 – Mar) (? – Jun)
1971 – (V?#1 – Oct) (V?#2 – Nov)
1972 – (V?#3 Jan)
UKULELE
— Faned: Daniel Farr. Pubbed out of Dunnville, Ontario. Last ish pubbed out of Toronto, Ontario.
198? – (#1 – ? ) (#2 – ? )
1986 – (#3 – ? )
1991 – (#4 – Aug) – “Daniel Farr returns home to Dunnville, Ontario, after living some years in Hawaii. Locs on the previous issue” … included six years on. (LP)
Has a nice black on orange cover by Steven Fox, a montage of spacemen, aliens, and a rather remarkable bat-winged organic spaceship. A couple of Lovecraftian S. Fox fillos inside as well.
“What you have in your hands is largely the remains of the last uncompleted issue… locs were all written in the first half of 1986 and reflect the thoughts of fans during that time. So one might easily say that this issue of UKULELE is a genuine fan artifact.”
Locs from the likes of Robert Bloch : “What strikes me most forcibly is the wide dichotomy between fans who were traumatized by the shuttle disaster and those who couldn’t care less…” and seventies-old Mae Strelkov of Argentina: “…all the space probes revealing to us what our fellow planets and their moons really look like, are just about the most marvelous thing I’ve enjoyed yet in life. I always dreamed about what they might look like, years ago, and now we know.”
And a comment of interest for all faneds from Robert Runte: “I’m not convinced a monthly schedule is a good idea. The obvious advantages of quick turn around, timeliness and the like are offset by the necessary emphasis on deadlines rather than quality. Loccers can’t keep up with a monthly schedule. Trades aren’t published often enough to stay on your mailing list. You may well find yourself in the position of having nothing to say when an issue is due. Without inspiration, fanpubbing quickly degenerates into a chore.”
1997 – (#5 – Jun) – “Daniel comments on how the past 11 years have slipped away.” (LP)
Another squamous, Lovecraftian alien by Steve Fox on the cover, part thick-tentacled octopode, part multi-eyed pineapple, and part fly-head. Euuuch! Plus a goodly selection of fillos by Fox, Brad Foster, and William Rotsler… I particularly like the Rotsler character gloomily stating “This fanzine is almost over and Harry (Warner Jr.) hasn’t written.” But in fact Harry’s loc begins on the same page, referring to last issue: “You are undoubtedly the last fanzine editor to publish comments by Bob Bloch.” (who had passed away long before #5 was published.)
Once again the zine is mostly locs, but Daniel has some interesting things to say in his editorial:
“In reveling in our past do we forget tomorrow? No, it seems that the past has become our gateway to all our tomorrows. We celebrate every time we pick up a old fnz. If only for the crudely drawn spaceman and rocket that graces the cover. We want a future, maybe not that one, maybe not mine or yours, but we definitely want one.”
And: “Not long ago fans waited with impatience knowing any fnz pubbed overseas and sent via bulk mail should arrive about 3 months after the fact. Even a bulk mailed fnz from the US to Canada could often be counted on taking a month before arriving mutilated on one’s doorstep…Those days are still with us, but an alternative is emerging. The more computer literate are Emailing and pubbing on the web at a furiously fast pace. Geography no longer plays a role in limited response times — no longer isolates the fan to lonely outposts. Of course, technology comes with a price…well, we couldn’t have expected our future to be cheap — but it’s here?”
UNCHARTED MINDSCAPES
— Faned: David Seburn. One-shot 64 page xerox SF fictionzine pubbed out of London, Ontario, by ‘The Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Science Fiction Writers’, a London Ontario-based writers workshop.
“The first thing they are going to have to learn if they want to become pros is that books sell by their covers — the obviously amateur artwork on theirs should kill any chance of attracting casual bookstore browsers. Their first priority for next issue should be to write Brad W. Foster for a proper cover, logo, and/or interior illos.”
“The stories themselves are about standard for nonprofessional fiction… in other words, hohum. My advice to the SPCSFW: write for POTBOILER and let Lari’s independent feedback sharpen your skills. Or, if you publish a second issue, try to attract some outside contributors to provide your group with some real interaction. UNCHARTED MINDSCAPES is a worthy project & a nice try… but no cigar yet.” (RR)
1983 – (#1 – ? )
UNDER THE OZONE HOLE
— Faneds: Karl Johanson & John Wilcox Herbert. Four-times Aurora-winning news/genzine pubbed out of Victoria, B.C., in the 1990s. (Much more detail to be added)
1992 – (#1 – Aug) (#2 – Nov)
1993 – (#3 – Feb) (#4 – May) (#5 – Aug) (#6 – Nov)
1994 – (#7 – Mar) (#8 – Jul) (#9 – Sep) (#10 – Dec)
1995 – (#11 – Jun)
1996 – (#12/13 – Dec/Mar) (#14 – Jun) (#15 – Sep)
199? – (#16 – ?) (#17 – ?)
2006 – (#18 – Oct) – Cover a line drawing lookdown on the Saucer disk of the Enterprise…In the editorial Herbert writes: “After a break of almost a decade, I attended VCON 29 and VCON 30… After such a long break, it was interesting to see what sort of fans were attending… a lot of familiar faces, but they were older, greyer and fatter… there were hardly any teenagers or young adults… this will spell serious trouble for conventions like VCON. If young people have stopped coming out, then conventions have nowhere to grow their attendance from…”
Another sign of the times is the complete transcript of a VCON 30 panel ‘The Trials and Tribulations of Fanzine Publishing’ featuring four well-known fanzine editors: Andrew C. Murdoch, John W. Herbert, Steve Forty & Garth Spencer. They outnumbered the audience four to one! There was a time when the room would be packed….alas, decades ago….. Postage costs and printing costs have pretty much killed the traditional paper fanzine. Steve Forty laments that the days of printing cheap multi-coloured covers with gestetners (he had at least 3 or 4, each with a different colour ink) is long past. You can create a beautiful colour cover on computer noways, but it will cost a fortune to print a hundred or more copies. Herbert comments: “We did a couple of colour covers for UTOH.. they looked great but… it instantly doubled the cost.”… And Murdoch brings up the point that fans used to rely on fanzines for news of what was going on in fandom, now the internet serves that role. [ To which The Graeme adds: a further sign of the times is that, even supposing I ever get this finished, I can’t possibly afford to print and distribute a paper version of The Canadian Fancyclopedia, the internet is my only recourse…]
Elsewhere in the 28 page zine Herbert describes a death-defying Kayak trip across Cadboro Bay, documents with great gloom the results of the 2006 Federal election, and reviews not only both classic versions of ‘King Kong’, but also both the 1996 and the 1943 versions of ‘Titanic’. In the Nazi version the only competent officer is a German, and the disaster is brought about by a Jewish conspiracy to rig the stock market. After the war the British used special effects footage from this film in their own 1959 version of the Titanic disaster, which was titled “A Night To Remember”. Bernie Klassen contributes several reviews of depressing books exposing the reality of war and oil, and Lloyd Penney talks about fannish life continuing as before, but getting older.
A good, solid read, with perhaps an underlying theme cropping up here and there about the dying of traditional fandom.
UNIVERSE
–– Faned: Steve George. Title of the first 3 issues of the perzine later known as ‘ZOSMA’.
1977 – (#1 – Jun) (#2 – Sep) (#3 – Oct)
[ See ZOSMA ]
UNIVERSE
–– Faneds: Andris Taskans & Joe Krolik. Clubzine pubbed out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, while both editors were still in high school. Their club was called: ‘The Science Fiction Fans & Comic Collectors of Winnipeg’. Some issues as many as 35 pages with illustrations. (CC)
1967 – (#1 to #7)
UNNAMED OSFiC NEWSLETTER
— Faned: Bob Webber. An incarnation of the Ontario SF Club newsletter, predated by ANOTHER UNOFFICIAL OSFiC NEWSLETTER and followed by DAZZELATIONS.
1980 – (#1 – Dec)
[ See (in order of publication) OSFIC MAGAZINE, OSFIC SUPPLEMENT, OSFIComm, OSFIC QUARTERLY, NOR, OSFIC EVENTUALLY, SYNAPSE, NIT WIT, MIMEOGRAPHED LONDON SUNDAE THYMES, THE TORONTO STELLAGRAM, LAST WHOLE OSFiC LONDON SUNDAE THYMES, INPUT/OUTPUT, ISHUE, OSFIC NEWSLETTER FOR THIS MONTH, OSFIC MONTHLY, GOOGLE, OSFiC UNCONSTITUTIONAL NEWSLETTER, ANOTHER UNOFFICIAL OSFiC NEWSLETTER, UNNAMED OSFiC NEWSLETTER, DAZZELATIONS, A VERY SHORT OSFiC NEWSLETTER, CHRONIC, OSFiC ELECTION BULLETIN, GATEWAY, ALL AGOG, LUNA & BEYOND, LUNA AND…, DEAR OSFiC MEMBERS ]
UP THE TUBE
— Faned: Stan G. Hyde. First issue of the clubzine for SFAV (Science Fiction Association of Victoria) pubbed out of Victoria, B.C.
[ Note: History of SFAV publications as follows: First Stan Hyde pubbed 2 issues of UP THE TUBE(S) in 1978. Then both PHOENIX & FROM THE ASHES start up in late 1979. Then both zines are combined into one zine titled PHOENIX & FTA in Feb 1982. The title is changed to FTA/PHOENIX in Dec 1982. Publication ceases Dec 1983. 2 revival issues titled FROM THE ASHES appear Feb & Mar 1985. A revival FTA/PHOENIX comes out Sept 1985. Another revival FTA/PHOENIX appears May 1986. Possibly further issues? ]
1978 – (V1#1 – ? ) – The cover possibly depicts Caddy, the legendary Sea Serpent of the waters of Oak Bay near Victoria. Or at any rate, 3 sea serpents with jaws agape & paws upraised — they look as if they’re laughing. Done by David Thompson.
“I’m writing this on the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria in the backseat of an Austin 1100 with the typewriter balanced on my knee… Yes, at last we have an ugly, shoddy, mimeographed fanzine. The club has come of age.” So writes Stan Hyde in his editorial.
He goes on to discuss the dumbing down of SF films, noting that the best adaptation of H.G.Wells novels were done in the 1930s. As for modern films: “…trend that has given us such enduring pieces of cinema as STARSHIP INVASIONS (proving once again that Canada can do it cheaper & worse).” His final despairing words: “Why does TV & filmed SF have to be such junk?… I have to admit it, I can’t understand it.”
There are poems by Gary B. Harper & Anne Cave, a couple of sercon articles, one on ‘Farming The High Frontier’ by K. Cordingley, the second on ‘Alien Races In Andre Norton’s Fiction’ by David Thompson, and a spoof article on ‘Metric Time’ by Zeno Woloszczak (1 second = 1 milliday, 1 week = 1 hectoday, etc). The film ‘Damnation Alley’ is reviewed, along with 5 books. An ambitious first effort.
Bacover is an exquisite pencil drawing of the Yellow Jester bowing before the Crimson King, a superb piece of art looking like something out of a Leonardo DaVinci notebook. (Interestingly, the two figures are superimposed upside down relative to each other, so the work is reproduced twice: the bacover shows the Crimson King upright, and the inside bacover shows the Yellow Jester upright.) Martin Rayner is the artist.
1978 — (V.1#1 — ?)
[ See UP THE TUBES, PHOENIX, FROM THE ASHES, PHOENIX & FTA, FTA/PHOENIX ]
UP THE TUBES
— Faned: Stan G. Hyde. Second issue of the clubzine for SFAV (Science Fiction Association of Victoria) pubbed out of Victoria, B.C., with a slight title change. (Detail to be added)
[ Note: History of SFAV publications as follows: First Stan Hyde pubbed 2 issues of UP THE TUBE(S) in 1978. Then both PHOENIX & FROM THE ASHES start up in late 1979. Then both zines are combined into one zine titled PHOENIX & FTA in Feb 1982. The title is changed to FTA/PHOENIX in Dec 1982. Publication ceases Dec 1983. 2 revival issues titled FROM THE ASHES appear Feb & Mar 1985. A revival FTA/PHOENIX comes out Sept 1985. Another revival FTA/PHOENIX appears May 1986. Possibly further issues? ]
Another delicate line drawing by Martin Rayner forms the cover, a human-faced lion with a serpent for a tail. Inside art by Rayner shows a seated medieval figure playing a lute, idyllic countryside as a backdrop, and a medieval harpist seated on a pillow dozing as he leans against his harp. Both pieces were used to frame poems by Rayner & G.B. Harper. Rayner was obviously an artist of potentially professional calibre and I hope he went on to a distinguished career, perhaps illuminating fantasy novels?
In his editorial Stan writes: “I would like to see UP THE TUBES become an organ of communication between fans, first… between the fans in the club & in Victoria… later.. to other clubs.. I would like to print original material… The next issue will be a special Halloween issue & the subject is supernatural, macabre, horror & weird fiction…” Alas, twas not to be. No further issue appeared. But the club tried again with PHOENIX & FROM THE ASHES beginning in late 1979. Both titles signifying the rebirth of the concept first attempted by UP THE TUBE(S).
Stan Hyde then goes on to state: “This year has been the year that destroyed the ghetto. SF is big business now — the top money-making film of all time, the most expensive TV show ever produced… the publishing lists of major hardback & paperback companies include more SF than ever before… the creation of a whole field of magazines in large-formats, running the gamut from fly-by-night junk to fine publications like FUTURE & STARLOG. (The visual impact, wide-range of coverage, & fairly intelligent articles make both magazines a joy — and the colour art reproduction leaves me breathless.)”
Dixie Sackett & Garth Spencer both contribute rebuttals to Stan’s editorial in the first issue, arguing not as bad as all that. Garth writes: “One can only find merit in a form of entertainment if in fact it entertains. The weakness of SF is that… it will not entertain those who will not suspend their disbelief.”
David Thompson reviews the movie ‘Battlestar Galactica’, and Stan Hyde writes his first ‘THE LIGHT-HEARTED VITUPERATOR & JOLLY REVILER’ column (which he later revived for the issues of BCSFAzine edited by R. Graeme Cameron). The column consists of 13 short & succinct book reviews.
The final article (also by Stan) is ‘Science Fiction & The Transcendental Experience’, an essay on the religious aspects of SF, which includes a checklist of SF films, novels & short stories with religious themes. Sercon stuff.
1978 – (V.1#2 – Jul/Aug)
[ See UP THE TUBE, PHOENIX, FROM THE ASHES, PHOENIX & FTA, FTA/PHOENIX ]