Zines for every occasion .... & Ephemera

[dem]

Apr 13, 2022 11:14:26 GMT ropardoe said:

Apr 12, 2022 18:56:21 GMT dem said:

Yes, permissions could be difficult. Some contributors will no longer be in the land of the living, for a start, and some of those who are might be hard to contact.  I've been lucky so far in tracking down people to reprint their Ghosts & Scholars stories in my Sarob Press books, but that has been down to pure luck (and the internet!).  I agree though - even a book on the subject which made no claims to completeness would be a marvellous idea.  Meanwhile, SF fandon does have some good books which deal with the subject to some degree: I'm thinking of Peter Weston's With Stars in My Eyes (2004) which goes into some detail on the zines he was involved with; and Rob Hansen's excellent Then: Science Fiction Fandom in the UK: 1930-1980 (2016).  I recommend them both.

Thanks Ro. Can see I'll have to try hunt down both. One I'd have no hesitation in recommending (and I'm sure you'd agree) is David A Sutton's Thirty Years on the Fringes: A History of Horror in the Small Press.

[dem]

Eulalie Death Bredan & Alysyn Wonderland [eds.] - Mo' Betta Goth #13 (Texas, circa Sept 1994)

Illo: Bacteria Jones

"Our bad attitude just got worse." One of several titles published by San Antonio lesbians the Rude Girls. Five pages of venom and a nice drawing of Robert Smith that doesn't look like him. Eulalie's "Goth zines are a waste of money" targets the professional, glossy end of the market, singling out Propaganda for special attention. Alysyn Wonderland bemoans the terribleness of her once beloved Anne Rice. Also, Sweet Oblivion: the do's and don't of dying a proper graveyard poet's death.

[helrunar]

I guess the "Death Bredon" penname is an allusion to Lord Peter Wimsey. Goth, nihilism, postMarxian critique of commodity fetishism and Dorothy L. Sayers are a strange crossroads to navigate, but having lived through the 1990s, can't say I'm surprised to stumble over it.

Keep those scans coming! (No pressure!)

cheers, Hel

[ropardoe]

Apr 13, 2022 18:40:40 GMT dem said:

Apr 13, 2022 11:14:26 GMT ropardoe said:

Thanks Ro. Can see I'll have to try hunt down both. One I'd have no hesitation in recommending (and I'm sure you'd agree) is David A Sutton's Thirty Years on the Fringes: A History of Horror in the Small Press.

Absolutely.  I said when it was first published that I wished he'd expand it into a full-length book.

[dem]

Krystyna FitzGerald-Morris, Peter FitzGerald-Morris & David Cross (ed's.) - Homeground #38 (Orpington, Kent, Spring, 1990)

Includes global Kate news; Kate joins the Comic Strip; Kate asked to appear at Nelson Mandela Wembley concert; "Love and Anger stiffed by Radio 1 producers and slated in music press"; This Woman's Work "too gloomy" for airplay; New album drops out of top 75; Kate doesn't get a Brit award. US Tour "passes quietly" etc. Gary Hurst, RIP; "No more songs about love and death?" Seven US states in bid to make the selling of songs which advocate, encourage or even describe certain activities illegal, i.e., those whose lyrics reference incest, bestiality, adultery, ethnic intimidation, morbid violence, murder, sexual conduct in a violent context, Satanism, sodomy, sadomasochism, nudity, rape, suicide, use of alcohol, or use of illegal drugs (the Moral Majority and attendant 'Satanic Child Abuse' industry were in their pomp at the time). Readers' short fiction inspired by Kate's music; The Thrill and the Hurting, by Sharon, and Krystyna FitzGerald-Morris's It Lay Buried Here. Kate on Wogan. Reprint of interview in You magazine, plus letters, pen pals service, personal messages, other fanzines, etc. Illustrations by Debi May and Paulina Stuckay.

[dem]

Jan Stover [ed.] - All to nah: Special edition (Hamburg, N.d. [201 —] ["timeless"])

Matschbotten - An article about the history of Altona
Fat Tony - Something about Altona 93
Against Modern Football Gavin - London Calling (reprinted from All to nah #12, 24/10/10)
Conor - The Good, the Bad and Barmbek-Uhlenhorst (reprinted from All to nah #13, 22/4/11)
Conor - Selling Grounds - Chasing Progression: Lessons from Ireland (also reprinted from All to nah #13, 22/4/11)
Mishi Morath - Altona 93 and Dulwich Hamlet (reprinted from All to nah #15, 16/10/11)


From Eddy C. Bertin's birthplace, an English language 'zine for those fans of 5th level strugglers Altona 93 who neither speak nor read German (approximately 10% of those who buy the zine, according to the editor). "On the front page you can see a typical German football denim the only thing Germans ever added to football culture. A couple of Altona-supporters brought them back into use as a joke during the last years." Copy spotted and duly purchased from the anti-megastore at - where else? - Dulwich Hamlet FC, with whose fan-base they enjoy a tremendous rapport.

Zenketh (?)

[dem]

Sapphire Aurora [ed] - Grimoire IV (South Harrow, Middx., April 1991)

No author attributions, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility Ms. Aurora wrote the entire 12 pages, only three of which are devoted to the group themself, which, if not unique is surely rare for a dedicated band 'zine. News first. Nosferatu swing back into action! Louis del Rey has replaced the departed Incubus as lead singer; the trio are in the studio recording a debut 12" single, Hellhound, and The Deathmaster Remixes cassette. They've also designed a new t-shirt.

The remainder of the issue comprises micro-essays on such topics as Alchemy: Fact or Fable?, Angela de la Barthe and the Witchcraft Heresy, Ritual & Death, Witchbarriers, Ghastly Manor (i.e., Oakley Court, Windsor), and The Skulls that Screamed, this last relating to Theophilius Broome. Mr. Broome was so attached to his home, Chilton Cantelo Manor, he left instructions that, upon his death (c. 1670), his head be severed and kept in the cupboard. When, perhaps understandably, this demand was ignored, his ghost raised merry hell in the churchyard until his relatives did as they'd been told.

They're still going, Damien DeVille, founder, guitarist, being the lone survivor of the lugubrious '91 line-up. Nosferatu

Suzy Suicide [ed] - The Gashlycrumb: London After Midnight Newsletter #3.5 (Hollywood, CA, Winter 1995)

This newsletter, on the other hand is exclusively devoted to all things London After Midnight (not the lost 'twenties Tod Browning silent, but "the band who single-handedly revived the entire U.S./ California Goth scene" © Gotham magazine). Eight pages compiled from issues #1 and #2 for a fast growing international audience. Tour/ recording/ video news, mini-interview, lyrics, merchandise, 'Weird News' gossip column (but not about the band; "After Nine Inch Nails’ recent concerts here in LA., who did we see at the exclusive after party at the Dragonfly but former KKK member and presidential candidate, David Duke. What he was doing there we couldn’t figure out but he was hitting on a transvestite all night. He was later escorted out by Trent .... Pete Burns from Dead or Alive was reportedly arrested in a London pub after beating up Jon Klein, former guitarist of Specimen and guitarist for Siouxsie and the Banshees. Burns played down the incident in a recent interview saying it was just a 'minor disagreement'. Apparently Burns has a bad reputation for being violent. Boy George was quoted as calling him 'a nasty brute' .... Danielle Dax, dance/ goth from Batcave days, has gotten married. A great disappointment to many ..."), recent mag appearances, etc. They're still going, Sean Brennan, founder, frontman, multi-instrumentalist, being the lone survivor of the glamorous '95 line-up. LAM

[dem]

Malcolm Slater [ed.] - The Jottings: The Journal of the Fairground Society #53 (Huntington, York, Aug. 1998)

News, classified ads, articles on boxing and wrestling shows at the Pickering Rally, Frank Jenner on fairground modelling in 1:76 scale, nineteenth century hoppings & co., but it's the photographs steal this issue; including snapshots from the '50's, J. Raywood's 'Galleon Fun' inflatable "the first of its type," and Nicholas Seed debuts his mod four-deck Ghost Train in York.

[andydecker]

This is indeed spooky. Holy Hammer, good artwork, but it must have been a bit cramped, or not? Do I detect Yutte Stensgaard as Mircalla at the corner?

[dem]

Apr 17, 2022 12:03:31 GMT andydecker said:

This is indeed spooky. Holy Hammer, good artwork, but it must have been a bit cramped, or not? Do I detect Yutte Stensgaard as Mircalla at the corner?

Yeah, Ms. Strange Love herself.

Graham Downie [ed.] - The Fairground Mercury: Vol 15, #3 (Studley, Warks, Dec. 1992).

In the wake of Gerry Cottle's recent rescue purchase of four rides from "the lost fairground of Leighton Buzzard," Jim Bassett pays a visit to the seven acre site to discover "an amazing array of trucks, equipment and plain old junk, much of it covered by several years growth of brambles. Pete Tei's accompanying photo's scream the site's potential as setting for a supernatural horror story. Owen Ralph reports on the "disastrous" 1992 Preston Guild Fair at Moor Park where the organisers introduced a hefty £3.50 per head admission charge (previously it had been a free event; this was swiftly reduced to £1 when so few people turned up on the opening day) and atrocious weather reduced the site to a mud bath. Diehards who braved entry fee and elements could console themselves with a ride on John Manders' Pirate Ship or a furtive tip toe through Teddy Manders' Psycho Fun House.

Wonder if any of these fairground mags ever issued a Ghost Train special?

Nick Laister; Spooks!: The History of Ghost trains and other Dark Rides
Alastair Baker; A Short History of the Ghost Train

[dem]

Sad thing, I think these fairground 'zines may have come from the private collection of Gerry Cottle, who died in January last year. My market friend tells me they were among the effects he cleared from the home of "some famous circus bloke." Gerry Cottle also owned the Wookey Hole, and among the magazines and programmes are several postcards from an exhibition of fairground attractions he hosted in the caves.

Ephemera interlude. "It's dark all over Europe ..." Malta, Greece, Italy, Chesterfield, and a posthumous tribute to Phoenix Hitch.

[andydecker]

Inspired by our tireless vault keeper I searched for the few fanzines I have. I never was very interested in fandom or fanzines, but of course there were quite a few in Germany. A lot were done before my time, mostly sf. As these were club publications, a lot of the more driven members took things very seriously. A few clubs were even registered at court to make it a legal entity.

Before the decline of the weekly horror pulps in the 80s there was a small horror fandom which also did cons. I sampled a few of its publications which I recently found in some dark corner of the shelf.

One of the first was Dan Shocker's Fan-News from Marlos.

Strictly speaking this was not published by a fan. Dan Shocker aka Jürgen Grasmück is seen today as the "father" of the weekly German horror pulp. His series Larry Brent – an agent of an multinational organisation fighting mad scientists and the supernatural, including a secret headquarter in New York's Central Park under the restaurant Tavern on the Green (don't ask me why)– was the first of those publications in 1968 and its success in sales paved the way for all the others. In 1973 he started a second monthly series called Macabros which was a mixture of simple fantasy and soft horror. Its hero was some re-incarnated warrior from the lost continent Xantilon, a kind of Atlantis stand-in, who could produce an indestructible ectoplasmic twin with a thought, he fought some evil black magic goddess in all the dimensions of horror. Marlos was an invisible tropical isle and his headquarter, hence the name.

In 1978 Grasmück started an official fan-club which published this fanzine. It was wholly concentrated on his novels and at first only a few pages, later up to 50 to 120 pages at times. After a year some fans did the editorial work. The content was a mix of (very) short stories, fan-artwork, a bit of news and articles, all for a yearly subscription fee. After all series were cancelled and Grasmück did other things – he had established himself as an literary agent and as an bookseller of esoteric literature - his loyal fans took over and continued it under the name Fantastic News till 2001.

[dem]

Thanks for sharing these, Andreas. Particularly like the one with the 'Draculady' cover illo. Here's something not remotely like it

John Madracki - The Cancer Chronicle #3 (Bolton, Lancs, Spring 1993)

" ... Some of the features that were held over from the Easter edition have now been shelved; two because the festival has now past, and with it their relevance, and one because of length. The first was an item on Easter Parades: When Jesus rode his ass into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, it was hardly the joyous occasion that is often pictured. His arrival was, in fact, a challenge to the Religious Authorities of the day and an act of political defiance that would have been regarded as being just as confrontational as any Sixties CND rally. The second piece, a compilation of capsule observations, took a global look at the varied state of religion today. America was represented by TV evangelists and charismatic psychopaths. (The siege at Waco was at its most ludicrous stage at the time and had still to reach its tragic, but inevitable conclusion.) From India there was the report of thousands of pilgrims descending on a grossly deformed child, convinced that he was a reincarnation of their Elephant God. In Australia, the funeral of a woman who had been exorcised to death was attended by hundreds of ‘mourners’ who then set up camp to await her return from the grave. While, back in our own pagan land, the only thing to stir any media interest in the Church was the news that an esteemed bishop was buggering a novice monk on the sly."

A sixties special; trademark curmudgeonly editorial addresses stuff that isn't in this issue — Easter gone, the state of religion (see above), and a brief survey of popular women's magazines, "both puerile and prurient." Also the regular 'Stop the World I Want to Get Off' Dept, TV Nostalgia quiz, ten things to know about ferrets, poetry, and maps showing likely expanse of the blast ring and heat effects following a nuclear attack on Greater Manchester. The late John Madracki edited multiple fun-packed/ angst-ridden APAzines, often on behalf of something called the Organisation, including Nipperking, Mumpsimus and the seasonal Wring out the Old.

[jamesdoig]

This probably got pruned in the Ph*t*fuc*et debacle of some years ago, so I should re-post it here - a one hit wonder by Australian horror legend Chris Masters, removed from the shelves of news agents and other outlets before it even got there:



Here's the contents:



Some interesting things in a long reviews section:

[andydecker]

    "The merits of cannibalism". Heh. I bet that went well with the distributers. It tries a bit too hard to be controversial, or not?