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Post by helrunar on May 2, 2020 15:30:20 GMT
Kev, I'm trying to imagine what a meeting of the Northern Association of Fantasy Fetishists (NAFF) would look, and SOUND like, and I'm dying. That's all I'm going to say.
Thank you for such gorgeous scans!
cheers, Steve
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Post by dem bones on May 2, 2020 18:02:11 GMT
Kev, I'm trying to imagine what a meeting of the Northern Association of Fantasy Fetishists (NAFF) would look, and SOUND like, and I'm dying. That's all I'm going to say. Not sure if the correspondent was referring to NAFF, but around that period I had a letter from a Goth in her, I guess, early twenties, complaining that the fetish events in her area (Yorkshire) were terrible, on account of everyone was middle-aged, overweight, and chomping at the bit for action, any action. It was like they were obsessed with sex! Worse, none made an effort to dress for the occasion. Bloody poseurs, eh? Where were they at the Whitby Monsters of Goth weekend? I'll bet the fat perverts had never even listened to a Bauhaus CD in their lives! The Ripper musical sparked the customary protests, though I'm pretty sure it went ahead.
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Post by dem bones on May 4, 2020 12:30:17 GMT
Endymion Beer [ed.] - Athene #14/ #15 (Barnstaple, Devon, Spring/ Summer, 1997) The most benign and charming 'zine to come this way by a ludicrous margin. Over the five issues encountered, not one cross word; Endymion, Trevor and friends just get on with loving life, worshipping nature, and writing about The Folklore of Butterflies, Country Folklore and Legend, Experiences with the Little People of Fairie (part 3), and placing terrific hand drawn advertisements for Midnight Books and 'Runic Talismans. For Luck-health-happiness. Ready to wear.' News items include Loch Ness - The Latest as we go to Print, a Big Cats update and sensational discovery of a new species of lizard. Contributions from, among others, Peter Gage, David's McGrory and Farrant, Wolfgand Schmidt & Gunther Kadlubski ("Animal Kingdom Weirdom"). Disarmingly pleasant.
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Post by helrunar on May 4, 2020 13:34:58 GMT
Those look lovely, Kev. Thank you for the scans and the notes about the zine.
A sweet gift for "astrological Beltane" which is today--4 May, the exact midpoint between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice (Midsummer Day). We had spectacular weather here this weekend and it continues today. I hope you and Chrissie are keeping well.
cheers, Steve
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Post by dem bones on May 4, 2020 18:25:24 GMT
Those look lovely, Kev. Thank you for the scans and the notes about the zine. A sweet gift for "astrological Beltane" which is today--4 May, the exact midpoint between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice (Midsummer Day). In that case, it can't do any harm to add two more from same sequence. This truly is the gentlest of publications. Articles this time around include The Mystery, Magic & Superstitions of Ferns, Well of the Phantom Hand & Other Loch Ness mysteries, John Dee: Elizabethan Enigma, Haunted Ballechina white witch spells,"The truly wonderful Unicorn," 'True' Christmas ghost stories, more mysterious flowers and more fun with the fairy folk. Sadly, Trevor Beer, MBE, is no longer with us. Here's a Tribute.
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Post by helrunar on May 5, 2020 2:18:50 GMT
Thanks again Kev for these gorgeous scans. What enchanting artwork! Googly has evidently never heard of the Athene Newsletter ... this sacred Owl, justly known as "bright-eyed," is truly a rara avis.
Sounds like a fab zine. I'll look at the tribute to the gent who died soon.
Steve
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Post by dem bones on May 5, 2020 18:52:17 GMT
Enough niceness. Back to the spiky stuff. Ben Thompson [ed] - The Devil's Music (Bow, E. London, 1985) Post-punk angst. Captain Beefheart, The Three Johns, The Membranes ("murderers of trad. rock"), Husker Du, Millions of Dead Cops (of John Wayne Was a Nazi infamy), Carlton B. Morgan, How Top DJ Gary Bounced Back after A Frontal Lobotomy, New Bands to Avoid: #1 in an exciting new series, and the mandatory if heartfelt attacks on enduring hate figures, Thatcher, Tories, P. W. Botha, Edwina Currie, Harvey Proctor, New Romantics, hippies, etc. Truly, it was a horrible time. Youthful editor fast went on to bigger things: Ben Thompson
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Post by dem bones on May 8, 2020 7:16:48 GMT
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Post by jamesdoig on Aug 24, 2020 21:15:24 GMT
Wasn't quite sure where to put this. In a 1970s issue of Collectors Digest, there's this ad. I assume it's the great man, but does anyone know if he was a collector of penny dreadfuls and such like: Here's the cover - it was a long-running fanzine for collectors of Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter etc etc:
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Post by pulphack on Aug 25, 2020 5:31:05 GMT
Collectors Digest finally folded about ten years back. It was edited for the last few years by Mary Cadogan, and in the end there sinmply weren't enough subscribers to cover all the costs. It was closely allied to the London Old Boys Book Club, and frankly that wasn't too chipper either. I'd joined in 1998, and by the time I left around 2010 most of the people who were really active had either passed away or had left because of some of the new members, who were rather 'difficult'. That was also my reason. When I joined a lot of the membership was comprised of people who had been in it for decades, and it was really welcoming. By the time I left the numbers had dwindled because of age, and the newcomers were of that cliquey and geeky type that just changed the family feel of the club. I actually discovered the LOBBC through Nikki Sudden, who was also a member (as had been George Sewell, Mike Moorcock and David Baddiel when he was a kid).
To answer James' question - Guy Smith did collect those old papers, as well as trade in them. That was how he met Laurence James, well before he tried his hand at a horror paperback. LJ was a collector of DC Thompson papers and comics and he used to buy off Guy. Apparently, when he discovered that Guy harboured writing ambitions and had already had some pieces published (he wrote some Dixon Hawke stories for DCT, which is how the subject arose), he encouraged him to look at what NEL were doing and come up with something. The rest, as they say...
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Post by jamesdoig on Aug 25, 2020 8:03:53 GMT
Thanks Dr Hack - great stuff! So were you a Sexton Blake collector, or a Magnet/Gem collector, or something else entirely?
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Post by andydecker on Aug 25, 2020 9:13:58 GMT
Wasn't quite sure where to put this. In a 1970s issue of Collectors Digest, there's this ad. I assume it's the great man, but does anyone know if he was a collector of penny dreadfuls and such like: Here's the cover - it was a long-running fanzine for collectors of Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter etc etc: I have to apologize beforehand because of my ignorance, but were there really schoolkids like that on the cover in Britain? (Somehow it is kind of disturbing.)
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Post by pulphack on Aug 25, 2020 10:07:13 GMT
I was more of a Sexton Blake man, James. I liked Jack Trevor Story, and in 1991 I found a pile of Sexton Blake Mayflower paperbacks at 50p each. One of which was a Jack Trevor Story. I vaguely remembered Blake on TV, so bought the Story and one other. Then returned and bought the lot. And then started to hunt down the fifth series and go further back. I held the LOBBC Sexton Blake library for ten years, which had Union Jacks, SBL's, Thrillers, and assorted other old story papers and books with Blake in them. I dabble in Magnet and Gem - my mum grew up on her older brother's Magnets, and I remember getting an early Howard Baker reprint volume from the school library and learning about Greyfriars via those and the Armada paperbacks around when I was a kid. I can't read too much of it before needing a long break, but in small doses and the right mood I still like them. Always preferred St Jims to Greyfriars, though. I came to the LOBBC because I sent Nikki Sudden some tapes and used some photocopies of SBL covers I had left from 'an art project' to pad the envelope. Nikki didn't know I liked Blake, and sent me the phone number for the then chairman of the LOBBC - the next meeting was only down the road, and there you go...
But enough aimless reminisences - Andy, the thing about the schoolboys is that there is a long tradition of school stories in the UK, set in boarding schools mostly (perfect really - no adults except at a distance to get in the way of the kids adventures). Charles Hamilton aka Frank Richards, Martin Clifford et al, spent thirty years writing most of the Magnet and Gem for Amalgamated, in which the boys of two schools were the heroes. There were lavish lines drawings, and these lads on the cover are the more cartoonish later representations of Billy Bunter and the chaps from the Remove at Greyfriars. The LOBBC covered most boys fiction, but centred on Blake and the schools (including St Franks, with schoolmaster detective Nelson Lee!)as well as their distaff side at Moorcove and Cliff House (who had their own papers).
But yes, it does look a little odd out of context!
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Post by andydecker on Aug 25, 2020 18:41:40 GMT
the thing about the schoolboys is that there is a long tradition of school stories in the UK, set in boarding schools mostly Come to think of it, the same was true in Germany. Enid Blyton was read by generations of girls (of course in often heavily edited form, even back in the 60s the content was streamlined to make it more compatible). St.Clare's was called Hanni and Nanni and this or that adventure. It was so successful that new novels were ghost-written by German writers. There were similar series, but also marketed for girls. But there also were comparable series for the boy's market, I guess. Back then the most successful series was Hitchcock's The three investigators which also are still produced by German writers. A few years ago the boarding school concept was still thought popular enough to spawn movies and TV series.
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Post by jamesdoig on Aug 25, 2020 21:08:41 GMT
I picked up quite a few CDs from the 60s and 70s and they make interesting reading - a lot of articles and notes by the great W.O.G. Lofts, and the meeting notes are always good, an Australian group regularly meeting at the Bargain Book Bazaar, and for some reason I find the ads intriguing. Andy, down here in Aus the Famous Five was read by boys as well as girls - I loved them and reread them many times - I think I was impressed by the amount of food they ate: bacon and eggs, jam on toast, picnic hampers etc. I'm salivating just thinking about it.
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