Robert Bloch - Some Of My Best Fans Are Friends

[dem bones]

Kelly Freas

If August Derleth was no big fan of fans, veteran Conventioneer and 'zine contributor Robert Bloch was the opposite, devoting two books and several articles to the ups and downs of an SF enthusiast's lot. Of those too few items sampled, I'm particularly fond of Some Of My Best Fans Are Friends, published in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Sept. 1956. I've never attended a convention, but would not be surprised if examples of the Elder Statesman, the Crusader, the Laughing Hyena, the dreaded Rousseauphile and the potentially lethal Serious Constructive Fan are still much in evidence.

Attachments:

Some of My Best Fans ....pdf (106.72 KB)

[helrunar]

That's a gorgeous cover.  Really quite stunning!  And I look forward to reading the essay.

Thanks, Kev!

cheers, Steve

[jamesdoig]

Starting on page 17 of the following magazine is a transcription I made of an audio tape of Robert Bloch talking about fandom at Cinecon, a convention held in Melbourne in 1981: efanzines.com/SFC/SFC86P.pdf Graeme Flanagan had the tapes and I spent a couple of hours transcribing them - Bloch comes across as a great guy.

[dem bones]

Thank you for sharing, James!

Have never set eyes on a copy of Bloch's book, The Eighth Stage of Fandom, (Advent, 1962), but have managed to scavenge some of his fandom-related from here and there.

Perhaps less essential reading - it repeats much of what was said in Some Of My Best Fans..... - is The Conventional Approach (Fantasy & Science fiction, March 1964), introduced by Avram Davidson as "the third of three [articles] on the subject of that singular microcosm peculiar to our particular literary genre." Have yet to locate the second, not in MFSF anyhow (any guidance, as ever, much appreciated). I was hoping it would be How Bug-Eyed Was My Monster (Caper, May 1957: Fantasy & Science fiction, March 1958), but sadly not. A tentacled monstrosity lays waste to a city and walks into a bar ...

It could be that Davidson is referring to How to Be a SF Critic: (Jon White (ed.) Inside #1, October 1962). " .....You need only about four words. Watch them, now, and memorise them carefully. The words are:
TERRIFIC
AVERAGE
SCIENTIFIC
STINKS."

While Bloch supported the fanzines, it didn't prevent him having a pop when he saw fit.

Loncon II, or Through a Monocle? Darkly (If, Dec. 1965) is a three-page report on the 23rd World Science Fiction Convention, staged at the Mount Royal Hotel over the last weekend of August 1965. Bloch takes justifiable pride in noting the many American faces in attendance.

Also of interest, the in-joke heavy short story ETFF: (Roger Elwood [ed.], Odyssey, Spring 1976: Fear and Trembling, 1989. The latest beneficiary of the Extra Terrestrial Fan Fund travels to earth to attend Con Con.

[dem bones]

Robert Bloch - Out Of My Head (Nesfa, 1986)

Illustration: Bob Eggleton

Introduction
I Was a Teen-Age Faust (Larry Shaw [ed.], The Pavlat Report, Aug. 1959)
Stay Tuned For Terror (Robert L. Chomorsky [ed.], Gothism #4, Aug. 1973)
The Lovecraft Mythos
The Closest Approach (Karen Anderson [ed.], Henry Kuttner - A Memorial Symposium, 1986)
Sup Full of Horrors
Oldies But Goodies (Joyce Fisher, Sue Robinson & Pam Janish [eds.], Grils #2, 1969).
Two Great Editors (Tom Collins [ed.], Is #4, Oct. 1971)
The Proxy Head (Science Fiction Plus, May 1953)
The Traditions of Science Fiction and Conventions (Richard E. Geis [ed.], Alien Critic #10, 1974)
The Return of Lefty Feep (Dick Geis [ed.], Alien Critic, 1971)
Lefty Feep and I
Wilson Tucker — the Smo-o-oth Operator (MidAmeriCon Program Book, 1976)
Men, Myths, and Monsters (Andy Porter[ed.], Algol #22, May 1974)
An Open Letter to a Young Girl About to Publish Her First Fanzine (Peggy Rae McKnight [ed.], Etwas #1, 1960)
The Conventioneer's Prayer
Poe and Lovecraft
Letter to a TAFF Winner (Miriam Dyches, [ed.] Moor Park #2, 1958)
In Memoriam: Fritz Lang (J. Vernon Shea [ed.], Outre #3, 1976)
Will the Real Author of Psycho Please Stand Up? (Philip A Harrell [ed.], Ventura II, 1965)
The Black Revealer (Gary Hoppenstand [ed.], Midnight Sun #5, 1979)
Another Part of the Forrest
A Way of Life (Fantastic Universe, Oct. 1956)
Blurb:
Out of My Head commemorates Robert Bloch's (author of Psycho) appearance as Boskone 23 Guest of Honor. It contains a wide selection of fact and fiction, all centred around science fiction and SF fandom. Among the things included are: "A Way of Life," the story of a future society picking itself up after a war. The key slogan in the presidential campaign? Fandom is a Way of Life! "Oldies but Goodies," a series of classic convention stories; "I Was a Teen-Age Faust," the true story of how the author has been able to be a perpetual fan; "The Return of Lefty Feep," the latest in the classic series. In addition, there are articles on Lovecraft, Kuttner, Campbell, Fritz Lang, and more as well as several penetrating looks at SF and fantasy film. Interior illos by Bob Eggleton.

This book can be considered to be the sequel to Advent's 1962 book The Eighth Stage of Fandom.

You can have too much of a good thing, and, frankly, without his 'Man-who-wrote-Psycho!' kudos, it is unlikely some of the shorter pieces would have seen publication in even the wall-to-wall filler 'zines. Cases in point; An Open Letter To A Young Girl About To Publish Her First Fanzine: Two pages explaining why he is unable to provide an article for Peggy Rae's début issue. Another Part Of The Forrest: A tribute to worlds-leading-SF-fan, whose "international treasure" credentials have since divided opinion. "Long before his editorship of Famous Monsters of Filmland attracted a youthful following, Forry was already making and taking time to befriend young fans." This is a big part of the problem. At least some of these young fans, we now know, would have preferred that he hadn't been quite so "friendly." The Conventioneer's Prayer: In-jokey request to Kali that he's spared the attentions of majority of other attendees - pushy hangers-on, people who get up early, 'beautiful dishes' who want you to introduce them to Anthony Boucher, etc - at forthcoming San Francisco event. Letter To A TAFF Winner: Bloch advises the lucky beneficiary of the fan fund to prepare her or himself for a nerve-shredding experience at LonCon. Them English fans are crazy (and, apparently, posh). They all got stupid names - "There is an Englishman named Bert, but you wouldn't want to meet him. And if you happen to be female, you will avoid him like the plague." - and their fanzines are unintelligible to an American reader. The Return of Lefty Feep: The wisecracking modern Munchausen attends (or so he says) Solacon, 1958. "I get my left hand caught in Ed Wood's mouth. Fortunately I do not get bitten, as Ed Wood never closes his mouth once during the whole Convention." Punchline relies on the readers' familiarity with the (then) topical "first black SF fan!" hoax perpetuated by Terry Carr & friends.

Bob Eggleton

[jamesdoig]

This is a nice one too:



Contents
Preface
Outerview by Robert Bloch
Interview Sources
Bloch on Bloch
Bloch on Horror
On Weird Tales & Lovecraftiana
On Fantasy and Science Fiction
On Humor, Horror and Left Feep
On Writing Crime Fiction
On Psycho(s)
On the Mechanics of Fear
On Hollywood and the Movies
On Screenwriting
On Violence
On Writing for Television
On Fandom and Fanac
Looking Back on a Writing Career
Further References on Robert Bloch
Index

[dem bones]

The Traditions Of Science Ficton And Conventions: Bloch's guest of honour speech at the 31st World SF Convention, Toronto, Aug. 31st 1973.

"Over the years, long before the time of many of you, I wrote for fanzines. Some of that writing has been collected in hardcovers in what I believe was one of the first professionally-published books of fan magazine articles, The Eighth Stage of Fandom. I conducted a column on fan magazines in the prozine Imagination during the 1950s, during which time I read 18,973 Harry Warner letters and looked at 47,000 [William ] Rostler illustrations, including two clean ones. I wrote one of the first professionally-published science fiction stories about fandom, in Fantastic Universe - and one of the first professionally-published articles about fandom in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Far more substantial than anything else on offer thus far. Covers much the same ground as Some Of My Best Friends Are Fans. Between gags, he calls for an end to the infighting between the curmudgeonly old guard and curmudgeonly new guard, and stresses the need to fight the suppression of SF titles in public libraries.

A Way Of Life: Twirling the top of his propeller beanie nervously, the next President .... The Fantastic Universe story referred to above. It is THE FUTURE again, thirty years on from the atomic war with Russia. SF fans have overcome military and industrial forces to inherit the earth. "Our fathers helped to rebuild the cities, helped to restore reason. Using the scientific knowledge and wisdom preserved in the science-fiction books, they brought order out of chaos. It was the application of Fannish principles that rebuilt the world." But now all this progress is threatened when the National Fantasy Fan Foundation candidate, John Henderson, locates canonized Big Name Fan, Chester A Polk's long-lost stash of original fanzines, correspondence and novels on an excavation site. A two hour speed-read later, and John realises the appalling truth. Everything he has been brought up to believe about the sainted pioneers of fandom is phoney. The new (very hippyish) utopia has been built on a tissue of lies, and his father-in-law, Lionel Drake, is among its chief perpetrators. Should John stand down and expose the truth?

Will the Real Author of Psycho Please Stand Up?: Jokey in tone but 'the-man-who-wrote-Psycho is clearly miffed that the cinema-going public have not yet wised up to the fact.

Oldies But Goodies: Reminiscences on his favourite cons. Mrs. David H. Keller sounds a force to be reckoned with. Anthony Boucher, Isaac Asimov, Judith Merril, William Rostler and the Ackerman are among the many who consistently come out well in Bloch's fan writings.

[dem bones]

Another of his timid satires on the "scene," this one with very "woah! didn't see that coming!" kiss off.

Robert Bloch - What Every Young Ghoul Should Know: (Corwin F. Stickney [ed.], Amateur Correspondent Vol 2. No 2., Sept-Oct 1937: as by "Robert Bloch-head."). Jokey two pager. Furious at multiple story rejections, Bloch kidnaps the editors of six fantasy publications (including Corwin F. Stinky, Leo Margulouse of Monstrous Yarns and Mort Weisenheimer of Awful and Putrid), packs them off to the moon in a home-made rocket. Rather than perish horribly, the six launch a new Sci-fi mag for the six-headed lunar folk. It outsells everything, ever. Mr. Bloch-head reaction to scoring so monumental an own goal is appropriately drastic.