Scanning the past

[randy_byers]

I'm scanning articles from Apparatchik for a friend. It's fascinating to see it evolve issue by issue, of course, but what's strange is how much it already feels like a different era now. Looking at Andy's fanzine review columns, it seems like a lot more people tried their hands at fanzines even then, even if only fleetingly. On the other hand, it's not only fascinating to watch Apak itself evolve, but fandom too. A solo zine by Mike Scott? Ah, this is pre-Plokta.

Comments

[frostfox.livejournal.com]

Before Mike got assimilated by the Plokta Hive Mind (tm) and became Dr Plokta (tm Marvel).

FF

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Mild-mannered? Check. Superhero? Check.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Well, look what I just found in issue 72:

[kim-huett.livejournal.com]

That should give you some idea then of how I feel as I comprehensively catalogue my collection. The cast of characters from the last 70+ years is bigger than Ben Hur.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

You're a braver man than I. Although it would be fun to get Ben Hecht's take on fandom.

[kim-huett.livejournal.com]

Well the thing is this project is the sort that can be tackled in very small increments whenever I'm in the mood so it doesn't have to feel like scaling a mountain. This is also helped by the fact that the completed section will be useful long before I get anywhere near to completing this task.

Why in particular Ben Hecht?

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Oops, I mistakenly thought that Hecht wrote the novel, Ben Hur. Oh well, Hecht was an interesting writer in his own right.

And what you say about doing the project in pieces is very true. Whatever amount of work you get done on it will be useful.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

I'm scanning articles from Apparatchik for a friend.

For which I'm most grateful.

On the other hand, it's not only fascinating to watch Apak itself evolve, but fandom too. A solo zine by Mike Scott?

That would be Zorn, one of the wave of "ensmalled" fanzines, mentioned way back in my very first "Fannish Memory Syndrome" column (which, thanks to its resurrection in The Drink Tank, is now my second-longest-running fannish project, having made its debut the month after Critical Wave).

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was an issue of Zorn that Andy reviewed. That was before I was paying much attention to fanzines myself, except the ones that friends in Seattle were doing.