|
|
| (7 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) |
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| − | by [[Redd Boggs]]
| + | #REDIRECT [[Spacewarp#The Purple Dawn]] [[Category:redirect]] |
| − | | + | [[Category:fanhistory]] |
| − | "Surprising, the things one finds in a spacewarp"! That was the observation printed in green ink on the cover of a [[fanzine]] that popped into various mailslots back in the spring of 1947. To illustrate this contention there was a jack-in-a-box [[BEM]] grinning from the three-color cover, but the truth of the statement became fully apparent when one thumbed through the [[fanzine]] and realized that, uniquely enough, the entire issue was painstakingly hand-lettered, rather than typed, and despite this handicap, was surprisingly interesting.
| |
| − | | |
| − | There have never been many hand-lettered [[fanzines]]; [[L. R. Chauvenet]]'s ''[[Detours]]'' (circa 1940) was perhaps the most famous example. And like ''[[Detours]]'' this new [[fanzine]] had an air about it, in the kinder connotations of that phrase. From the very beginning there was an impression that here was a newcomer that eventually must be reckoned with in the [[fanzine]] field.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''[[Spacewarp]]'' was of course the [[fanzine]] in question, and according to the ifc, it emanated from one [[Arthur H. Rapp]] of Saginaw, Mich., who was assisted by a staff consisting of [[Albert Warren]] and [[Gerald Dorman]]. Their offering consisted of eight half-legalsize pages, set up in semi-newspaper format, with three columns to a page and headlines and subheads at the top. "Any resemblance to other 'zines," remarked an item on page 3, headed FEN TRIO WARP SPACE, "is purely coincidental, since the staff has seen only two such objects in their collective life. ''Spacewarp'' is not published with any specific purpose, other than to promote interest in [[stf]], and to widen our circle of acquaintances in the field ... Right now we're experimenting with various types of articles and features trying to determine what will make the most interesting publication."
| |
| − | | |
| − | The editorial decision on this point for issue #1 centered -- as one might anticipate from an editor who has just recently contacted [[fandom]] -- on the [[prozine]] side of the field. The first [[Avon Fantasy Reader]] was reviewed; the " jettisoning" of [[Sgt. Saturn]] was hailed; and [[Al Warren]] picked his ten favorite fantasies. In addition, the first issue contained "Pillar of Fire", an editorial reprinted, according to a credit-line, from the ''Thursday Evening News'' for 20 March 1947. (The full story of this unique, but non-fan, periodical has at last been told in ''[[Wanigas]]'' #4, [[SAPSzine]] published by [[Rapp]].) "The Psycho Lab", an irregular feature of ''[[Spacewarp]]'', made its debut with Rapp himself as the subject. In this articlette Art revealed that he was born in [[Chicago]], 29 December 1924, discovered stf in 1942, served in the army 1943-47, and was planning to go to college after he caught up on his stf reading.
| |
| − | | |
| − | That this small, amateurish, though reasonably diverting, [[fanzine]] made much of an impression in [[fandom]] will be doubted by everyone who ever tried to launch a new fanzine. Still, the second issue (May '47) did not lack for reader comment or for contributors. Letters, or excerpts therefrom, from [[K. Martin Carlson]], [[Rod Palmer]], [[Tom Jewett]], [[Ben Singer]], and [[Wilkie Conner]] decorated the last page (typical comment: "get yourself a typewriter"), and articles by the two latter writers, as well as [[Marion Zimmer]] and [[Edwin Sigler]], appeared in the issue. The trend of the articles was toward discussion of favorite [[stf]] stories, a result of the [[Al Warren]] article in the first ''[[Warp]]''. However, [[Wilkie Conner]], who was destined to become one of the magazine's most regular contributors, inaugurated a new subject with his "[[Fantasy]] vs. [[Science Fiction]]," and [[Rapp]] himself wrote an excellent article on "The Fine Art of Titling". This issue also presented the first of [[Bob Stein]]'s famed hektopix, in which Bob merrily adopted the technique of splashing the ink on with a brush rather than the conventional pen. These rainbowish concoctions went well with the multicolored balance of ''[[Spacewarp]]'' and were a distinguishing feature of the magazine for many issues.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Issue #3 saw [[Rapp]] switching to a typewriter. Whether he hadn't used a [[typer]] before because he didn't own one or because he thought hand-lettering showed up better in [[hekto]] than typing is still a little unclear to this reviewer, but in any case the typer took over for good now, though freehand headings were still in vogue. By this time the magazine had grown to 24 pages (issue #2 had 20) and sported a number of controversial articles by [[Wilkie Conner]] and [[Ben Singer]] -- who had taken issue with the former's contention in ''[[Warp]]'' #2 that [[fantasy]] is superior to [[stf]] -- as well as poetry and fiction by Rapp and co-editor [[Bill Groover]]. (Parenthetically it should be noted that both [[Al Warren]] and [[Gerald Dorman]], original members of the Warpstaff, had by now completely disappeared from the masthead, being replaced in issue #2 by Groover. Both Warren and Dorman were, needless to say, figments of the [[Rapp]] imagination.)
| |
| − | | |
| − | Conner slugged back at [[Ben Singer]] in "In Self Defense" in the July 1947 issue, an article printed, in part, around a [[Bob Stein|Stein]] illustration which I submit is the best hektopic Bob ever did and one of the best I ever saw. Conner was actually the only ''[[Warp]]'' contributor of the day, and prolific article-writer that he was, he contributed several items to each issue. This time, his second article was "Why Wave Those Oldies?" Someone named [[Warren Lewis Blewett]] appeared with "Return, Spirit!" a prose poem, and in the Psycho Lab, Bob Stein revealed that "I am usually disappointed in my drawings. They're not outlandish looking enough."
| |
| − | | |
| − | Meanwhile, the newspaper format had almost disappeared, being reserved for editorial sections of the magazine. Virtually no trace of it remained in the 5th issue (August 1947), an issue which saw [[Jack Clements]], stormy petrel of ''[[Spacewarp]]'' for a brief time, make his bow. In "Is [[Kuttner]] Overrated?" Clements concluded that HanK was, and is, but his controversy-stirring effort supreme was still in the future. [[Hugh McInnis]], [[Guerry C. Brown]], and [[Robert Parris]] also made first appearances, as well as this writer, who contributed a poem "The Aliens" under a [[pename]], A learned air was assumed by ''[[Spacewarp]]'' that issue, and only temporarily, with the publication of "[[General Semantics]] and the Scientific Method" by [[Don Bratton]] -- though, through some misunderstanding the article was bylined [[Donn Brazier]].
| |
| − | | |
| − | During that summer, the [[Rapp]]-[[Groover]] team, having nothing at all to do except issue ''[[Spacewarp]]'' once a month, issued a 20-page one-shot titled ''[[Bembook]]''. Published only in an edition of 30 copies, this publication scarcely set [[fandom]] afire, but it was distinguished for two things (1) its lettersize format, as contrasted with the ''Warp'''s half-legalsize; and (2) its material, particularly two lively sketches featuring a character named [[Morgan Botts]], a beer-guzzling bum who had at one time, back in the 1950's and 60's, been a famous fan and editor. "The Man Who Murdered Fandom" and "Whiffingham's Revenge" were the titles of the first two [[Bottstories]] and presumably they either won unexpected favor with ''Bembook'' readers or else captured their creator's fancy, for Botts forthwith moved to ''Spacewarp''.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Anniversary", ''[[Warp]]'''s first [[Botts]] tale, appeared in the September 1947 issue, the other main feature of which was [[Robert Parris]]' "The Dome in the Desert" and [[Groover]]'s "Cosmic Invaders", though somewhere in the issue Groover urged "Let's Spread Some Propaganda!", echoing the ancient plaint of [[fans]] that [[stf]] didn't get a square deal from the people of the [[macrocosm]].
| |
| − | | |
| − | With the October issue (Vol. 2, No. 1) ''[[Spacewarp]]'' made a major change: it went lettersize. It retained a [[hekto]] mag, however, and retained the large freehand headings that were a feature of the smaller edition, as well as the colorful hektopix. [[Bob Stein|Stein]], however, had taken a rest with this issue, and a thoroughly unstefnal cover fronted the issue: a depiction of a cornshock and pumpkins, with an inset of a horse's head!
| |
| − | | |
| − | That was the issue that featured a debate on the merits of [[Lovecraft]] by [[Wilkie Conner]] ("[[Lovecraft]]: Phooey!") and [[Boggs]] ("[[Lovecraft]]: Hooray!), which had originated in a trading of comments by the participants through [[Rapp]]. [[Wilkie Conner|Conner]] and Boggs never did write more than about two or three letters to each other and did not consider the [[HPL]] question more than incidentally even then. Their collaboration, however, gained some fame by being reprinted some Issues later in ''[[Spacewarp]]'' and eventually winning a minor prize in the "[[The Club House|Clubhouse]]" [[fanzine]] contest.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Jack Clements burst out with "Dames!" in the same issue. Among the pronouncements made in this "starting gun for the biggest [[fan-feud]] since [[Shaver]]", as it was blurbed, was this: "Let it never be said that Evolution has no sense of humor. When it created man, it played one of the most stupendous jokes that has ever been made since time began. For when it created man, it also created woman .... Instead of making woman a rational, intelligent, clear-thinking being, it created one of the most childish and stupid creatures imaginable ...." [[JaClem]] declared that he had retired to an early bachelorhood, "having discovered at a youthful age that dames are pretty unnecessary, no matter what your biology teacher will tell you."
| |
| − | | |
| − | Since Clements has long since disappeared from the [[fan]] scene, I can reveal here for the first time that [[JaClem]] admitted to this reviewer in correspondence that he was in actuality not at all "anti-femme", and his "Dames!" was merely the early reaction to an unhappy affair (presumably of the puppy-love type) of some weeks previously. Reader reaction to his article was mostly predictable, except for [[Bill Groover]]'s satiric dig in the November issue, "Earth Patrol", a yarn blurbed on the contents page as about "nefarious events in [[Cincinnati]]."
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''[[Spacewarp]]'' went to bat for the budding author in that November issue, attacking the problem of how to crash the [[pros]] in two ways -- one being [[Wilkie Conner|Conner's]] accurate and informative "So You Want to Write [[Science Fiction]]", and the other being a [[Morgan Botts]] yarn, "How to Write [[Stf]]".
| |
| − | | |
| − | The final issue of 1947 saw several new names in the magazine, among them [[Al F. Lopez]], [[James A. Wade]], and [[Forrest J Ackerman]]. This reviewer must modestly admit that he was responsible for placing all three of these manuscripts with ''[[Warp]]'', though how and why I obtained the MSS originally is now obscure to me. The Lopez item, an extremely thoughtprovoking one titled "Experience With Telepathy", must have bounced around for quite a while, so long in fact that Lopez got tired of waiting for it to appear and decided to make another copy and send it elsewhere. At any rate, the same article appeared almost coincidentally in ''[[Necromancer]]''. Ackerman's article was a facetious account of an evening he spent "contacting" [[HPL]], [[Homer Eon Flint]], and [[A. Merritt]] via Ouija board.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Vol. 2, No. 4 January 1948, saw several innovations, not the least of which was the retrenching that was visible. Most of the issue was set up in [[nonstopparagraphing]], and the back page had become a combination contents page and mailing wrapper -- a move to save space in the magazine and thus reduce expenses. In contrast to previous issues of 22 and 24 pages, this number contained only 18 pages, including the back page. The ifc featured an editorial in which ''[[Spacewarp]]'' took cognizance of the bitter [[Ackerman-Graham feud]] then splitting [[fandom]] by stating that ''Warp'' would be sent to "[[The Club House]]" for review, but observing that "If [[RAP]] had deliberately set out to destroy [[fandom]], he would have been hardpressed to find a more effective way of doing so than the current actions of the more impulsive [[fen]]."
| |
| − | | |
| − | The first installment of "The Great [[STF]] Broadcast" also appeared in that January issue. The first [[fan]] [[round-robin]] ran through eight hectic installments before ending with the October issue. The authors of this strange blend of [[superscience]] and [[fannish]] humor were [[Bill Groover]], [[Wilkie Conner]], [[Bill Warren]], "[[Mario Stanza]]," [[Redd Boggs]], [[Wally Weber]], [[Paul D. Cox]], [[Radell Nelson]], and [[Jim Harmon]].
| |
| − | | |
| − | Jack Clements contributed the second, and as it turned out, the last installment of a column, "The Jackpot", he had inaugurated in the December issue. As one of the chief supporters of [[Roger P. Graham]] in the feud, [[JaClem]] had seen an advance copy of the first "[[The Club House|Clubhouse]]" column and in "The Jackpot" he waxed philosophical over the plight of the poor ''[[Amazing]]'' reader seeing [[RPG]]'s column for the first time.
| |
| − | | |
| − | It would happen this way, said Clements: The ''Amz'' reader glances at the "Observatory" and sees a statement by [[Palmer]] "inferring that no one in [[fandom]] knows who his father is. A few pages later, [[Rog Phullips|Phillips]] contradicts this by saying , 'Everyone in [[fandom]] knows who his father is, or at least has a pretty strong suspicion.' [The reader] turns again to the editorial. 'All fans are crazy!' screams [[RAP]]. Looking again at [[Rog Phillips|Phillips]]' column he finds that 'very few [[fen]] are crazy except for the insane ones.' The young [[fan]] sits for some moments in profound thought, then pulls the flush lever and jots down the following notes: RAP: 'All fans are sons of bitches.' [[RPG]]: 'There are some feminine fans.' RAP: 'Fans are filthy, dishonest, money-grubbing, yellow and uneducated.' RPG: 'A lie! Some fans have extensive educations.'" Clements concluded that [[Graham]] was secretly in the employ of [[Ackerman]].
| |
| − | | |
| − | In the February 1948 issue [[Roger P. Graham]] answered Clement's charges. Under the title "Graham Cracks!" he declared: "No kidding, fellows, I'm hurt. I thought he ([[JaClem]]) was my friend .... I can't understand why he would turn against me without warning, stab me in the back the way he did, hold me up to the derision of [[fandom]], casting doubts on my integrity -- implying that maybe, just maybe, I might be an honest guy. And after all the lies I've told, too!" He squelched the rumor that he was secretly in [[Ackerman]]'s employ: "That is the most dastardly, despicable, impossible, unseemly, unkind, absurd lie of all. Ackerman hasn't paid me a cent in the past six weeks, so I quit just before Christmas."
| |
| − | | |
| − | Also in the February issue was a [[Morgan Botts]] yarn -- the 12th, according to the blurb -- called "Vindication", [[Vaughan Greene]]'s yarn, "Star Dust", and [[Wally Weber]]'s revival of an old school newspaper standby, "Chemistry of a Kiss."
| |
| − | | |
| − | March 1948 saw ''[[Spacewarp]]'' winding up its first year. In an editorial titled "First Birthday" [[Rapp]] said: "There always have been, and probably always will be, better [[fanzines]] than ''[[Spacewarp]]''. We're not trying to put out the best zine in [[fandom]] -- we are trying to put out the kind of zine that we like to read. If your tastes happen to coincide with ours, that probably makes you happy; if not, well, maybe you find something to interest you in the ''Warp'' now and then, at least". No doubt the same editorial criterion still applies.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Truly in response to a popular demand" the [[Wilkie Conner|Conner]]-[[Boggs]] debate on [[Lovecraft]] was reprinted that issue; [[Guerry C. Brown]] reviewed ''Tales of the Undead''; and after 5 months' absence, the letter column, heretofore never an extremely strong feature, finally bowed in again, under the tentative title of "Mail and Femail".
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''[[Spacewarp]]'' began its second year by coming out in [[mimeographed]] form for the first time. "... paeans of praise," wrote [[Rapp]] in the first "Timber!" editorial, written for this April 1948 issue, "should be directed toward [[Ben Singer]] and the [[Detroit]] ex-Hyperboreans, who took pity on our deep [[purple]] woes and lent us their [[mimeo]]." Though the text was mimeographed, the cover was still [[hektoed]] and there was a request for more hektoed illustrations. In place of the colorful freehand headings were numerous rubber-stamped heads in bright red. A strange feature of ''[[Spacewarp]]'' in its new format was its use of hekto-paper, despite its discarding of that reproductive process. Though Art still defends this idea as a significant innovation, I incline to agree with [[Don Wilson]] who in the [[Fantasy Annual]] remarked that "mimeoing on hekto paper was not exactly as the ghods of publication would have intended it."
| |
| − | | |
| − | Despite the snitzy new format, the April ''[[Spacewarp]]'' was below par in contents, a [[Morgan Botts]] yarn, "Once in a Long Long Time", being almost the only item worthy of mention. May saw a slight improvement, mostly the result of [[Radell Nelson]]'s contribution, "A Fan Views [[Bradbury]]", a too-brief commentary that nevertheless contained such acute observations as this: "His [Bradbury's] underlying theme, it seems, is the interpretations of beauty through emotion. He has observed that when a person feels fear, his senses sharpen; he sees, hears, and thinks with a new vividness. Another writer can say 'Green music' and everybody laughs, but when, in 'The Coffin', Bradbury says it, you can hear the funeral organ playing"
| |
| − | | |
| − | Two little "idea stories" featured the June 1948 issue: [[Radell Nelson|Nelson's]] "The Story Teller" and [[Donn Brazier]]'s "Man of Imagination". The latter was a manuscript I rescued from the dusty files of [[John Gergen]]'s one-time fanzine ''[[Tycho]]'', where it had reposed unpublished during most of the war. In addition, [[Wrai Ballard]] presented "Perfection", which is a rather weird slant on the alien-life theme, and [[Vaughn Greene]] contributed "Secrets of [[Shaverism]]", an article distinguished by the fact that it was not "the usual partisan moaning, but a carefully documented research into the persons and source-books involved." Concluded [[y-aaughn Greene|Greene]]; after noting that [[RAP]] was well repaid for pulling the greatest [[hoax]] of modern times, "RAP is one fellow to watch -- anyone with his foresight and courage to take such a daring risk ... is to be commended, regardless of the moral issues" -- a more Machiavellian viewpoint than most [[fans]] have ever expressed on the subject.
| |
| − | | |
| − | The July 1948 [[issue]] was one of ''[[Spacewarp]]'''s very best. In it [[Rapp]] scooped even the fanewsies by presenting, less than a week after the event, an eight-page report on [[the Torcon]]. Despite its hasty composition, "[[Torcon Daze]]" was well enough written to rank among the best [[convention]] stories to appear. This was the report that told the whole story of [[Ben Singer|Singer]] and the Birthday Suit; Singer and the Explosive Telephone; Singer and the International Incident; and Singer and the Alum; as well as other items hardly about Singer at all. Squeezing into the issue, too, was a [[Bottstory]], "The Lost Chord."
| |
| − | | |
| − | In the August 1948 issue [[Rapp]] apologized to [[Shaver]]. Rapp had written Shaver, accusing him of having no sense of humor, but Shaver showed he did have one by putting Art on the mailing list of the [[Shaver Mystery]] Club. Otherwise, however, the issue was subpar. Singer and Conner continued to controverse about something or other, and [[Zoda P. Mishler]], a great correspondent friend of [[Charles Burbee]], kicked some [[Fortean]] data around in "Strange -- But True", but the spark wasn't there. Nor was the September 1948 issue much better, though [[Wilkie Conner]]'s H. P. Longhammer (who was just Horace Longhammer at this time) made his bow, and [[Ed Cox]] contributed a lively little yarn, "Dark Night". [[Andy Gregg]] interviewed the "Wizard of the Weird", [[August Derleth]], but missed a chance to write a distinctive article by merely rehashing everything already known about Sauk City's first citizen. But Andy was to redeem himself later.
| |
| − | | |
| − | An upswing in quality from its momentary slump was evident in ''[[Spacewarp]]'''s October 1948 issue, and it was not, I must reluctantly admit, entirely due to the debut in that issue of "File 13". For in that issue [[William James]]' "Eyes of Roger Akner" appeared, and for those who have read James' [[fanzine]] fiction, especially those yarns collected in ''Dark Wisdom and Other Tales'', that is recommendation enough. Though owing much to such greats as [[A. Merritt]] and [[H. P. Lovecraft]], James manages consistently to show himself a skilled craftsman even when working with much-used material.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Also in that issue was [[Hal Shapiro]]'s "The Beercon: Burp by Burb" in which Hal chronicled the epic trip of the [[Michifen]] to Milwaukee over the Labor Day weekend, 1948, for [[Bob Stein]]'s [[Beercon]]; and [[C. Stewart Metchette]]'s "Forgotten Pros", in which were listed a number of [[prozines]] that even [[Ackerman]] or [[Coslet]] cannot claim for their files -- such titles as ''Cataclysmic Cosmic Classics'', ''Gaaaaahhhhh Stories'', and ''Frankly Incredible Tales of Science''.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [[Rapp]] himself provided the headliner for the following issue, November 1948: "The Armchair [[Fortean]] Discusses Arson". This was an article on the then-current Fortean mystery at Macomb, Ill., where strange fires broke out in the home of Charles Wiley despite vigilance of a deputy fire marshal and an insurance investigator. Using [[Fort]]'s theories, Rapp was able to predict the outcome of this singular affair, and though ''[[Fate]]'' was not interested in it when it was submitted there, this article was one of the best ever to appear in ''[[Spacewarp]]''. Also featured in the issue was [[T. E. Watkins]]' "Flickering Future", the first ''Warp'' contribution, I believe, of this [[fan]] writer who usually manages to write about subjects nobody else ever thought of, or else finds distinctly new slants on old subjects.
| |
| − | | |
| − | The December 1948 issue had 32 pages into which were crammed such items as [[Marion Zimmer]]'s "Outpost", a little yarn that won first prize in the [[Rog Phillips]]' "[[The Club House|Clubhouse]]" [[fanzine]] contest; [[William James]]' "Dark Wisdom"; and two sterling articles, "Tastes and Phobias" by [[Norman Ashfield]], and "The Romance of Alchemy" by [[Arthur Jean Cox]] -- this latter a two-parter, the second half of which appeared in the January 1949 issue.
| |
| − | | |
| − | December's "Timber!" editorial announced that, beginning with the first 1949 issue, ''[[Spacewarp]]'' would merge with ''[[Universe]]'', a [[fanzine]] edited and published by [[Radell Nelson]]. ''[[Spacewarp]]'' in its [[mimeographed]] form had been duplicated on a borrowed machine which at year's end had to be returned to the owners, leaving [[Rapp]] without a duplicator. Under the new merger, [[Rapp]] was to cut stencils for ''[[Spacewarp-Universe]]'', and Nelson was to run them off. Despite these plans however, the January 1949 did not appear on time -- the first issue in ''[[Warp]]'' history up to then not to pop into mailboxes in the month it was dated. For several months it seemed that ''[[Warp]]'' had gone the way of all good fanzines. Nelson had decided that he was unable to [[mimeograph]] the combined magazine.
| |
| − | | |
| − | In March plans were altered, and the stencils for the January issue were sent to [[George Young]], who managed to run them off. But in the meantime the subscription list had been lost, and many a paid-up subscriber -- even at least one contributor, namely, this writer -- did not receive a copy. Since the stencils were destroyed after being run off, this issue has become one of ''[[Spacewarp]]'''s rarest.
| |
| − | | |
| − | The "Timber!" editorial in that issue was followed by a page of explanation regarding the delay in publication, and it was announced that henceforth ''Spacewarp'' would be bi-monthly, and would return to its old monthly schedule only "when I have (1) a [[mimeo]], (2) time". Among the manuscripts presented in that issue were [[Radell Nelson]]'s puzzling but expert fantasy, "The Fall of the City", [[T. E. Watkins]]' "Fortune Tellers of Calcutta", and "The Great [[Stf]] Broadcast". Another round-robin serial, "SBA!" featured most of the same characters, except [[JaClem]], but were more expertly plotted and better written. Except for a few lapses, it managed to retain interest throughout its ten installments. Writers of this interplanetary saga were [[Art Rapp]], Art Rapp, [[Redd Boggs]], [[William James]], [[Bill Warren]], Art Rapp (who assumed authorship of the installment after the real writer thereof complained at the editing done on it), [[Ed Cox]], Art Rapp, Art Rapp, and Art Rapp.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <ref> This is one of the advantages of publishing your own fanzine. --ahr </ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | Before the next ''[[Spacewarp]]'' appeared, new and significant developments occurred behind the scenes. [[Rapp]] "pawned his portable timewarper" and purchased the small Montgomery Ward mimeograph I had used for a year, publishing ''[[Tympani]]'' and the first three issues of ''[[Sky Hook]]'', before purchasing a new Speedoprint and banishing it to the basement. With a machine of his own, Rapp decided to make ''Spacewarp'' a monthly again, and rather than skip any months -- though now it was mid-May -- he would get back on schedule by issuing ''Spacewarp'' at less than monthly intervals till he caught up. This he proceeded to do, much to the consternation of regular contributors who had to meet a new deadline every few weeks, but much to the gleeful satisfaction of regular readers.
| |
| − | | |
| − | The February 1949 issue was fronted by a distinct innovation in the art of [[fanzine]] illustrating: A combination [[mimeo]]-[[hekto]] picture. Though this first attempt moved one [[fan]] to comment that it resembled an outline picture a four-year-old had tried to col or with a box of water paints, the mimeo-hekto technique became perfected and resulted in such outstanding covers as those on the April and May 1949 issues, as well as [[Ray Nelson]]'s two classics -- those on the August 1949 issue and the Third [[Ann-Ish]].
| |
| − | | |
| − | [[Andy Gregg]] visited [[Providence, RI]], and told of his trip in that February issue. In describing this [[Lovecraft]] locale, he wrote: "Providence hasn't been the same in the eleven years since H. P. Lovecraft died. Since 1937 there have been civic improvements, housing projects, and a general deterioration in those weird and mystic places that made him love the city. True, Poe Street, Benefit Street and the others are still there, but the older houses are going fast, and there is a movement to rip down the Portuguese section of Benefit Street for a new housing project ..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | "What Far World?" was another [[William James]] tale; this came in the March 1949 issue. In the same number was an "editorial" by [[Wilkie Conner]], "The American Way", in which he called for tolerance in [[fandom]]: "Don't kick your neighbor out because his sex is different from yours, or because he is more intelligent than you. Argue with him, feud with him, but keep it clean! Keep it American!" The April 1949 issue was a bit sub-par, except for [[T. E. Watkins]]' "Decline of the [[Pulps]]", which was well done despite the fact that its conclusions do not agree with recent events that have found nearly 20 [[stf]] pulps reposing on sagging newsstands. In the April issue, [[Bill Warren]]'s humorous verse, "Archie" should also be mentioned.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Problem in Ornithology" by [[Andy Gregg]] was the important item in the May 1949 number. This must be read to be appreciated, and I still don't know just how much basis in fact this startling anecdote had, but it is undoubtedly one of the most a musing things ever to appear in ''[[Warp]]''. ''The Best From Spacewarp'' (published 1960) will automatically include this article, or story.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Two other candidates for The Best From ''Spacewarp'' came along in the following issue (June 1949): [[Stewart Metchette]]'s scholarly "The Weapon Shops of Isher: An Explanation" and [[Art Rapp]]'s "Introduction to [[Roscoism]]", transcribed from a collection of birch bark scrolls found in a hollow tree by a punch drunk lumberjack named Bjornsen, or Cornwallis. These portions of the Sacred Writings dealt with "Roscoe, the Good Beaver, and with Oscar, the Evil Muskrat , who is constantly palming himself off on this gullible herd as a beaver." [[Ed Cox]] contributed "Symptoms", a yarn based on a rather old idea, but very amusingly presented.
| |
| − | | |
| − | H. P. Longhammer returned in July in another yarn by [[Wilkie Conner]], and [[Dan Mulcahy]], in "Vicious Circle", decided that [[fandom]] is becoming more decentralized and that [[Joe Phann]] is becoming isolationist. Dan forsees the day, he claims, when the [[NFFF]] "will have gone to wherever old [[fan]] clubs go to die, and the [[FAPA]] will be as much a memory as the [[SFL]]; a day when there will be no national convention, but merely an endless procession of Beercons and Whitcons; a day when the [[Insurgent Element]] will have rejoined the [[LASFS]] from sheer boredom, or moved across the border en masse to set up the Baja California SFS ..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | Further revelations of [[Roscoe]] in the August 1949 issue contained such highly important pages as the following: "... when Roscoe thwacks the water with his tail on Judgment Morn, the [[fen]] who sneer at beavers will wish they had not been born, for such heathen will be punished then as promptly as can be: they'll float downstream to Oscar, who will CHEW ON THEM with glee ...." In the same issue was a review of [[Joe Kennedy]]'s [[fan]]-collection, No Greater Dream, and [[Warren Baldwin]]'s unusual excursion into philosophy, namely predestination, in "Pitiful Puppets." Not the least of this issue's attractions, though, was [[Ray Nelson]]'s cover, the significance of which strikes one belatedly -- but strongly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''[[Spacewarp]]'' wound up its fifth volume (September 1949) with [[Cinvention]] coverage by [[Rapp]], "Vas Ve Effer in [[Cincinnati]]?" Though not as good as "[[Torcon Daze]]" and not as prompt in appearing -- at least in these parts -- it was a solid and informative report on what went on, formally and informally, at Cincinnati over the 1949 Labor Day weekend. In the same issue was the first [[Morgan Botts]] story in a beaver's age, "Machiavelli" in which the fabulous Botts revealed that certain famous [[fans]] of the 1940s and '50's, namely [[Sneary]], [[Boggs]], [[Ackerman]], [[Cox]], [[Moskowitz]], [[Rapp]], and [[Joe Kennedy|Kennedy]], had been mere stooges for [[fan]]-dictator Botts, ... all but one of them, that is. This writer can reveal here that he is the only independent on that list.
| |
| − | | |
| − | <ref> A likely story indeed! -- ahr </ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | The longest fictional item ever to appear in ''[[Spacewarp]]'' came in the October 1949 issue. It was [[L. T. George]]'s "The Rumor", which occupied more than eight pages in the issue, -- eight pages which were not wasted, incidentally, for though some trimming here and there would have sharpened the yarn it was a good quality fan-story as it stood. "Quien Sabe?" was a warm place in that issue, and others of that period, with several controversies going on anent atheism in [[fandom]] and use of Anglo-Saxon terms in polite society. A character named the "[[Stf]] Weirdist" had also shown up to challenge some remarks made in "File 13". More of this person will be heard in future ''Spacewarp'' issues.
| |
| − | | |
| − | [[Charles Stuart]] discussed "The Road to Stellar Empire" in the November issue, and [[T. E. Watkins]] reviewed [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''. To celebrate the holidays, the following issue was a 40-page affair, accompanied by a supplement, The ''Spacewarp'' Index, which itself ran 22 pages, or the equivalent, almost, of an ordinary issue of ''Spacewarp'' .
| |
| − | | |
| − | There were many unusual items in that December 49 issue, including [[Warren Baldwin]]'s "One of Us Must Die", which was [[fan]] [[science fiction]]; [[Herman Stowell King]]'s "Starvation", [[Hal Shapiro]]'s "The Bloodless One" and [[Charles L. Hames]]' "The Corpse", all weird tales; and numberless other fictional items. Some of these were humorous -- [[Lyon de Coeur]]'s "Lost In [[Lovecraft]] Land", "H. P. Longhammer and the Frivolous Witch", by [[Wilkie Conner|Conner]], and the last installment of "[[Stf]] Broadcasts Again!" -- or allegedly so.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Among the articles were [[Warren Baldwin|Baldwin's]] "A return to the Old Ideas", [[T. E. Watkins|Watkins']] "Super What?", and [[Edco]]'s slightly wacky "How to Write an Article".
| |
| − | | |
| − | Since most of you have seen the last three issues of ''[[Spacewarp]]'' , I will just mention that since the dawn of 1950 this magazine has published such worthy items as Conner's exclusive article, "Have the Venusians Landed?"; [[Joe Kennedy]]'s review of ''The Homunculus'', [[Ed Cox]]'s "Is Science Catching Up With [[Science Fiction]]?" and [[Warren Baldwin]]'s "Will Spaceships Outrace Light?" It has also introduced three new columns, [[T. E. Watkins]]' "Kan Kan Kabitzer", [[Wilkie Conner]]'s "Konner's Korner", and of course [[F. Towner Laney]]'s old Vampire feature, "Fanzine Scope".
| |
| − | | |
| − | So this has been a review of 36 issues of ''[[Spacewarp]]'' , now one of the oldest subscription fanzines extant, and certainly one of the most interesting. I hope it will be around long enough for me to write a review of its next 36 issues, in 1953.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Unfortunately, this review has not been able to deal with other manifestations of that man [[Rapp]]'s fannish yearning for expression and/or egoboo -- ''[[Postwarp]]'', various one-shots he has published, the leaflets and flyers he has from time to time issued, and the many [[SAPS]] and [[FAPA]] mags he shoves into every mailing of late. Since Rapp publishes all these magazines, and ''Spacewarp'' , in addition to various publications run off for other people, all on a dinky, one-sheet-at-a-time [[mimeograph]], which cost $19.75 when new, Arthur H. Rapp must be reckoned one of the seven wonders of the [[fan]] world.
| |
| − | | |
| − | All this lends a point to a nightmare I had the other night. I dreamed that the Postmaster-General burst into the office of whoever chairmans whatever congressional committee is in charge of the postal department, and shrieked, "Senator, you've got to raise postal rates on mimeographed matter!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Why?" asked the committee chairman.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "You've got to save thousands of postmen all over the country from a fate worse than mad bulldogs! I've just got word from Saginaw, Michigan. [[Art Rapp]] has just bought an electric, automatic [[mimeograph]]!"
| |
| − | <ref> This seems like the appropriate place to announce that Saginaw fan [[Ralph Fluette]] is negotiating for the purchase of an electric automatic mimeograph. Plans for an intensified publishing program by Saginaw [[fandom]] are well under way. </ref>
| |
| − | | |
| − | THE END
| |
| − | | |
| − | <references />
| |
| − | {{publication}}
| |
| − | [[Category:fanzine]] | |
| − | [[Category:US]] | |
