Archie Mercer's Guide to the 1966 World Convention
Archie Mercer's Guide to the 1966 World Convention may be a 2-page one-shot fanzine published by Archie Mercer in Bristol, UK in August 1965 (probably ). Its existence is only attested by its appearance in the British Fanzine Bibliography, specifically part 3 of the print edition produced in June 1979.
It may instead be Archie Mercer's Guide to the 1965 World Convention because the mathematically inclined reader will likely have noticed an apparent disconnect between the title of the publication and the date on which it was purportedly published. Nevertheless, '1966' is what the bibliography says. While it is likely that the fanzine is a guide to Loncon II, the 1965 Worldcon, absent a copy – and none are known to exist in the major fanzine collections in the UK – there are at least five interpretations for what is going on here:
- The title is really Archie Mercer's Guide to the 1965 World Convention and there is a typo in the bibliography.
- The title does say Archie Mercer's Guide to the 1966 World Convention and there is a typo in the title that is replicated in the bibliography.
- The title is intentionally Archie Mercer's Guide to the 1966 World Convention and there is a typo in the publication date in the bibliography. We will set aside why somebody in Bristol, UK would be writing a guide to a convention in Cleveland, Ohio that he did not attend.
- The title similarly really is Archie Mercer's Guide to the 1966 World Convention and the publication itself has a typo in its publication date that is replicated in the bibliography. See also 4.
- Everything is entirely correct: it is Archie Mercer's Guide to the 1966 World Convention published in August 1965 and it is some fanciful speculative guide to Tricon, the 1966 Worldcon, written in August 1965, perhaps imagining the 1966 fans zapping about with their jetpacks and other manifestations of life in The Future.
In considering the first four options and whether the error is more likely to lie with the compiler of the bibliography or the author of the fanzine, we may wish to note that one of these people once set an OMPA deadline of 31 April.
It's true that some of these interpretations are more likely than others but we are fans with broad mental horizons. Further, we have not given up hope that a copy will be found, rendering all this speculation moot.
| Publication | 1965 |
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