Ensmalled Fanzines

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As the cost differential between Third and First Class mail in the U.S. narrowed and eventually disappeared, large (24pp+) and regular (bimonthly/monthly/biweekly) dead tree fanzines generally became a thing of the past. With few exceptions, large fanzines with an editorial, contributions of articles, columns, essays and/or fiction and a lettercolumn fell to publishing schedules of quarterly at best, which reduced their sense of immediacy. Small "personal" editor-written fanzines could be published more frequently, but lacked a fanzine's usual sense of participation on the part of its readers. Enter the "ensmalled" fanzine, in which the editors put an editorial, a couple of short articles or columns plus a lettercolumn into no more than 8pp. This could be mailed at the same rate as a first class letter. Fast & Loose, Pong, Izzard, Wiz, Apparatchik and Squib were some of the better titles and marked the line of non-APAleptic succession, for all that it appears to have died out in recent years.


Publishing