The Acolyte

“Cthulhu” by Alva Rogers, cover art for The Acolyte 9 (Winter 1945). Heritage Auctions sold the original ink drawing on April 25, 2023, for $25,000.

Fanzine published by Francis T. Laney and Samuel D. Russell (Duane W. Rimel, F. Lee Baldwin, and Harold Wakefield were contributing editors). They published 14 issues from 1942–46.

The Acolyte focused on articles about fantasy, with an emphasis on H. P. Lovecraft and the Lovecraft Circle. The first two issues were hectographed; the remainder were mimeographed.

(Laney's essay, "The Cthulhu Mythology: A Glossary", which was published in the Winter 1942 issue of The Acolyte, was expanded at the request of August Derleth and became part of the 1943 Arkham House Lovecraft anthology Beyond the Wall of Sleep.)

Awards and Honors

• In 2018, it was nominated for the 1946 Best Fanzine Retro Hugo, but lost to Forrest J Ackerman's Voice of the Imagi-Nation.

Issue	Date	Pages	Notes
1	Fall 1942	28
2	Winter 1942	40
3	Spring 1943	32
4	Summer 1943	32
5 V2.1	Fall 1943	36
6 V2.2	Spring 1944	32
7 V2.3	Summer 1944	32
8 V2.4	Fall 1944	30
9 V3.1	Winter 1945	30
10 V3.2	Spring 1945	34
11 V3.3	Summer 1945	33
12 V3.4	Fall 1945	34
13 V4.1	Winter 1946	32
14 V4.2	Spring 1946	34	Final issue

• The Acolyte online at fanac.org.

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Publication

1942—1946

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