Yum
(Did you mean Yum!, a 1980s UK fanzine from Saul H. Bura?)
Yum was a Christmas Card by John Roles distributed to members of OMPA and others. The first was Yum, the second Yum Yum and so on, enabling Roles to claim in the third issue, 'Every issue yummier yet.'
It's unclear whether they were actually distributed with OMPA or mailed separately to OMPAns. Yum and its successors are not noted in APAthy where it's said explicitly that 'Items such as Christmas Cards, Underground Maps or TAFF voting forms have been omitted.' That does imply that at least one Christmas card was distributed with OMPA but we don't know for sure whether this was it. A comment on a copy of #5 (Addressed to 'Daphne', Roles has added 'see? I've got the address right this time!') implies that that one at least was distributed externally.
In 'A Brief History of OMPA' in APAthy, Vin¢ Clarke said:
It had been thought that the small circulation would give members scope to experiment with various duplicating and artistic techniques on a suitable scale, but only John Roles really took advantage of this with a series of experimental covers and the never-to-be-forgotten edible Christmas Card of the first year.
This is presumably Yum and one might assume that no 'copies' have survived, but remarkably one has found its way into the collection of Rob Hansen. Its edibility comes by virtue of being printed on rice paper and so unsurprisingly the copy is in poor condition. The feature wasn't continued for subsequent issues and #3 carries a warning on its cover that 'This issue not to be taken internally.'
There were at least five iterations and there may have been more.
How to categorise it within Fancyclopedia 3 is a challenge. The entry on Christmas Cards is classed as 'Publishing' and it was printed on paper and so it is a publication, but is it a fanzine? The edible nature of the the first presumably qualifies it for the category 'Food'.
| Issue | Date | Pages | -Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | December 1954 | 2 | Printed on rice paper and thus theoretically edible |
| 2 | December 1955 | 12 | called Yum Yum |
| 3 | December 1956 | 16 | called Yum Yum Yum |
| 4 | December 1957 | 3 | called Yum Yum Yum Yum |
| 5 | December 1958 | 8 | called Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum |
- Yum online at fanac.org.
| Publishing | 1954—1958 |
