Tightbeam

Tightbeam (originally called Hyperspace Tightbeam) is the letterzine/genzine of the N3F. The name was chosen to describe the reason for the zine's original reason for being - that of serving as a medium for inter-member communication.

History

According to N3F records, in 1949, Art Rapp, the editor of Spacewarp, decided to put out a letterzine for the N3F, because the TNFF was limited only to being a clubzine. He called the new zine Postwarp. This was available by subscription, at 10 cents a copy (the usual price in those days), which paid for itself.

It contained letters of comment on all subjects, but mainly discussed the N3F. By not being official, writers felt free to criticize the N3F (this continues to this day, even when edited by the President). When Art left, others took up Postwarp, with varying success, continuing until 1960, when Alan J. Lewis (not to be confused with Albert J. Lewis) became editor and had problems so that Postwarp did not appear regularly or on time.

By then, the zine was financed by the N3F, and the officers, understandably, wanted it to appear before they paid for it. Lewis, on the other hand, could not promise anything and claimed he needed the money in advance. This impasse went on for some time, and caused various new rules to be made, to no avail, so they decided to go around the delinquent editor by doing another letterzine, letting him delay Postwarp as long as he pleased. So, in a sense, Postwarp and Tightbeam were not related.

Walter Coslet volunteered to do the first issue, and named it Hyperspace Tightbeam. The N3F records apparently claim that Art Hayes edited the second issue, but that issue credits Robert N. Lambeck as the editor, and the editorial was written by him. That issue does contain a letter by Hayes, but with no indication of any connection with Tightbeam (although he does say that he's considering editing a future Postwarp.) Marion Zimmer Bradley edited the third issue, and renamed it Tightbeam. So the first few editors rotated, setting a precedent, though sometimes it was more efficient to have a semi-permanent editor, who could control the contents of the issue to fit the pages allowed.

Editors

Year	Editor(s)
1960	Walter Coslet, Robert Lambeck, Marion Zimmer Bradley
1961	Art Hayes
1962	Don Anderson
1963	Dave Hulan, Lee Riddle, G. M. Carr, Gary Labowitz
1964	Stan Woolston, Norman C. Metcalf (Lee Riddle, stand-by editor)
1965	Norm Metcalf, Duncan McFarland, Art Hayes, G. M. Carr, Cindy Heap
1966	Stan Woolston, Bill Bruce, Jim Schumacher, Greg Shaw, Bill Mallardi
1967	Fred Hypes, John Jusske
1968	Janie Lamb
1968 - 1970	Gary Labowitz
1971	Frank Denton, Chuck Ruthford
1972 - 1973	Joe Siclari
1974 - 1975	Beth Slick
1976	Lynne Holdom, Joanne Burger served as a temporary editor
1977	John Robinson (publisher/also editor for some issues in the late 70s?)
1978 - 1981	Lynne Holdom
1984 - 1985	Owen K. Laurion
1986	Owen K. Laurion, Sally Syrjala
1987	Sally Syrjala, Lynne Holdom
1988	Lynne Holdom
1989	Lynne Holdom, Ingrid Maack
1990 - 1991	Catherine Mintz, Diane Miller
1992	Catherine Mintz
1993	Catherine Mintz, Diane Miller
1994 - 1996	Diane Miller, Janine Stinson
1997 - 2002	Janine Stinson
2003	Janine Stinson, Ruth R. Davidson
2004	Bob Sabella, Ruth R. Davidson
2005	Bob Sabella, Jeffrey Redmond, Chris Garcia, Ruth R. Davidson
2006	Ruth R. Davidson, Jeffrey Redmond, Chris Garcia, Janine Stinson
2007	Janine Stinson, Jeffrey Redmond, Ruth R. Davidson
2008	Ruth R. Davidson, Heath Row
2009 - 2011	Heath Row
2012 - 2016	David Speakman
2016 - 2018	Bob Jennings
2018 -	George Phillies, Jon D. Swartz

Issues

Tightbeam was merged into The National Fantasy Fan as a letter column, and later as an included section from 2001 - 2012.

Some details on individual issues (this section is under development). Page counts include covers, except when the back cover is blank. In general, issues have been released every other month, and you can probably safely interpolate dates of issues from that, but we list only those dates we have been able to confirm.

Issue	Date	Pages	Editor	Notes
1	May 1960	16	Walter Coslet	Titled "Hyperspace Tightbeam". Cover by Ray Nelson
2	July 1960	26	Robert Lambeck	Titled "Hyperspace Tightbeam".
3	Sept. 1960	24	Marion Zimmer Bradley	Becomes "Tightbeam".
4	Oct. 1960	31	Art Hayes	This issue was published a month early, and longer than usual, because of extended discussion over the expulsion of a member of N3F.
5	Jan. 1961	14	Bruce Henstell	The issue is undated, but was scheduled for January and says it "should get to you in early January". Cover by Jack Harness.
6	March 1961		Stan Woolston	The issue was scheduled for 3/1961, and had a submission deadline in March.
7	May 1961	18	Al Lewis	The issue is undated, but was scheduled for 5/1961. The cover appears to have been drawn by Joni Cornell and stencilled by Bjo Trimble.
8	July 1961	28	Ed Meskys	The issue was scheduled for 7/1961, with a submission deadline of 6/19/61.
9	Sept. 1961	22	Ed Bryant	Probable date; none listed.
10	Nov. 1961	28	Art Hayes	No date officially listed, but this is the schedule, and says it includes letters received by Nov. 3rd.
11	Jan. 1962	22	Albert Lewis	Probable date. Editor's comments are dated Dec. 27, 1961
16	Nov. 1962	28	Art Hayes	Date known; consistent with the intended bi-monthly schedule with respect to earlier issues.
17	January 1963	29	Lee Riddle
18	March 1963		Bill Mallardi & William Bowers
19	1963		Dave Hulan
20	July 1963	20
23			Ed Meskys
29	January 1965	32	Stan Woolston
30			Norm Metcalf
34	November 1965	14	Cindy Heap	This issue is incorrectly dated as Nov. 1964
35	January 1966	18	Bill Mallardi
36			Greg Shaw
38	July 1966	24	Bill Bruce	Cover by Rick Norwood
44	July 1967		Jack C. Haldeman
46	November 1967		Don Miller
47	January 1968		Don Miller
	November 1968		Janie Lamb
48			Gary Labowitz
49			Gary Labowitz
50			Gary Labowitz
51			Gary Labowitz
52			Gary Labowitz
53			Gary Labowitz
54			Gary Labowitz
55	March 1969	15	Gary Labowitz
56	May 1969		Gary Labowitz
57			Gary Labowitz
58			Gary Labowitz
59			Gary Labowitz
60			Gary Labowitz
131	April 1984		Owen Laurion
143			Sally Syrjala
144	July 1986		Sally Syrjala
145	September 1986		Sally Syrjala
146			Sally Syrjala
327	2021		George Phillies, Jon D. Swartz	Featured fan art; a lettercolumn; anime, comic book, and movie reviews; a bio-bibliography of Philip José Farmer, and recipes.

• Tightbeam online at fanac.org
• Website.

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Publication

1960—

This is a publication page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was published, how many issues it has had, (including adding a partial or complete checklist), its contents (including perhaps a ToC listing), its size and repro method, regular columnists, its impact on fandom, or by adding scans or links to scans. See Standards for Publications.