APA-L

APA-L, based in Los Angeles, is one of the few weekly apae extant, and one of a not very much larger group of local apas. It was founded in 1964 and as of 2024 was still active with over nearly 3000(!!) mailings.

Inspired by APA-F (the first weekly fan APA, put out in New York), Bruce Pelz felt that a weekly APA should be collated at LASFS meetings (though APA-L is not officially a part of LASFS). With the help of his then-wife, Dian (who became the first Official Collator of the APA). and several other local members, APA-L started its weekly run with its first disty on October 22, 1964. As of the beginning of 2015, APA-L had produced just under 2,600 distributions.

Lenny Bailes remembered that when APA-L was started, Dian Pelz stated that it was for LASFS members only, but Redd Boggs and Tom Gilbert decided to pull off a coup. Gilbert wrote to several APA-F members including Dave Van Arnam, Pat Lupoff, Dick Lupoff, Rich Mann, and Bailes. He told them about the creation of APA-L, invited them to send in LASFS dues that he would present to the sec-treasurer and submit contributions. As Bailes remembered it, they did this for the first or second "disty" of APA-L and dumbfounded Bruce and Dian.

Marty Cantor was OC as of 2022.

Most APAs call the bundles they produce "mailings". Even though APA-L usually has out-of-area contributors, some even outside of the US, most contributors are LASFS attendees and pick up their copies right after collation. Therefore, instead of "mailings," APA-Lers call the collated APA issues "distributions". It is usually shortened to "disty".

At one point, the APA ceased production for a period of about 11 weeks. However, once it recommenced distribution, there have been no further gaps in its production. There have been a few of what have been called "Fractional distributions" along the way (e.g., APA-L #30.5). In at least one case, this was done so that a certain contributor would break his string of contributing to each distribution. He managed to hear about it and contribute a zine to that distribution, anyway.

The period in 1972 when APA-L was invaded by large numbers of crudzines is known as the Crud Crisis.

Of considerable note is APA-L contributor Fred Patten, who had a zine in each and every distribution of APA-L even after sufffering a stroke, able to move only his left leg and left arm. It had been said that if Fred ever stopped producing a zine for APA-L, the world would come to an end. (He did stop after disty 2680, but APA-L (and the world) went on!) He also published The Best from APA-L.

APA-L's previous Official Collator Tim Merrigan put in more than 18 years at that job. When APA-L and APA-F were at their height, Dave Van Arnam was publishing four weekly fanzines -– two for APA-F and two for APA-L–some of them 20pp or more in length.

• LASFS 40th / Apa-L 10th Anniversary issue of Prehensile (1974).
• "APA-L" by Lee Gold.

Mailings	Dates	OE
1 -- ??	October 1964 -- ??	Dian Pelz
172-175 (at least)	1968	Marty Cantor
?? - ??	?? -- ??	Tim Merrigan
Late 500s	?? -- ??	Marty Cantor
800 -- 824	?? -- ??	Marty Cantor
?? -- ??	2001 -- ??	Marty Cantor
?? -- ??		Heath Row

• APA-L Official Organ online at fanac.org

Members and Apazines:

• Dan Alderson -- O (Alderson), The Wereld Schemering Weekly Wombat
• Alpajpuri -- Djinn
• Lenny Bailes -- IPZIK!
• Ruth Berman -- Roquat
• Bob Bernacky -- ReCaLcItRaNt PlEbNeY
• Bill Blackbeard -- A Patch of Grem Lichan
• Redd Boggs -- Spirochete
• Stan Burns -- Conversations With a Pregnant Donut Lady
• Marty Cantor --
• Phil Castora -- Voices from a Hot Water Bottle
• Dan Deckert -- Entropy
• Tom Digby -- Probably Something
• Dick Eney --
• Jay Freeman -- The Why and the Wherefore
• Don Fitch -- From Sunday to Saturday
• Jay Freeman -- Square Root of Serendipity
• Bob Geisenhainer -- Grøtch
• Tom Gilbert -- Carcasilla
• Mike Glyer -- Galactic Jive Tales
• Barry Gold -- Mallorn Leaf, 1811
• Dan Goodman --
• Ed Green -- Knight of the Pens
• Hilda Hannifen -- Mockturtle
• Jack Harness -- The Gallant Gallstone
• Marty Helgesen --
• John Hertz -- Vanamonde, The Cowbird of Wonder
• Fref Hollander -- Der Hollander
• Dave Hulan -- Niddhoggr
• Katya Hulan -- The Outside World
• Ted Johnstone -- B-roll Negative
• Dwain Kaiser -- The House of the Games
• Jim Keith -- Galoot
• Mike Klassen -- Fafiation
• Betty Knight -- The Speckled Rabbit Speaketh
• Al Lewis -- A Statement of Posture, Why Not, The House without a Name
• Jim Lucas -- Lakh Luch
• Dick Lupoff -- OSO, OPOSO, OPO
• Pat Lupoff -- OPO
• Richard Mann -- Deception, Hombren
• Mike McInerney -- Barricini
• Ed Meskys -- Mayhem Annex
• June Moffatt -- De Jueves
• Patrick Nielsen Hayden -- Sing Ye Now the Praises of CorFlu
• Marilyn Niven -- Fuzzily
• Ulrika O'Brien --
• Fred Patten -- Rábanos Radiactivos!, A Fanzine for Jack Harness
• Bruce Pelz -- HET BPEMЯ, LASFuss
• Dian Pelz -- LASFuss
• Andy Porter -- A Fanzine for Fred Whitledge
• Felice, Rolfe -- Mayhem Annex
• Terry Romine -- 'At's A;ll 'He 'Rote
• Bill Rotsler -- Masque
• Heath Row -- Telegraphs & Tar Pits
• Jan Ryan --
• John Ryan --
• Gretchen Schwenn --
• Kay Shapero --
• Don Simpson --
• Criss Stevens -- Barefoot Contessa
• Milt Stevens -- All Digression Weekly
• Creath Thorne -- Jerboa
• Bjo Trimble -- Expletive. Good Housekeeping
• John Trimble -- APALing
• Ellie Turner -- GremLinkin
• Dave Van Arnam -- First Draft, MaLAise, Fair Play
• Ted White -- MaLAise, L
• Fred C. Whitledge --
• Alan Winston --
• Rick Young --
• Bernie Zuber --
• Unknown -- Woody Allen Is a Hobbit...Really!

---

Publication

1964—

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.