Starspinkle

Starspinkle was Ron Ellik's "biweekly news and chitter-chatter fanzine". It succeeded in becoming a frequent, concise, and yet reasonably comprehensive newszine that fans eagerly awaited appearing in their mailboxes. It was nominated for the 1964 Best Fanzine Hugo.

"Starspinkle" was a nonsensical word made up by Ellik to prove that a catchy title was not necessary for a fanzine to become a so-called Focal Point fanzine like Fanac had been in the late 1950s. (Though is it not obvious why Ellik thought Starspinkle was not a catchy name....)

It started publication in December 1962 and ran for 50 issues, ending in November 1964, when Ellik moved from LA to Washington, DC. Starspinkle was published by Bruce Pelz, who later became unofficial co-editor, and Don Fitch also helped produce some of the early issues. Each issue was a two-page, one-sheet series of short news stories about fans and fandom. It did two special one-page issues from the 1963 Westercon, one of the first instances of a convention daily newsletter, and it also did two special one-page "Harlan Ellison Issues" in 1964, that promoted two Ellison-scripted episodes of The Outer Limits TV series.

Ellik said, "Starspinkle is not a cautious fanzine and if somebody wants to accuse me of imitating Fanac I'm not leaving any cautious-type loopholes in my editorial policy so I can wriggle out of it; I'm spending the energy on laughter. This is a zippity-pow newszine I think you want to read."

Ellik also published his own hoax issues, Starfink as by Nor Kille.

Issue	Date	Pages	Notes
1	December 17, 1962	2
2	January 3, 1963	2
3	January 17, 1963	2
4	January 30, 1963	2
5	February 13, 1963	2
6	February 28, 1963	2
7	March 14, 1963	2
8	March 28, 1963	2
9	April 11, 1963	2
10	April 25, 1963	2
11	May 9, 1963	2
12	May 23, 1963	2
13	June 6, 1963	2
14	June 20, 1963	2
15	July 4, 1963	2
	July 5, 1963	1	Westercon XVI special #1
	July 6, 1963	1	Westercon XVI special #2
16	July 18, 1963	2
17	August 1, 1963	2
18	August 15, 1963	2
19	September 12, 1963	2
20	September 19, 1963	2
21	September 26, 1963	2
22	October 10, 1963	2
23	October 24, 1963	2
24	November 1963	2
25	November 21, 1963	2
26	December 5, 1963	2
27	December 19, 1963	2
28	January 2, 1964	2	Is numbered '26'
29	January 16, 1964	2
30	January 30, 1964	2
31	February 13, 1964	2
32	February 27, 1964	2
34	March 12, 1964	2
35	April 26, 1964	2
36	April 23, 1964	2
37	May 7, 1964	2
38	May 21, 1964	2
39	June 4, 1964	2
40	June 18, 1964	2
41	July 2, 1964	2
42	July 16, 1964	2
43	July 30, 1964	2
44	August 13, 1964	2
45	August 27 1964	2
	September 5, 1964	1	Starfink 69 "a biweekly slander and misinformation zine" by Nor Kille
	September 8, 1964	1	Special issue: FAPA election results
46	September 10 1964	2
	September 17, 1964	1	Special: Harlan Ellison request
	September 21, 1962	2	Starspinkle hoax issue
47	September 24, 1964	2
48	October 8, 1964	2
	October 15, 1964	1	Special: Harlan Ellison request
49	October 22, 1964	2
50	November 5, 1964	4	Final issue

Starspinkle online at fanac.org.

---

Publication

1962—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.