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 1984 and as of 2020 was still active with over 2850 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.
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.
Of considerable note is APA-L contributor Fred Patten, who has had a zine in each and every distribution of APA-L. Fred had a stroke a few years ago, and he now resides in a convalescent hospital, able to move only his left leg and left arm. The right-handed Fred still produces a zine each week, typing it on a laptop computer with his left hand. It has been posited that if Fred ever stops producing a zine for APA-L, the world will come to an end. 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.
| Mailings | Dates | OE |
|---|---|---|
| 1 -- ?? | October 1964 -- ?? | Dian Pelz |
| ?? - ?? | ?? -- ?? | Tim Merrigan |
| ?? -- current | ?? -- current | Marty Cantor |
Members and Apazines:
- Alpajpuri -- Djinn
- Stan Burns -- Conversations With a Pregnant Donut Lady
- Marty Cantor --
- Tom Digby -- Probably Something
- Don Fitch -- From Sunday to Saturday
- Dan Goodman --
- Ed Green -- Knight of the Pens
- John Hertz -- /Vanamonde, The Cowbird of Wonder
- Dick Lupoff -- OSO, OPOSO
- June Moffatt -- De Jueves
- Patrick Nielsen Hayden -- Sing Ye Now the Praises of CorFlu
- Marilyn Niven -- Fuzzily
- Ulrika O'Brien --
- Fred Patten --
- Bruce Pelz --
- Dian Pelz --
- Andy Porter --
- Bill Rotsler -- Masque
- Jan Ryan --
- John Ryan --
- Milt Stevens -- All Digression Weekly
- Dave Van Arnam --
- Rick Young --
- Bernie Zuber --
- Unknown -- Barefoot Contessa, Woody Allen Is a Hobbit...Really!
| Publication | 1984— |
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