Don MacKay
(???? – )
Don MacKay[1] was a fan and fan artist from Liverpool in the mid-1950s. He was a member of the Liverpool Group and co-wrote 'Alien Arrives' and 'The March of Slime', the first two of their 'taperas' that debuted at Supermancon in 1954 and Cytricon I in 1955 respectively. He also appeared in 'Last and First Fen' at Cytricon II in 1956 and was a member of Cytricon IV (1958).
Don's sister was Lil MacKay and his wife was another fan Renee MacKay. In Ploy #6, Archie Mercer reported from Cytricon II:
The room seemed full of MacKays. It seems that about half the Liverpool group are called MacKay, and most of these are of the female persuasion. I only wish fandom had more families like them.
MacKay was listed as the "art editor" ("Because of home and other commitments editorial meetings have to be confined to […] Don is kept in touch with art matters via the phone. Did we say difficulties...") of the Group clubzine Space Diversions at least in the #7 (December 1953), drawing and stenciling its cover and six illustrations. (The contents page spelled him, twice, "Donald McKay".) P. 67 also noted that "Don MacKay, who did the art work for the oneshot" SYMPOSIUM ON SEX AND SADISM IN CURRENT SCIENCE-FICTION ("foolscap size", 85 copies sold out at the Coroncon, selected articles to be reprinted in the following issues),
has kindly offered to reproduce his illustrations for quarto production, and even if you do not go for the reading material the articles will be well worth watching out for just to catch the illos.
The issue also quoted one of his opinions in the fanzine review department and described the Group's festive 100th meeting on October 5th, 1953:
After the Lisbon [Grill] closed we retired to the club therein to disport ourselves. Donald McKay [sic!] had his usual funny hat on (this matches his usual funny face) and was given to dissappearing every so often into a very large waste paper basket. He had some difficulty extracting himself from said basket and on going home a passer-by was heard to remark that, "this was the first time he'd seen a waste paper basket walking along with a trilby hat on."
- ↑ Triode 4, which published the script for The March of Slime, (mis)spelled him "Don McKie" but this does not appear anywhere else, so is apparently an exceptional error by the Manchester editors. See also further some instances of longer "Donald" and a simpler mistake "McKay".
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