CRAP

(Were you looking for Cascade Regional APA or the fanzine by Doug Fratz?)

Cruddily Reproduced Amateur Press, originally Carbon Reproduced Amateur Press.

It was started in March 1958 when Bill Meyers started sending a carbonzine, BEM, to four friends. After a visit by Bruce Pelz, he mailed the 22nds BEM as the first CRAP mailing with five members. Mailings were twice a month. CRAP was reputed to have a motto too obscene for fans in general to know.

By the 55th mailing, membership had doubled. This was beyond the repro capabilities of carbon paper, but the tradition was preserved by using either ditto or a stencil cut using something called a "carbon".

The 50s saw the emergence of omniapans who tried to join every APA. These people were felt to be not taking the purposes of the apas they joined seriously, so some apas took steps to remove them. (Besides, what fan could resist the challenge of keeping another fan from being a successful completist. CRAP dealt with the omniapans in 1961 by officially shutting down and then re-opening as a secret apa, APA-X, including everyone but the offending members.

Members and contributions:

• Robert Lichtman -- Quel Dommage
• June Moffatt --
• Len Moffatt --
• Norm Metcalf --
• Bruce Pelz -- Compos'd Heap

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Publication

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