Croutch Magazine Mart News
Published by Leslie A. Croutch, it was Canadian Fandom's earliest adzine, begun circa 1937/1938, which eventually evolved into Canada's third fanzine (after Frome's Supramundane Stories & the earlier The Canadian Science Fiction Fan by an unknown faned), but which, in its final incarnation as Light, had a far wider distribution, greater impact and much longer lifespan than Frome's zine. Not even Croutch preserved the first 85 issues of CMMN. As quoted in the 1952 Evans/Pavlat Zine Index, Croutch stated his own records began with #86A (Sept 1940) "...when I started using regular typewriter paper. Before that I have no copies left." Most sources indicate these early issues were carbonzines, i.e. multiple carbon copies banged out on a typewriter, but surely the top copy would have been on "regular typewriter paper"? Yet Croutch didn't use such till #86A. This may have implied that the first 85 issues were hectographed. However, this is unlikely as Harry Warner, Jr. describes Croutch's 1930's output as: "a carbon-copied listing of his stock for trading", and further, J. R. Columbo says that Croutch would type 6 or 7 copies, and not only mail them off to friends, but the original top copy as well! So carbonzine it is. Alas, no copies of any issue of Croutch Magazine Mart News are currently known to exist (except possibly in [[Harry Warner, Jr.]'s collection). The remaining issues of CMMN (#86A to #92) were all carbonzines. With #93 (Jan 1941) the name was changed to Croutch News. Though originally strictly listings of books and magazines for sale or trade, Croutch gradually began adding filler in the form of cartoons, editorials, and even fiction, gradually evolving CMMN into a perzine. For instance, #87 featured Croutch's first published story "The Black Castle", most of which he cribbed from Bela Lugosi's version of Dracula. #92 had "The Summons". 1940 - (#86A - 24 Sept) (#87 - 1 Oct) (#88 - 15 Oct) (#89 - 31 Oct) (#90 - 15 Nov) (#91 - 1 Dec) (#92 - 25 Dec)
Contributors: CanFancyclopedia
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