Fanzines

Posts: 186 · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:44 am

I am trying to do some research into various gaming fanzines. There are little if any references to many of the old fanzines online, namely such magazines as Abyss, The Beholder, Future Wars etc...

If anyone has any knowledge of names/total # of issues/producers of these kinds of magazines I would appreciate some assistance. I know this is a tall order, I am still trying to compile a list of just the names of various magazines/fanzines ATM. I tend to collect these as they sometimes have a number of good ideas to help with many different games (and just as often have some unworkable alternate systems). They are also (albeit rarely) useful in locating facts/printing info for small press publications, in the way of advertisements and reviews.

If you also collect these "small press" 'zines and have any information about what is out there please reply here or send me a PM. I hope to use my web space to print a list of the various fanzines as they are "rediscovered" which would include: Name, # of issues, Company/Producer, Years Published and possibly cover scans/indexes if available.

Again I apologize for the tall order in advance, and later tonight I will post a bit of what I have already discovered.

~jeff

Posts: 1193 · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 12:14 pm

I believe beasterbrook has been working on a fanzine project; afterglow had talked about such a project as well, but he's on collecting hiatus.

Posts: 595 · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 1:36 pm

** nudges you into the Acaeum Distributed Computing Project forum ***

Posts: 186 · Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:53 pm

Spent some time reading other threads on this issue, seems I am not the first to express interest in this particular endeavor. While doing research on this topic I found this site:

http://www.talkaboutgaming.com/group/uk.games.roleplay/messages/72340. html

Though this list seems to cover UK RPG fanzines, it does change the nature of this idea, there are far more fanzines out there than I had at first anticipated. I will have to do some serious thought before undertaking this kind of project.

~jeff[/url]

Posts: 473 · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 12:31 am

Hi Jeff -

I picked up some fanzines a year or two back, and thought getting a complete collection of D&D fanzines published in the 70s would be pretty neat. However, I soon realised it would be very difficult for three main reasons:

1. There are far more out there than I realised
2. Copies of any fanzines rarely come up on ebay - weeks or months can go by between sightings
3. When they do come up, they are popular and usually go for decent money. It would take significant cash to complete the collection.

Realising this, I've just placed a bunch of them up on ebay this week. I figure I'll never get close to getting even the majority of issues for just the main fanzines, so I decided to sell mine so others can perhaps fill some gaps in their collections. And I can use the cash to fill my own holes, so to speak.

BTW Dathon, Beaster may have cut back on collecting but he still keeps an eye on things. I received a tongue-in-cheek email from him very shortly after listing the fanzines, gently chiding me for not giving him an opportunity to make an offer on the lot...

Regards

Mike

Posts: 186 · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 12:41 am

mdr003 wrote:

...I've just placed a bunch of them up on ebay this week...

I know, I plan to bid on some of them, assuming I can figure out how much shipping will be, and if I can afford it and the magazines. Crying or Very sad

~jeff

Posts: 473 · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 12:57 am

Hi Jeff -

Shipping will be very reasonable I expect - each zine weighs very little and Australia Post prices are pretty good. As an example, I can send up to 250g worth of zines for $6 AUD (about $4.50 USD) to anwhere in the world. I estimate 250g would be around 6 zines, give or take (depends on the zine of course).

500g (say 10 zines or so) would be $10.80 AUD. Thats for airmail delivery (which takes approx 5-7 days from here to the USA).

Hope this helps.

Regards

Mike

Posts: 4467 · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:01 am

mdr003 wrote:

Hi Jeff -

I picked up some fanzines a year or two back, and thought getting a complete collection of D&D fanzines published in the 70s would be pretty neat. However, I soon realised it would be very difficult for three main reasons:

1. There are far more out there than I realised
2. Copies of any fanzines rarely come up on ebay - weeks or months can go by between sightings
3. When they do come up, they are popular and usually go for decent money. It would take significant cash to complete the collection.

Realising this, I've just placed a bunch of them up on ebay this week. I figure I'll never get close to getting even the majority of issues for just the main fanzines, so I decided to sell mine so others can perhaps fill some gaps in their collections. And I can use the cash to fill my own holes, so to speak.

BTW Dathon, Beaster may have cut back on collecting but he still keeps an eye on things. I received a tongue-in-cheek email from him very shortly after listing the fanzines, gently chiding me for not giving him an opportunity to make an offer on the lot...

Regards

Mike

Afterglow (Matthias Bock) may be on hiatus from collecting, but still would be a valuable font of knowledge on this subject. In the mid 90's I sold him a whopping pile (at least 100 issues) of The Wild Hunt, Alarums and Excursions, and many other fanzines from the 70s. Now I wish I had kept all the little suckers, but they took up far too much room.

Mike B.

Posts: 2639 · Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 8:12 pm

GamersRest[FNG] wrote:

Spent some time reading other threads on this issue, seems I am not the first to express interest in this particular endeavor. While doing research on this topic I found this site:

http://www.talkaboutgaming.com/group/uk.games.roleplay/messages/72340. html

Though this list seems to cover UK RPG fanzines, it does change the nature of this idea, there are far more fanzines out there than I had at first anticipated. I will have to do some serious thought before undertaking this kind of project.

~jeff[/url]

Good spot, Jeff.

Yup, Brian's list; with contributions from Brette and others, here. Lots of work, even if many of the titles are compiled from small ads and reviews (i.e. no physical zines "readily available" for scans).

I chatted with Brian last year and other things IRL were kinda taking up most/all of his time, then.
Haven't confirmed that he's not made any updates since, but I trawled through and added another three dozen titles or so, plus more authors and a stack of references, dates, etc.
Is still in a bit of a mess to say the least...
*
(Would also be tempted to /remove/ some of the almost-PBM-exclusive titles, esp. the dipzines- and there are another couple hundred of those, UK-side- but is sometimes difficult to draw precise lines).

Not that I'm biased, but UK is more than enough "for starters", IMO. (And EGG didn't rate the "others" so much, anyhow! *jk* Wink

)

Posts: 4708 · Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 9:49 pm

I have a run of The Wild Hunt I will be parting with. Issue 7-56 or something like that.

Posts: 2639 · Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 9:52 pm

Deadlord36 wrote:

I have a run of The Wild Hunt I will be parting with. Issue 7-56 or something like that.

I know, Frank!... Wink

Posts: 186 · Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 11:58 pm

harami2000 wrote:

GamersRest[FNG] wrote:

Spent some time reading other threads on this issue, seems I am not the first to express interest in this particular endeavor. While doing research on this topic I found this site:

http://www.talkaboutgaming.com/group/uk.games.roleplay/messages/72340. html

Though this list seems to cover UK RPG fanzines, it does change the nature of this idea, there are far more fanzines out there than I had at first anticipated. I will have to do some serious thought before undertaking this kind of project.

~jeff[/url]

Good spot, Jeff.

Yup, Brian's list; with contributions from Brette and others, here. Lots of work, even if many of the titles are compiled from small ads and reviews (i.e. no physical zines "readily available" for scans).

I chatted with Brian last year and other things IRL were kinda taking up most/all of his time, then.
Haven't confirmed that he's not made any updates since, but I trawled through and added another three dozen titles or so, plus more authors and a stack of references, dates, etc.
Is still in a bit of a mess to say the least...
*
(Would also be tempted to /remove/ some of the almost-PBM-exclusive titles, esp. the dipzines- and there are another couple hundred of those, UK-side- but is sometimes difficult to draw precise lines).

Not that I'm biased, but UK is more than enough "for starters", IMO. (And EGG didn't rate the "others" so much, anyhow! *jk* Wink

)

I agree with the UK rags being of better quality, after looking over various lists of 'zines I can say that it is not likely that anything can be done to catalog and appraise them in a similar way to the Acaeum.

Eh, still looking into doing something in regards to making a list of 'zines, however anything I would compile would not include newsletters (many of which were produced by gaming groups) or those not covering rpgs as thier main theme (well, I will also be making a list of battletech rags, as I have a personal interest in them).

~jeff

Posts: 255 · Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 7:51 am

Deadlord36 wrote:

I have a run of The Wild Hunt I will be parting with. Issue 7-56 or something like that.

I parted with mine some time ago, though I'd make a couple notes.

If I were looking at major fanzines, I'd start with Lee Gold and Alarums and Excursions (still being produced). Lee knows a great deal about fanzines.

TWH was the major alternative. The other major APAzine fanzine was run by Shapiro for a while.

Non APAzines were numerous and irregular. Howard Mahler's was very good (I even have an issue I've saved and kept in my woodgrained box).

But it would be a good thing to make contact with Lee and go from there.

Posts: 1002 · Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 5:13 am

Deadlord36 wrote:

I have a run of The Wild Hunt I will be parting with. Issue 7-56 or something like that.

I've put my list in already of the ones I want....

I'm slowly getting there on my collection, but its tough going at the moment.. so if anyone has any they want to get rid of...:)

Brette:)