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Vampire, whole no. 7, September 1946
31858063101335_022
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swell idea, sure, but for so loosely united a group as fantasy fandom, the scheme strikes us as being a wee bit too idealistic. If you'll take a look at fan history, you'll find that practically every large, cooperative project that fandom has ever undertaken has run into difficulty, not of necessity because of lack of funds or ambition, but because of heated rivalry among the fans themselves. Every major convention, every proposed national fan organization (ahh! the NFFF!) has had this trouble. And as for the policy of the suggested super-fanzine, there might be more differences of opinion than you'd think. From publishing Vampire, we've discovered that whether the material in a given issue be varied or fairly similar in subject matter, it's a tough job to get even 50% of the readers to agree that a certain article or feature is of real interest. In fandom, there exists a diversity of viewpoints. For instance, the collectors would want the proposed semi-pro all about collecting. The literary boys would demand nothing but intellectual verse and fiction and political/sociological articles. The pure stfnists would want more fan chatter, features, and personalities. He who tries to please all pleases none. Can you imagine what the squabble would seem like to the average newsstand reader, who must have a hard enough time as it is to understand all the stuff in the prozine letter sections? 'Nothing thing. We doubt if some of the present professional publishers would appreciate fan competition. They could easily withdraw support of fan publications and projects, edit all actifan doings from the letter-sections, etc. Not that the fandom of today stands as much in awe of the prozines as the fans of yesteryear, but the stf pulps are still our main channel for recruiting new blood...and you know how cautious most publishers are about giving the smallest plug or support to a rival... To put the super-fanzine on the newsstands would require a lot of capital. Probably much more than most fantasy-hobbyists would be willing to invest. It costs one heck of a lot to arrange newsstand distribution for your first issue -- that's why Crawford, one of the most ambitious of the earlier fan publishers, failed in his attempt to go pro. Even an old linotype would run into hundreds of bucks. And who's going to be the first fan to sell his own mimeograph to finance the superzine, as per Inman's suggestion? We don't mean to run down the main idea of the article. The concept of a sort of Digest-type magazine reprinting the best of past fantasy is a though that's long intrigued us. Mainly, we have printed the article in hopes of arousing further discussion and controversy. If you're really interested, why not write Lionel Inman, Ripley, Tenn., and hash the matter over with him? Calling Fantasy Foundation! -22-
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swell idea, sure, but for so loosely united a group as fantasy fandom, the scheme strikes us as being a wee bit too idealistic. If you'll take a look at fan history, you'll find that practically every large, cooperative project that fandom has ever undertaken has run into difficulty, not of necessity because of lack of funds or ambition, but because of heated rivalry among the fans themselves. Every major convention, every proposed national fan organization (ahh! the NFFF!) has had this trouble. And as for the policy of the suggested super-fanzine, there might be more differences of opinion than you'd think. From publishing Vampire, we've discovered that whether the material in a given issue be varied or fairly similar in subject matter, it's a tough job to get even 50% of the readers to agree that a certain article or feature is of real interest. In fandom, there exists a diversity of viewpoints. For instance, the collectors would want the proposed semi-pro all about collecting. The literary boys would demand nothing but intellectual verse and fiction and political/sociological articles. The pure stfnists would want more fan chatter, features, and personalities. He who tries to please all pleases none. Can you imagine what the squabble would seem like to the average newsstand reader, who must have a hard enough time as it is to understand all the stuff in the prozine letter sections? 'Nothing thing. We doubt if some of the present professional publishers would appreciate fan competition. They could easily withdraw support of fan publications and projects, edit all actifan doings from the letter-sections, etc. Not that the fandom of today stands as much in awe of the prozines as the fans of yesteryear, but the stf pulps are still our main channel for recruiting new blood...and you know how cautious most publishers are about giving the smallest plug or support to a rival... To put the super-fanzine on the newsstands would require a lot of capital. Probably much more than most fantasy-hobbyists would be willing to invest. It costs one heck of a lot to arrange newsstand distribution for your first issue -- that's why Crawford, one of the most ambitious of the earlier fan publishers, failed in his attempt to go pro. Even an old linotype would run into hundreds of bucks. And who's going to be the first fan to sell his own mimeograph to finance the superzine, as per Inman's suggestion? We don't mean to run down the main idea of the article. The concept of a sort of Digest-type magazine reprinting the best of past fantasy is a though that's long intrigued us. Mainly, we have printed the article in hopes of arousing further discussion and controversy. If you're really interested, why not write Lionel Inman, Ripley, Tenn., and hash the matter over with him? Calling Fantasy Foundation! -22-
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