The Drink Tank Issue 198 [email protected] A frantic, hyper and crowded I’ve seen so far have been cover from Genevieve. This was one wonderful. of the pieces I scanned that made me go Wow and was certain to be Drink Tank #196: On a cover from the moment I saw it. trying to figure out whom to I love the mixing of half-finished send paperzines to. Takes thoughts with complete ideas and me back. My first zine was the layering of imagery. ENTROPY BLUES in 1986. Made 18-25 copies as I recall. Letter-Graded Mail Gave away most to fellow sent to [email protected] BCSFA members because I by my gentle readers didn’t know what else to do, as I had no contact with zinedom. Let’s start off in Canada with...R. Very muted reaction, apart Graeme Cameron! from “So what drug were you on when you did this?” (Every Hi Chris! article a different style). So I Drink Tank #190: I really like gave up. Starkey’s cover depicting a frantic alien I gave out 10 of the issues at fleeing a pack of wolves, though with BASFA on Monday. I usually those chompers I’m sure it could put Drink Tank #191: Wonderful don’t get much back from folks on up a good fight when they catch up. tribute to the Ackermonster. He was issues whether I do them on-line or Big teeth, little fight. That de- going to be our fan GoH at VCON 15 on paper, so I don’t really mind. I’d scribes many varieties of fish, don- back in 1987, and he’d even agreed to like to see one of those issues. Every chaknow. accept an Elron (bronzed lemon) award article a different style sounds like for creating the term ‘sci-fi’, but he had fun. Re Taral’s article: To sum up, to cancel for health reasons. So I never just when America is pulling its act got to meet him. Double sigh. But when I unleashed SPACE together and likely to wind up acting CADET #1 in 1994, it contained 6 locs like the best of Canada, my country is PS: Have my own tribute to the already from such as Lloyd Penney & falling apart and liable to end up acting Ackermonster in Space Cadet #12. Joseph T. Major! This because I had like the worst of America. Sigh. Seems he was a formative influence on been editor of BCSFAzine for some Well, I like to think we’re acting me, right down to moustache style! years & had pushed my upcoming SC in its pages. Because of the zine trades more like Iceland. I don’t under- And really, one’s choice of facial BCSFAzine received, I had more than stand Canadian government at all. hair is the most important choice enough zine & fan addresses for SC The whole process you go through one can make. I can’t wait to read mailings. At its peak I was sending off confuses me. your tribute to him. All the ones more than 100 copies per issue. Them we three were talking in the hallway against the walls, yet the floor is bare were the days. Couldn’t afford it now. and he invited us both to dinner, of furniture, cept for himself sitting in whereupon I shamefacedly admitted the corner. Why is he wearing a jacket? I can barely afford to send the 15 I couldn’t afford to, so he insisted I Why is he wearing a toque? Is it that issues I sent out. Of course, more come anyway and paid my bill. Seemed cold in his apartment? Why does he than 1/2 of them were to places like a very nice guy to me! Then, one look so stiff & glum?” other than the US, which ain’t time I introduced my wife Alyxandra cheap! to him & they promptly plunged Best advice for a zinepubber into an increasingly confused and wannabe? Steer them in the direction incomprehensible conversation. Turned of efanzines. The perfect source out he thought he was talking to the for learning all about zinedom & for author Alexandra Dellimonica (not acquiring zine trades. sure of sp) who had recently sold him a story. He found this quite amusing And I’ve been doing that for years! once all was explained. I observed no There are still some hold-outs, but signs of curmudgeon-like tendencies. soon, we’ll all be up there! I repeat, a nice guy. Never could get into his writing though. Found THE Drink Tank #197: Bob Wilkins AMSIRS AND THE IRON THORN a bit of Creature Features sounds like dry. Kinda liked ROGUE MOON. another Forry Ackerman, in that they both celebrated B movies, you I bought a copy of Rogue Moon knew they shared your passion, and recently, about a month and a half if they made fun of B movies, they ago, it would seem, and it was did so affectionately and with great signed. It hadn’t been noted as familiarity. We need more like that in such, and I figured it’ll be a nice media today. So rare. auction for TAFF if nothing else.

At Psychotronics last month, there Seems we are in competition for was the great segment done with articles by Taral! Hoping to publish one both Forry and Bob. It’s sad to on that photo-montage room display think that they’re both gone. Two for worldcon. He sent me several great ambassadors. sample photos of the mock-up without telling me what they were, and when I knew Algis Budrys slightly. I examined the first one I thought it He was a good friend of local author was a photo of him in his apartment. Donna McMahon and on her invite I thought: “How does he keep the frequently showed up at VCON. Once room so neat? Everything crammed I was blown away once I realized I was decision is definitely subjective as to ballot. I’d say Taral has the best looking at a small mockup & the ‘Taral’ who I believe is most likely to write or chance of getting on an winning it. was a painted model figure. Downright draw something for me. After I talk Onward to issue #197. creepy revelation in fact. In all fairness to someone for awhile, that helps to It is always sad to hear of the I should mention the rez was low, narrow this process down a bit. Even death of a childhood icon. Bob Wilkins my eyes are poor, and the angle was so, the vast unwashed masses who obviously was one of yours, and I know perfect to reflect correct perspective. I read my zine do so online. At least the you’ve spent time with John Stanley, used to pride myself in distinguishing response to the 11th issue was much too, so those two certainly made a big between stock footage and scale model better. Now to see how the response to impression on you. When I was a wee shots in old B&W war movies. Losing #12 goes. lad growing up in Minneapolis, WTCN- the ability to spot the artificial it Of late, I’ve been averaging .7 TV Channel 11 had this midnight seems. responses an issue, but that’s not Saturday horror series called Horror, really fair since I put them out so Incorporated which I always stayed I used to be the best at spotting often. As one of the few who seem up for. I know I’ve written about this stuntmen over the real guys. It’s uneffected by the lack of response before, but it was a lot of fun; always amazing that in recent years, I’ve to many issues, I always try to get a double feature, so there were old been wrong more than normal. them out to people who wouldn’t horror and science fiction flicks on Taral’s mock-up is yet another normally read zines. I think that’s until 4 AM. It was great training for reason I’m psyched for Montreal. how we get folks. Hook them by my eventual career as an SF fan and Keep up your proliferate pace! Cheers! forcing ourselves on them! attending conventions. It didn’t have a The Graeme (Faned of Space Cadet & I agree with the general host like your Creature Feature show, WCSFAzine) sentiment that Taral Wayne is going but opened with a foggy cemetery shot to get a nomination for Best Fan where a cement coffin lid was slowly Thanks much! Writer FAAn; he has been extremely opening, bony hands prising it up productive in the last year, and you from inside! Then there was a scream: and I have benefited mightily from his AAAAHHHHHH!!!!! At show’s end - four output. He would be a good choice, hours later - there was a quick shot that’s for sure. Curt Phillips is another (with attendant screaming and baying gent who has written some mighty fine of wolves) of a shrouded figure settling work, mostly in Time & Again, but he’s back into that coffin. Fun stuff. appearing elsewhere now. So is Warren The opening for Horror Incorporated And now...John Purcell!!! Buff. Good choices coming up. is featured prominently in a Like you, I enjoy handing I’d love to see Taral on the list, and documentary about Horror Hosts. zines out at cons or meetings (if there Warren and Curt have been doing It was actually a syndicated show, were any club meetings in this neck of great stuff. I expect one of them I think, as a lot of different areas the woods, I would do so, and I don’t to replace me (let’s be honest, my seemed to have used it. Of course, mean the TAMU club, either), but I’m star has fallen considerably) on the there were many different Creature a bit selective on who gets one. The Features too. As for Mongol, I really, And what LetterCol would be Lloyd Penney comments in his really, REALLY want to see it. My complete without Lloyd Penney! loc thish about how many of those undergraduate minor in college was suckers he wrote to you in 2008. I Russian History (studied the Russian Dear Chris: don’t know how many I wrote to your language for three years), and when See, I can do this at work, too! Just assorted zines, but it was probably I heard about this movie coming out, gotta be careful and type casual, but close to a couple dozen. My output the drool started dripping from the I can get the job done. And what I’m last year dropped off significantly as corners of my mouth. Disgusting, I doing right now is a quickie loc for The my workload increased, but the zine know, but everything I saw and heard Drink Tank 196. kept coming out. Some things are more about Mongol looked really good. important, of course... I haven’t tallied Steven Silver’s review here whetted my The key is to have many windows up the 2008 locs, but I think it was appetite again; good to see I can get it open at once. less than 80. Yeah, right; an off year. on DVD. Thank you, Steven, for this. Numbers may be going down I’m totally into reading about the Ah, Mo Starkey cares to send the hairy because of the slowing of VFW and Hunt of Ghengis’ tomb. It’s an beast. I still think you should get a the fact that there were slightly amazing story and the folks doing shave and a brush cut, just to see if fewer zines that I came across this the searching have some weird anyone recognizes you. Yvonne loves year than last. Even I was down to methods! her copy of the Mamma Mia! DVD. 40 zines in 2008. And that’s a wrap. Take it easy, I don’t think we’ve got The Golden Steve Green talked about Dick roomie, and I hope to make it to Corflu Compass on DVD, but I did spend Tracy and The Spirit, and I’ve only seen Zed. some dollars to get the rest of the Dick Tracy, which was okay, but not a series of books, and that was a good huge hit. It was suitably cartoonish in All the best, investment. One DVD was tough to production, and Madonna did a good John Purcell find...an original version (black and turn as Breathless Mahoney; as for Hope to see ya there, bro! white) of A Christmas Carol. Sorry, Scarlet Johansson in a Nazi outfit... you couldn’t pay me to watch The Love Yeah, she’s hot in any outfit. Dominate Guru, don’t care if it’s Mike Myers. me, bitch! (Where did that come from? Vern Troyer played the coach of the Down, my other self; down!) And I still Toronto Maple Leafs, a miniature want to see The Golden Compass just version of Punch Imlach, who coached because I do. Haven’t read the book the Leafs in the 60s. I hope Mike gets yet, so that might help me enjoy the back to making good movies real movie. We shall see. soon... GC is better than I gave it credit Was he the coach of the famous Bill for being. I almost walked out on Barilko? If he was, that’s awesome! it when I was flying across the The movie’s so bad! Atlantic. I’ll getcha a loc on the newest Claims Never say that aloud. It gives Tom gafiation but there’s this huge backlog Department soon. What’s my role in Wolfe power. of Drink Tanks, which I have read this experiment? Hoep you’re right on but been too listless to comment the Hugo buzz. Let’s hope that those Short loc, short issue, so it on. I always think I ought to at least who are doin’ the buzzin’ are also doin’ goes. Off it flies into the ether, and try to say something intelligent, or the votin’. eventually onto my LiveJournal, if it entertaining, or insightful....well, that’s still exists! LJ’s new Russian owners certain death isn’t it? Yours is a name that’s come up laid off half the US work force. Hope we I feel like I have a very more than once, so I wouldn’t be won’t have to get a Cyrillic keyboard in uncomfortable relationship at this surprised. the future... Take it easy, have a great point with fandom. There are some weekend! Hi, Steve...we just about got our fans whose work I enjoy and so I read niece Nicole into fandom...almost, but Yours, Lloyd Penney. their zines and comment on them. But it isn’t so much that I am participating not quite. For a while, she was a big Thanks, Lloyd! LJ’s gonna make Ben Bova fan. Now, we’ve gone back in fandom, which I don’t feel a part it, it seems. They’re just shoring of, but rather that I am reading Chris to our traditional status of being the up for the future toughness. Rus- weird aunt and uncle. Most of the Garcia’s zine and writing to him, and sian Engineers work cheaper than reading John Purcell’s and writing to second- or even third-generation fans American. Luckily, I’ve never had we’ve run into over the years were him, not as part of a hobby but each much trouble with my LJ, so it just separate relationships. In fact, to snotty brats. I hope they grew out doesn’t bother me much. of that. Or, seeing they’re fans, they the extent that reading and responding probably are still that way. to zines brings me into contact with fandom-at-large I am often simply Second Generation fans can be annoyed or just at a loss for words. tough, though the Third Generation Maybe fanzines should, in fans I’ve met, the few of them are addition to a loccol, have a “Letters the kind that don’t understand the From Mundanes” section! Hey, I hate real world. the winter and this one has been dreadful so far. You’ve lived in the 1977 saw the premiere of Star northeast. I don’t know how you found Wars, and my own emergence into the cold and snow. fandom, and I was one of the many And now, with a kinda LoC, as he At any rate, I wanted to let you late-teenagers who saw Star Wars an called it, is Mr. Eric Mayer! know I am still enjoying your efforts obscene number of times. But as we even if I have not been making an got to Episodes, V, VI, I and II and III, Chris, effort to acknowledge them. And if I that number quickly spiralled to one. I should vanish you will know that my have seen Episodes I, II and III exactly So I’ve decided I’d better write mundane entelechy has won out. once. And, I guess, once was enough. some locs before I sink further into Oh, yeah...I’ve been trying to Tom Wolfe was so right. read some philosophy too... he was working in a store framing Best, School of Hard Knocks prints. One suspects that this would Eric FurAffinity Journal for October 2007 have been true whatever he drew in You’ve pointed out a minor problem: his spare time. Few artists of any sort what’s the transition? Do you Taral Wayne make a living from it. go straight from being a fan to The only real benefit of an art a mundane, is there a medium I never went to an art school education, I suspect, might have setting. I mean, one does not lose myself -- it was more expensive than been to come away from it with their fannishness all in one sitting, regular college and I couldn’t afford an earlier familiarity with media - do they? Or is it by the time gafia *that*. My wallet felt smaller just - phototypesetters, cameras, print is announced, there has been a looking at the Ontario College of Art making, stuff like that. It might have thorough and complete break with prospectus, whose first year fees been beneficial, and then again maybe the parent organism? But isn’t it were more than the list price of a VW not. Old mechanical technologies also these friendships that form Beetle in 1970. Instead, I just drew. I would all be pretty much obsolete in fandom and even if you only remain submitted art to fanzines first, then the computer era anyway. in touch with a couple of zines that magazines, sold my comics directly to you are, in fact, still a fan, but publishers. I graduated from the school Another possible benefit would operating on a lower orbit? of hard knocks. On the whole I’ve no have been a less tangible one. The old Either way, it’s always good to hear regrets. Nevertheless, sometimes I school tie, in other words. I would have from you. Letters from Mundanes wonder “what if”. made connections that might have would make a good subtitle for a led to job opportunities, could have Whether art school would have Claims Department issue. started me on the road to exhibiting done me any good is hard to say. in galleries, and finally being awarded A friend of mine from high school government grants to the arts. But like named Scott attended the OCA, and Scott, most likely the price I’d have to he improved as an artist no doubt. I pay for “success” would have been to saw the evidence with my own eyes. give up drawing the “unsophisticated” But the main effect of his education things I liked, and draw the things seemed to be to turn him from drawing approved of by the arts community. Conanesque comics about barbarian warriors, to drawing marketable little quill-pen sketches of old Victorian downtown buildings. Was this good? Was this bad? In other words, did what he learned at OCA represent a real qualitative change? Or merely a spurious gentrification? I don’t know, but the last time I talked with Scott Odds are pretty good I would I know a small number of people Ok, that’s it for this issue. have ended up framing pictures for a who’ve graduated from two or three I’m happy to say that we’re right living too. At best I might have found years at Sheridan, and afterward on schedule for the Fourth Annual work in a studio designing those worked briefly in local animation Giant Sized Annual, though I’ve got annoying “bugs” at the bottom of your studios. The work they did was mainly very little in the way of content yet, TV screen. for TV commercials and tutorials for there are still a couple of weeks. Ex- kids. None found jobs with a major pect 199 to be a shorter issue than studio or ever worked on a cartoon or usual. Yet without art college I am a feature film. After a couple of years had And I got asked to be the Fan professional artist. gone by, none were employed in the Guest of Honor at Windycon this animation industry in any way. year. I’m as shocked as you are. I’ve Were I younger, the never spent any time with Chicago contemporary choice would have been Today one has a decent job with fandom, so I hope I get a chance to whether to attend Sheridan College’s computers, another works in a home chat with everyone. I’m really look- famous animation course. As with the furnishings retail warehouse. ing forward to it and I’ve got a few OCA, the tuition would be prohibitive. Maybe I’m just as well off plans for things for the con that’ll As well, I’m told that the entire three- without an art education, whether then be a lot of fun. year program is extremely competitive. or now. Until next Wednesday!