SSFF CCOOMMMMEENNTTAARRYY 110055 March 2021 128 pages Doug Barbour Michael Bishop David Boutland William Breiding Stpehn Campbell Cy Chauvin Eli Cohen Giampaolo Cossato Robert Day Michael Dirda Ditmar (Dick Jenssen) Leigh Edmonds Leanne Frahm Rob Gerrand Bruce Gillespie Steve Jeffery Carol Kewley John Litchen LynC Tim Marion Denny Marshall Roman Orszanski Lloyd Penney Mark Plummer Andrew Porter Adrienne Ralph Franz Rottensteiner Andy Sawyer Barbara Sharpe Colin Steele Tim Train Pat Virzi Martin Morse Wooster Alan White Cover: Carol Kewley: ‘The Machine Stops’. S F Commentary 105 March 2021 128 pages SF COMMENTARY No. 104, November 2020, is edited and published by Bruce Gillespie, 5 Howard Street, Greensborough, VIC 3088, Australia. Phone: 61-3-9435 7786. DISTRIBUTION: Either portrait (print equivalent) or landscape .PDF file from eFanzines.com: http://efanzines.com/SFC/index.html or from my email address: [email protected]. FRONT COVER: Carol Kewley: ‘The Machine Stops’. BACK COVER: Alan White: ‘Experimental Pendulum’. PHOTOGRAPHS: Pat Virzi (p. 5); Elaine Cochrane (p. 8); Lee Harding (pp. 27, 28); John Litchen (pp. 31–4); Michael Hutchins (p. 67). ILLUSTRATIONS: Ditmar (Dick Jenssen) (pp. 5, 12); Dan Steffan (p. 13); Brad Foster (p. 15); John Bangsund (p. 30); Denny Marshall (pp. 39, 77); Lewis Morley (p. 47); Giampaolo Cossato (pp. 70–4). Contents 4 I MUST BE TALKING TO MY FRIENDS 7 BRUCE GILLESPIE 4 CELEBRATING 7 CAUTIOUS STEPS OUTWORLDS 71/AFTERWORLDS 11 THE POSTIE RINGS OCCASIONALLY 2 STEVE JEFFERY 20 THE 2020 VOYAGE, PART 1 STEPHEN CAMPBELL 43 20 THE CONVERSATION ABOUT JOHN THE 202 VOYAGE, PART 2: BANGSUND: SF COMMENTARY 103 SF COMMENTARYs 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104 LEANNE FRAHM LYNC ELI COHEN MARTIN MORSE WOOSTER MARK PLUMMER MICHAEL DIRDA TIM TRAIN LEIGH EDMONDS (again) BARBARA SHARPE ROB GERRAND ANDREW PORTER WILLIAM BREIDING ADRIENNE RALPH DAVID BOUTLAND (DAVID ROME) DOUG BARBOUR MICHAEL BISHOP JOHN LITCHEN ROBERT DAY LEIGH EDMONDS GIAMPAOLO COSSATO (again) ANDY SAWYER LLOYD PENNEY (again) FRANZ ROTTENSTEINER GIAMPAOLO COSSATO TIM MARION 79 COLIN STEELE: LLOYD PENNEY THE FIELD ROMAN ORSZANSKI 3 Celebrating Bill Bowers’s greatest achievement Outworlds 71/Afterworlds — all 504 pages of it! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08N9CNPJS?pldnSite=1 Breiding, Ned Brooks, Brian Earl Brown, rich brown, Marty Cantor, https://tinyurl.com/y34n2pyu Joe Christopher, Buck Coulson, Al Curry, Gary Deindorfer, Larry Downes, Carolyn Doyle, Ahrvid Engholm, George Flynn, Brad W. The text for Outworlds 71, Bill Bowers’ classic fanzine, was Foster, E.B. Frohvet, Bruce Gillespie, Mike Glicksohn, Merlin Haas, mostly assembled and ready for layout when Bill finished his David R. Haugh, John Hertz, Irwin Hirsh, Lee Hoffman, Alan personal run on April 17, 2005. Fifteen years later, the zine has Hunter, Dick Jenssen, Karen Johnson, Arnie Katz, Jerry Kaufman, been completed, with Pat Virzi, Jeanne Bowman, Alan Linda Krawecke, Robert Lichtman, Dave Locke, Joseph T. Major, Rosenthal, and Rich Coad as co-editors. This double volume Susan A. Manchester, Art Metzger, Murray Moore, Lloyd Penney, includes Afterworlds (an ‘eclectic’ collection of commemorations Patty Peters, Curt Phillips, Dave Rowe, Chris Sherman, Skel, Bob to Bill, plus a compilation of his fanwriting over the years). Smith, Dale Speirs, Milt Stevens, Mae Strelkov, Sherry Thompson, Roger Waddington, Michael W. Waite, and Harry Warner, Jr.; OUTWORLDS 71: WAHFs from Harry Andruschak, John D. Berry, Sheryl Birkhead, Jeanne Bowman, G. Sutton Breiding, Kevin L. Cook, Dick Geis, Ed Cover Graphic by Ditmar (Dick Jenssen). Gorman, Terry Jeeves, Randy Mohr, Jodie Offutt, Al Sirois, Craig Contributors include Gregory Benford, Bill Bowers, William Smith, Toni Weisskopf, Paul Williams, and Billy Wolfenbarger. Breiding, Joe Haldeman, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Devon Leigh (Interview with Tanya Huff), Stephen Leigh, Denny Lien, Susan Interior art by ATom, Randy Bathurst, Sheryl Birkhead, Grant A. Manchester, Chris Sherman, A. L. Sirois, Skel, Sherry Canfield, Derek Carter, Jackie Causgrove, Jim Cawthorn, Vic Thompson, Bob Tucker, Harry Warner, Jr. Kostrikin, Kurt Erichsen, Brad W. Foster, Jack Gaughan, Mike Gilbert, Derek Grime, David R. Haugh, Alan Hunter, Terry Jeeves, The Lettercol (as of 3/26/99) includes Lenny Bailes, Gregory Ivor Latto, Linda Michaels, Randy Mohr, Peggy Ranson, William Benford, Sandra Bond, Syd Bounds, Richard Brandt, William 4 The modest Pat Virzi reading her copy of Outworlds 71/Afterworlds. The Afterworlds section was supposed to be printed back to back, like an Ace Double, but the printer couldn’t do it. Pat Virzi from Texas supplied this photo, and is one of the four co-editors of this ultimate fanzine. Readers of SFC will notice that the front cover of OW71 is by Ditmar (Dick Jenssen). 5 Rotsler, Stu Shiffman, Craig Smith, Steve Stiles, Taral Wayne. Glicksohn, Mike Glyer, John Hertz, Arthur Hlavaty, Norm Hochberg, Frank Johnson, Jerry Kaufman, John M. Koenig, Tim Photos by William Breiding, Christina H. Hionides, Stephen Leigh, Kyger, David Langford, Hope Leibowitz, Devon Leigh, Robert Andrew Porter, Chris Sherman, Skel, Michael W. Waite. Lichtman, Eric Lindsay, Dave Locke, Rich Lynch, Sam McDonald, Art Metzger, Paul Novitski, John Purcell, Dennis Quane, Schirm, AFTERWORLDS: Chris Sherman, Skel, Rick Sneary, Suzanne Tompkins, Taral Wayne, Billy Ray Wolfenbarger, Susan Wood, Joel Zakem. Cover art by Rick Lieder. Interior Art/Fillos by Sheryl Birkhead, Bill Bowers, Jeanne Contributors include: Alyson Abramowitz, Steven Black, William Bowman, Grant Canfield, Derek Carter, Al Curry, Alex Eisenstein, M. Breiding, Cy Chauvin, Larry Downes, Carolyn Doyle, Michael Kurt Erichsen, Connie (Reich) Faddis, Brad W. Foster, Bill Glass, Glicksohn, D. Gary Grady, Andy Hooper, Rob Jackson, Denise David R. Haugh, Alan Hunter, Jonh Ingram, Terry Jeeves, Tim Kirk, Leigh, Stephen Leigh, Susan A. Manchester, Patty Peters, Chris Stephen Leigh, Linda Michaels, Pat Mueller, Peggy Ranson, William Sherman, Leah Zeldes Smith, Geri Sullivan, Pat Virzi, Billy Rotsler, Dave Rowe, Schirm, Stu Shiffman, Dan Steffan, Taral Wolfenbarger, Joel Zakem, and (of course) Bill Bowers. Wayne. Memories, Musings, Classic Letters of Comment (old and Photos by Fred A. Levy Haskell, Andy Hooper, Rob Jackson, new), and more, from Gregory Benford, Dick Bergeron, Sheryl Denise Leigh, Stephen Leigh, Rich Lynch, Sam McDonald, Andrew Birkhead, Sutton Breiding, Wm. Breiding, rich brown, Linda Porter, Jeff Schalles, Chris Sherman, Skel, Joel Zakem. Bushyager, Grant Canfield, Terry Carr, Derek Carter, Buck Coulson, Al Curry, Michael Dobson, Brad W. Foster, Mike 6 Cautious steps January has been a month that promised much and delivered little. Because the letter column is very long I’ve divided it into half. Add But here and there Elaine and I can see signs of cautious steps the first half of those letters to Colin Steele’s regular column and toward post-lockdown life. you have little room for anything else in SFC 105. The first few days of the new year give me the pleasure of Start SFC 106 with the second half of the letter column, add the concocting my Favourites Lists for 2020. This year it took a week. ‘Best Of 2020’ lists from me and friends, and you have an issue I was going to find time to write detailed comments to accompany already bursting at the seams. Meanwhile, people keep sending each list. I don’t have room to run the list here, with or without me contributions. The excitement of it all! scrappy comments, but if you want a preview, I will send you a PDF file of *brg* 114, my fanzine for ANZAPA. I have always had a yen to write about Things. Just Things — People and Places and Books and Films and CDs. Not the Big I vowed to finish SF Commentary 105, but it quickly spread out Issues. Not my personal complaints, although I have a few. I like into SFC 106 and probably No. 107 as well. Four weeks later, I’m dipping into tales of the kind of Things that people write about on still knee deep in mailing comments, 75 pages of them. I have their Facebook pages. Trivial stuff, but enjoyable. Prime example banked-up mailing comments on issues 102, 103 (the John is Michael O’Brien’s Facebook page, full of delightful little bits and Bangsund Memorial Issue), and 104. But I also have letters about pieces about wandering around Hobart searching through Issues 99, 100, and 101, letters that didn’t arrive until the op shops with Keith Curtis, playing crocquet, and attending trivia beginning of 2020. Put them together and they become an account nights — stories always well told, with charming photos. Michael of people’s survival strategies during 2020. has become the perfect fanzine writer who no longer writes for fanzines. I would like to have Michael’s natural style. In Victoria we have had three lockdowns. In other countries, fans suffered initial lockdowns, were told that the Covid-19 crisis had But apart from my favourite contributors, nobody much seems passed, and now are confined to quarters again. Every month has amused any more on Facebook (although some Friends remain brought changes of lifestyle to most of us; many have spent nearly amusing). Everybody is so bursting with Indignation and Right- a year confined to home, working, or not, unable to catch up with eous Wrath about something or other that the pleasure has gone friends in person. However, our inconveniences seem very trivial out of their stories. I became involved with Facebook because on compared with the fate of our friends in other countries. We peer it John Bangsund was publishing his new and old essays. But John at your illness rates and death tolls rather like stray people on a has left us, including his Facebook Friends. I stay involved to keep beach staring out to sea at a tidal wave that has not yet reached in contact with both my sisters — Jeanette, living in Guildford, our shore.