Chunga 23 1 Chunga’S Revenge by Randy Byers
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At some previous point in time, before a few of our readers were even born, a two-man industrial performance art group ventured along taxpayer-supported highways to a coastal state park, where they stashed valuables in various structural voids of their decrepit van and followed a trail to the beach. Along the sand a-ways strong flashes of light revealed a small stream that led from the ocean through a ravine into the coastal forest. And across the stream, nestled in an improbably shadowy but verdant glen, straddled a small cabin partly made of wood scavenged from the sea, painted a sky blue much weathered from the sea breezes and age. It had a central room with benches for sitting, some shelving, and two smallish sleeping lofts depending from either side reached by built-in ladders. On the shelves were a dozen books, Gibran, Ram Dass, Pirsig, and there, next to a dogeared mass market paperback of Gravity’s Rainbow (inscribed with a plea that it remain on the premises), was Chunga. Edited by Andy ([email protected]), Randy ([email protected]), and carl ([email protected]). Please address all postal correspondence to 1013 North 36th Street, Seattle WA 98103. Editors: please send three copies of any zine for trade. Available by editorial whim or wistfulness, or, grudgingly, for $5 for a single issue; PDFs of every issue may be found at eFanzines.com. Issue 23, February 2015 Tanglewood 1 an editorial Chunga’s Revenge 2 by Randy Byers as Gregor Chunga was waking up from anxious dreams … Additional Art 6 D. West 8 Steve Stiles Ulrika O’Brien front & back covers 10 Marc Schirmeister Fawcette 5 12 Dan Steffan Stu Shiffman 25 14 Brad W. Foster Ray Nelson 27, 31, 32, 36, 38 España Sheriff 16 One morning, One 18 David Thayer / Teddy Harvia Steve Stiles 29 Motherly Love: Frank Zappa, Laurel Canyon and Harry Bell 30 20 the Art of Cal Schenkel by Andy Hooper Alexis Gilliland 34 The Iron Pig carl juarez design 26 a letter column by divers hands Contributors’ addresses have been redacted in this edition. Tanglewood Bring Me the Head of Peter Rabbit ne of the highlights of being in London for the peaking of Worldcon, next year’s is in Spokane. Worldcon was encountering Teddy Harvia and España Spokane’s road to the Worldcon was a bit off-kilter, since Sheriff, and enjoying their eager anticipation of this issue to begin with it was a byproduct of the inability of Seattle of Chunga. This project asked rather more of them than the organizers to get another Seattle bid off the ground. Spokane typical fanzine, and it was delightful to see “artists” as excited apparently offered a solution to some of the logistical problems about the publication of an issue as “writers” typically are. I of holding a modern Worldcon in Seattle. Then the Spokane think the issue blurs that line thoroughly — there is as much bid faced competition from an inexperienced group bidding for textual content to these graphic stories as in our usual roster of Orlando and a last-minute bid for Helsinki that generated quite reviews, essays and trip reports. And perhaps even more satisfy- a bit of enthusiasm. In the end Spokane conquered the challeng- ing, I think this issue contains the more “fiction” than any issue ers, but it was a close thing. since the Celluloid Fantasia special. To say that Seattleites generally look down their noses at Such fancies are thick upon the ground in our electric age. Spokane is a bit of an understatement. Seattle is a hotbed of On Monday of the Loncon weekend, Carrie Root and I slipped liberalism that looks on Spokane as the embodiment of the away from the last day’s Worldcon program to visit the Royal rural conservatism of Eastern Washington. I’m not free of this Observatory at Greenwich with fellow Seattle fans Glenn Hack- attitude, and I was extremely dubious about the Spokane bid, ney & Kate Schaefer and Jerry Kaufman & Suzle Tompkins. We even though it would bring the Worldcon within driving dis- found that one of the galleries had been “taken over” by a cabal tance. Once Spokane won, however, I began to feel a creeping of “Steampunk” artists, who had created a protagonist known compulsion to help out in some way. My first thought was to put as “The Commodore,” and described his fictional non-discovery together a crew to run the newsletter, but ultimately I agreed to of longitude. Frankly, it seemed only slightly less ridiculous than run the fanzine lounge when Randy Smith asked. the long queue of tourists waiting to take one another’s pictures Being on a Worldcon committee, even at this low level, has standing on the prime meridian. The presence of the “origi- certainly been an eye-opener. I knew Worldcons had a lot nal” calculation of the meridian, visible on the roof a of moving parts to coordinate, but you really can’t appre- few yards away from the modern line, helped ciate the sheer amount of work that goes into orga- underscore how arbitrary the divisions of our nizing a Worldcon until you’ve seen the behind-the- world are. curtain staff email discussions. Holy cow. I’m deeply LonCon 3 was my first World convention in 18 impressed, but I’ve also had it reconfirmed that I’m years, and Carrie had not been since 1995. There no SMOF. Putting out a semi-regular fanzine is were certainly times when the unprecedented crowds complicated enough for me, thank you very much. around us contained almost no familiar faces, and That said, the Sasquan fanzine lounge should be a lot we questioned the energy and money we’d put into the of fun, and I hope those of you who come to the convention will trip. But there were other times when friends of long standing stop by. The high (ahem) concept here is to call it the Lost World appeared out of the maelstrom, libations were shared, subjects Fanzine Lounge, where dinosaurs of a bygone era gather on a of long fascination were discussed. Rob Hansen helped cre- secluded plateau. This idea was inspired by Ulrika O’Brien’s call ate that atmosphere, and helpfully identified bald, grayed fans for a League of Extraordinary Trufen — steampunk fanzine pub- whom I no longer recognized. Our Madison friend Hope Kiefer lishers. Anybody have a steam-driven mimeo available? took her son Griffin to the Hugo Ceremony, much to his displea- So far Ulrika, Andy, Suzle, Jerry Kaufman, Tom Becker, and sure, until he spotted a beaming David Tennant in the crowd, Kat Templeton (if she can make it to the convention) have and inveigled his signature onto a replica sonic screwdriver. As offered to help run the show. If you’d like to help out, let me he showed me the bold, black Scottish scrawl, “Filthy Pierre” know. Ulrika and I have been to Spokane once already to look Strauss began to blow a lively rendition of the theme from Gil- at the facilities with other concom members, and I have to say ligan’s Island on the legendary “Filth-o-Phone” in the echoing, I was impressed. The Davenport Hotel, which is the party hotel, hangar-sized vestibule. As I picked up a copy of the daily news- is a particularly amazing piece of marble wedding cake archi- letter, detailing Kansas City’s victory in the site selection voting, tecture. If you’ve been dubious about Sasquan yourself, I hope it truly seemed as though very little had changed. you’ll give it a closer look. Come to Spokane and drink some — An d y local beer and think like a dinosaur for a while. We’ll do our best to show you a good time. — R a n d y Hawkingbot Warns Strong A.I. Could Threaten Humanity Chunga 23 1 Chunga’s Revenge by Randy Byers It was also at the last Corflu that Jae Leslie Adams, under the influence of too much pirate rum, no doubt, proposed that paper fanzines were becoming delivery mechanisms for artwork. Yes, I’m slow on the uptake, but I’ve only lately begun to realize just how many really fine fan artists there are out there. We’ve made los give artists a chance to exercise their own wit and explore their own creative world, and indeed a beginning on recruiting some of them, but we need to do more. evolving into a round-robin comic strip about there are fan artists, such as Alexis Gilliland and I envision Chunga the late and much missed Bill Kunkel, who have no the adventures of a mutant gypsy vacuum cleaner and his small, interest in illustrating the work of others. wooden sidekick, Philip Kafka van Vogt. That should be around So we’ve done what we could to give our art- #1 ists full artistic license, but even cartoons end up — Editorial, Chunga issue number 23. having to compete with the text of other people’s articles (which is more or less D. West’s complaint, nd so the seed was planted for the whimsical act of time - since he feels that such unrelated cartoons only dis- ...bindingA (is there any other kind?) that is this issue of Chunga. tract our attention from the text). Thus the appeal From the beginning we’ve been interested in of that tossed off idea in the first editorial. What if showcasing the artwork of the many fine fan we handed a whole issue over to the artists, aban- artists who grace the pages of the world’s fan- don articles entirely and just run artwork? The zines.