SF Commentary 84
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SSFF CCoommmmeennttaarryy 8844 NNoovveemmbbeerr 22001122 IN THIS ISSUE:: Brian ALDISS Merv & Helena BINNS Russell BLACKFORD David BOUTLAND DITMAR (Dick JENSSEN) Bruce GILLESPIE Carol KEWLEY Tim MARION Mark PLUMMER Colin STEELE Ray WOOD Cover: Ditmar (Dick Jenssen) S F Commentary 84 SF Commentary No 84, November 2012, 119 pages, is edited and published by Bruce Gillespie ([email protected]), 5 Howard St., Greensborough VIC 3088, Australia, and http://efanzines.com/SFC/SFC84L.pdf. All correspondence: [email protected]. Member fwa. First edition and primary publication is electronic. All material in this publication was contributed for one-time use only, and copyrights belong to the contributors. Alternate editions: * A very limited number of print copies are available. Enquiries to the editor. * The alternate PDF version is portrait-shaped, i.e. it looks the same as the print edition, but with colour graphics. Front and back covers: Ditmar (Dick Jenssen): ‘The Aliens’ A version of the back cover first appeared on the front cover of SFC 80A, which did not have a print edition, and was posted only as a PDF file on eFanzines.com. At that time, Dick Jenssen gave it the title ‘The Alien’. It was based on an idea by Vida Weiss (Yvonne Rousseau’s daughter). She set the following problem: ‘If you stood at the centre of a (regular) pentagonal room with mirrored walls, how would your reflection appear?’ Dick answered this by using Vue 8 graphic modelling software. The result reminded Dick of Murray Leinster’s classic SF tale ‘The Aliens’. A full explanation of both the process invilved in producing the graphics and the stories they suggest can be found in SF Commentary 80A, pp. 5–6. Graphics: Grant Gittus (p. 13); Robert Mizerek (p. 16); Anders Sandburg (p. 18); Sheila White (p. 22); Carol Kewley (p. 37); Jack Kirby (p. 75). Photographs: Mervyn Binns (pp. 5, 6, 7); George Turner Collection (p. 9); Jennifer Bryce (p. 11); Helena Binns (p. 11); David Boutland (p. 20); Peter Weston (p. 24). 2 Contents 4 I MUST BE TALKING ABOUT MY FRIENDS 25 THE STRANGE CASE OF BRUCE R. GILLESPIE The Editor Mark Plummer 10 Damien Broderick Bruce Gillespie The Editor Russell Blackford 28 BRUCE GILLESPIE’S FANZINES, 1968–2012: THE COMPLETE CATALOGUE 19 David Boutland Mark Plummer The Editor David Boutland 37 DARK MATTER IN THE U.S. FILM LET ME IN 23 Other pioneers Ray Wood The Editor 24 Tribute to Harry Harrison (1925–2012) 62 THE PRISONER RECAPTURED: Brian Aldiss A REVIEW OF THE FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR’S EDITION SET OF THE PRISONER Bruce Gillespie (AND SUBSEQUENT THOUGHTS THEREON) Tim Marion 78 THE FIELD Colin Steele 3 I must be talking about my friends At school in 1961, I had two friends. One was the co-publisher of my first The next day I met ASFR co-editor John Foyster and his first wife Elizabeth fanzine, before I had heard of science fiction fanzines. After our family for the first time, and they seemed hard to talk to. I got along well with Tony moved from the city to the country, I lost contact with that friend, but kept Thomas, who was engaged to John Foyster’s sister Myfanwy. in touch with the other until he left for Sydney in 1972. I didn’t hear from him again, but I discovered that he died in 1994. Was there ever such a group as this? Not in my experience. Australia has had groups of writers, usually centred on university departments or the literary At Melbourne University, 1965 to 1967, I had two friends. We would meet magazines. It has had readers’ groups, usually meeting as Council of Adult for coffee in the afternoon at the Baillieu Library coffee shop. One of them Education book clubs. The science fiction world has been unique: writers kept in touch until his marriage broke up in 1979. During the 1980s he cut mixing with readers; readers publishing their own amateur magazines, called contacts with all his old friends. The other lived in my area. We would meet ‘fanzines’. Most of the people who were not published authors called them- occasionally on the street in Fitzroy, but we moved to the suburbs in 2004, selves ‘fans’. ASFR, a fanzine, was also an authoritative journal of fine writing but I’ve not seen him since. about its field, the very model of the type of magazine I wanted to find a way to publish. Late in 1967, the year I finished my degree at Melbourne University, I wrote to John Bangsund, the editor of the magazine Australian Science Fiction Review, During Easter 1968 I attended my first SF convention, called the Melbourne enclosing two articles I had written about the works of Philip K. Dick. John SF Conference. Everybody’s name tag showed the shape of the penny rang me at Bacchus Marsh from Ferntree Gully, inviting me to meet the gang farthing bike, the publicity image for Patrick McGoohan’s TV series The — the editorial collective of ASFR — a few weeks later. In December 1967, I Prisoner, some of whose episodes I had been able to watch at a friend’s place met many of the people who would have the most influence on my life for in Bacchus Marsh late the previous year. I witnessed for the first time panel the next 45 years. discussions and the auction conducted by Dr Dick Jenssen, an effervescent wit. I tried talking to the members of the ASFR team, the only people I knew, During that weekend, John Bangsund was amiable, but I found it hard to talk but they were too busy during the convention to talk to a neofan such as me. to him. Lee Harding, a published author, and one of the best writers for I made some new friends, including Tom Newlyn and Alf van der Poorten ASFR, was delighted to meet me. I stayed at his place on the weekend when from Sydney and Pedr Gurteen from Melbourne. I lost contact with Tom in his wife Carla was in hospital, having just given birth to their third child. Rob 1971, and Alf died a few years ago. Pedr popped upon Facebook recently. Gerrand was my age, friendly. He had just been appointed assistant editor of ASFR. Damien Broderick seemed inscrutable. George Turner was the star At that convention, most of us were fans, people who published fanzines, critic of ASFR, and a published novelist. His face and manner were craggy, went to conventions, and and hung out together at places such as the and he was very difficult to talk to. John Bangsund’s delightful first wife Melbourne SF Club or the front counter of McGill’s Newsagency, presided Diane, however, had no trouble talking to George. over by Merv Binns, president of the Club, or around John Bangsund’s kitchen table. 4 Auctioneer Dick Jenssen (standing), 1968 Melbourne SF Conference held at the Melbourne SF Club; with (l. to r.): Tony Thomas, Lee Harding, John Foyster. The name tags show the penny-farthing symbol from the Patrick McGoohan Prisoner TV show. (Photo: Mervyn Binns.) 5 Michael Moorcock in the mid 1960s. Most of the writers were much easier to talk to, and made me feel much more welcome, than did most of the fans. In 1968, I did my best to enter fandom in Mel- bourne, although I was also trying to finish a Diploma of Education as the final part of my training to become a secondary teacher. I was living with my family in Bacchus Marsh, an hour’s country train ride away from Melbourne. The last train home left at 6.20 p.m., so I could not attend meetings of the Melbourne SF Club. I did visit John Bangsund’s place several times, and there got to know Damien Broderick and George Turner a bit better, talked to John Foyster, and began to talk to Leigh Edmonds, with whom I had most in common. Leigh was about my age, also a bachelor who found that being an SF fan was more than a bit of a barrier to finding a girlfriend, and en- thused about many of the books and records I enjoyed. He published a good fanzine, Rataplan, and he had Big Plans. In 1968 he started ANZAPA (the Australian and New Zealand Amateur Pub- (l. to r.) Damien Broderick, David Boutland (David Rome), and Lee Harding; at lishing Association), and included me as a mem- the 1969 Melbourne SF Convention. (Photo: Mervyn Binns.) ber, although I still had no way to print my own fanzines. In 1969 I was sent to Ararat Technical School to attempt to teach secondary The few published authors at the convention tended to gather in a corner, school. This was my first real job, so I hoped I would have the money to start conducting vigorous conversations, laughing a lot, or glowering at each my own fanzine. Most of the articles and reviews were kindly donated by John other. They included David Boutland (who published under the name David Bangsund, who was in the process of closing ASFR and starting a new fanzine, Rome), Lee Harding, Wynne Whiteford (a freelance journalist whose first Scythrop. George Turner was the first writer to send me newly written reviews. published story had appeared in the 1930s), Damien Broderick, and Jack John Bangsund offered me his mailing list. However, I still did not own a Wodhams, who had travelled from Brisbane to be the Guest of Honour. He duplicator that I could use to print the issue. I typed 66 stencils for the first was being published regularly in John Campbell’s Analog magazine, based in issue of SF Commentary.