May, 2014 Askance Volume VII, Number 1 Whole Number 31

Edited and published by John Purcell, 3744 Marielene Circle, College Station, TX 77845-3926

Contents © 2014 by John A. Purcell. Contact information: [email protected]

3744 Marielene Circle, College Station, TX 77845 Even so, all rights revert to original artists and authors upon publication.

What you have here in your hands (or on screen) is another Mythical Publication. Copies of this fine, sort of semi-quarterly fanzine can be had for The Usual, which means expressed interest, submission and eventual inclusion of articles and artwork, letters of comment, expressed interest, and cold hard cash in the amount of $3.00 USD. Bribes are also accepted. Of course, if you send in locs, articles, and artwork, you just earned a life-time free subscription. Not a bad deal, if you ask me.

Contents

Bemused Natterings………………………………………3 Go Ahead. I Dare you. Define Fannish! by John Purcell………………………………………….5 Remembering Lucius Shepard, by Randy Byers………………………………………...9 Problematic Space Cowboys, by Cait Coker …………………………………………12 Tales From the Convention by Lloyd Penney………………………………………..16 Fanzines Received, Read, & Reviewed – abridged………18 From the Hinterlands, letters from devoted readers…………………………....21 Regional Convention Calendar…………………………..28 What’s Next………………………………………………32

Art credits: Front Cover by Al Sirois Sheryl Birkhead – 2; clip art – 3; photo of art by Valerie Purcell – 4; nicked off the Internet – 5, 7, 12, 14, 15, 21, 28, 32; Googled “Lucius Shepard” – 9; photo provided by Randy Byers – 11; Lloyd Penney – 16; photo by David Dyer-Bennett – 17; Steve Stiles – 18, 20; Taral Wayne – 25; Al Sirois – 27; Teddy Harvia – 31.

Member FW A (since 2007!)

2 This issue is *not* late…

…it only feels that way. But that works out fairly well since this is essentially the seventh anniversary issue of this fine fanzine. Busy seems to be my new middle name these days, since I spent a good amount of time preparing for facilitating a discussion workshop at a professional conference out in the hill country west of Austin that happened to be on the same weekend as AggieCon 45 (April 4-6,2014) which once again was held in the College Station Hilton Hotel and Conference Center. Valerie had artwork on display in the AggieCon 45 Art Show, which is always a good thing. Then the following week she had a “booth” – one of those tent thingies on legs, that is – at the Mid-Town Art in the Park Show in , Texas (just Saturday, April 12th), at which she did very well. Also, some of her work sold at Aggiecon 45, so that was likewise A Good Thing.

And speaking of Valerie and her artwork…

We have ourselves a winner!

In January of this year – 2014, that is, although unless I get off my ass and finish this issue the date references herein are going to need some serious revising – Valerie entered a juried art show here in College Station, and, lo and behold, she received the Best In Show Award in the Mixed-Media, Semi- Professional category. The truly amazing thing about this win is that it was the original artwork for what became the cover of the WOOF collation at last year’s world convention in San Antonio, Texas. How about them apples, eh? Not only that, but another of her pieces – a shadow box that lights up featuring a mermaid shaped out of a cut up aluminum lemon-lime soda can – won second place in that same division. So hats off to Valerie for these awards! They are much deserved.

This year is definitely going to be her break out year, no question. In fact, the next art show she will be entering is Apollocon’s: this convention is slated for the weekend of June 27-29, 2014, and will be held at the Doubletree International Hotel by Bush International Airport in Houston, Texas. Details on this convention can be found in the Regional Convention Calendar found in this issue. We hope to see some of this fanzine’s faithful readers there. FYI: Apollocon 2014’s Professional Guest of Honor is David Gerrold, and the Artist Guest of Honor is Theresa Mather. The unique thing about Apollocon is that Theresa’s husband is an old friend of mine, Barry Short. I will have to write about this later on at some point, probably as the need to fill up the odd page space appears.

3 Who’s who in this issue This particular issue has a rather eclectic collection of fare. There is academic discourse about science fiction (in a *gasp* fanzine?? Say it ain’t so…), an obituary for a recently departed author, natter about things fannish (such as what that particular word means and fanzine reviews), plus the standard features of upcoming cons and letters. Yes, even this e- gets letters of comment. Will wonders never cease?

Randy Byers Randy is a member of the editorial triumverate of Chunga, a Hugo-nominated fanzine. When preparing material for this issue I asked him if he had any ideas to write, and he directed me to his appreciation of the late author Lucius Shepard, which appeared on Randy’s LiveJournal , Dry Ice Factory. Shepard is definitely a fine writer who was not only admired and respected during his lifetime, but he passed away way too soon. It is an honor to publish Randy’s tribute in this issue.

Cait Coker Cait is the former curator of the Science Fiction and Fanzine Collection at the Cushing Library on the campus of Texas A&M University here in College Station, Texas. She left a year ago for greener pastures at a higher altitude in Colorado, where she is literally pursuing higher education and research in the stratified regions of Colorado State University. Her interests range all the way from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to science fiction conventions and fanzines to Medieval Studies. Valerie Purcell’s WOOF 2013 original cover painting won Best In Show! Here it is practically covered up by the ribbon. Yes, we are very proud of her. (btw, I take lousy pictures). Lloyd Penney This guy really needs no introduction, so I’m not going to bother. Oh, okay. Fine. *ahem* Lloyd regales us with yet another of his Tales from the Convention, this time recalling his First Time: attending that all important initial sf convention. Be forewarned, gentle reader. It apparently was not a pretty sight.

Al Sirois Long-time fans know this fellow’s name and work. Back when I produced This House (1976-1988), Al contributed artwork from time to time, and as you can see from the front cover, he still does. He has also been enjoying a spurt of professional writing and art success – if we can believe what Al says on Facebook – so it is an honor to have him return to the pages of one of my fanzines. Welcome back, Al!

4

Go ahead. I dare you.

Define Fannish!

Musings on the Topic by John Purcell

A bit more than two months ago – March 13th, to be exact - my good friend, and compulsive loc-writer, Lloyd Penney sent out the link to a very interesting article written by Brad R. Torgersen that covered some interesting territory. A bit of background is in order: Mr. Torgersen is an author (of numerous short stories, one which received Hugo and Nebula nominations in 2012, “Ray of Light”; his novelette “Outbound” won the Analog ‘AnLab’ Readers’ Choice award for Best Novelette) who writes a blog that covers all sorts of topics relating to the science fiction field. Here is the link in question that Lloyd sent: http://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/whence-fandom/. To quickly come to the point, Brad posits an interesting viewpoint of what SF looks like to him. He starts off with a Venn Diagram (copy/pasted below) that looks more like a batch of multi-colored soap bubbles that came off a four year old’s bubble wand on a windy day. Like any good Venn Diagram, many soap bubbles circles overlap, each circle representing a particular fannish interest group (e.g., fanzines, conventions, clubs, Trek fandom, Dr. Who, Browncoats, , etc.). Some of these float separate from the rest, but not many. For the most part, there are a lot of overlaps and a fair number of smaller groupings that don’t seem to hold a close attraction to other subgroups.

I have to admit Mr. Torgersen’s viewpoint overlaps with mine. In fact, what he offers is not so much a radical interpretation of his observations of fandom, but is more

5 of a visualization and description of how science fiction has Balkanized since the mid-1970s. I can’t imagine many people disagreeing with the basics of this viewpoint; it has definitely become a familiar topic on convention panels and in assorted fanzines and , and there seems to be, in my mind at least, a consensus opinion that SF Fandom has become a monster in more than just size: it is also capable of generating a massive amount of money. Greenbacks. Cashola. Beaucoups bucks.

*ahem*

One thing is definite to me: Science Fiction is now the mainstream. At least it is the Media Mainstream, in terms of how Hollywood sees it. Those of us who have been active in through conventions, clubs, fanzines, and so on for any length of time – say, on the order of 40 years or so – understand that since the mid-1970s when , and then , proved how much money could be made through those two mega-popular franchises, every single production company in the television and movie industries decided to jump into the apparent lucrative Science Fiction pool and soak up some of that filthy lucre. I can understand this rationale; in fact, it doesn’t surprise me and is quite predictable. That’s the Hollywood mindset. The problem is that cracker-jack computer graphic animation doth not guarantee a big pay day. Sure, a movie can look wonderful, especially when it’s based on a popular book by a big-name author, then add in a decent cast, but if the screenplay is terrible, then the result is or John Carter (which I kind of enjoyed). For what it’s worth, the new Godzilla movie earned $195 million over its opening weekend, or so I learned via Bob Eggleton on Facebook (and supported by box office reports on the Internet).

I am afraid I have wandered a bit off topic, but not really. The point I am making is that many non- fannish people call themselves “science fiction fans” when what they really mean is that they are media science fiction fans: in other words, they are fans of how television networks and movie producers view science fiction and what it’s like, or rather, what is likely to appeal to viewers; this is how consumer fans are created, and they are legion. There is, of course, cross-over interest from “true” or “pure” science fiction fans – those who read the books, magazines, produce fanzines, discuss the literature, etcetera – who also watch the shows and movies, but percentage-wise, they’re a miniscule minority when compared to the vast numbers of media consumer fans who hold the money that media producers pursue.

The problem is that it may be nigh on impossible to tell a media science fiction that they are not a “true” science fiction fan. Going back to Brad Torgersen’s elaborate Venn Diagram vision of current SF Fandom, the crux of his argument is this paragraph:

The point I want to make (with the diagram) is that, in 21st century fandom, there aren’t any touchstone movies, books, or other properties which every fan, writer, or editor can rely on being known to every other fan, writer, or editor. There is no longer a central nexus for fandom. Oh, to be sure, there are some properties (like Star Trek and Star Wars) which enjoy such overwhelming cultural ubiquity that it’s difficult to find anyone who is not at least aware of them, aware of the characters, the general conceits of the franchises, et cetera. But even here, you can (if you dig

6 beneath the surface) locate veins of fandom which are largely oblivious to these “big circle” properties with their millions upon millions of adherents.

Torgersen may be right here in that in 2014, there aren’t “touchstone movies, books or other properties” of which everyone is aware. A good resemblance argument here might be to compare the 1950’s classic movies The Day the Earth Stood Still and The War of the Worlds and what they meant to the American viewing public and diehard SF fans of that time to 2014’s fans and consumer market and their relationship to the newly released Godzilla and last year’s blockbuster science fiction movie Gravity. Granted, there is a huge difference between these groups – and it could be argued that this is like comparing apples to pomegranates – because the cultural growth over these past six decades has accelerated at a breakneck pace; so has communication technology, too.

Still, Brad Torgersen states repeatedly that it is common for one sub-fandom group to have no clue whatsoever to the existence of other sub-fandom groups. My experiences at AggieCons since 2006 offer corroboration. Attendees stick to their chosen areas of interest: gamers (once they go in that room, they are unlikely to come out – except to run to the restrooms directly across the hall from the gaming room) rarely interact with the costumers (who are usually Anime-inspired) or the dealer’s room or art show. In fact, the AggieCon art show is one of the smallest I’ve ever seen at any con, yet it still generates a fair chunk of change in sales each year, enough to warrant its continuation. Not only that, last year I was astonished to see a dealer with two tables of sf pulps from the 1930s to the 1970s at AggieCon 44; I spent $54 on an assortment of a total of 20 pulps dating from 1934 to 1965, and that dealer told me on Sunday morning, while packing up, that I was his best customer, maybe selling that many total pulps to all other buyers. Thanks to me, he said, he made back his investment in the dealer’s room.

So what does that mean in regard to Brad Togersen’s SF Fandom Venn Diagram? Just this: there will be fans of practically anything sf-related at a decent sized general science fiction convention, and that cons have morphed from a literary-based event to a media-based event, and this has happened in our lifetimes. Does this Balkanization of Fandom mean the death of Science Fiction As We Know It? Probably not. As Torgersen says, “Different things will matter (or not matter) to different people, and the various circles will often float past one another without there being much rub-off or blending.” I respect his position that we need to embrace all these differences and, as he put it, “celebrate the vastness of the ocean while acknowledging all the islands upon it.” That makes sense to me.

7

I think it is interesting, as someone who came into fandom when it was still literary-based and a much smaller universe where everyone pretty much knew everybody else, to have watched this transformation. Thinking back over the 41 years I have now been involved in fandom (off and on), the change is remarkable. I mean, the differences between Minicon 27 in 1992 and Aggiecon 36 in 2006 – the two cons that bracketed my 14 years of non-convention attendance – were mind-blowing. They were practically completely different entities except at their cores. The format was essentially the same, but the content had changed. Then after attending a couple Fencons, some Steampunk Events, and LoneStarCon 3, I can definitively say that Fandom As I Knew It was still around, but smothered by all of the variety comprising Fandom At Large. No question, I am still a science fiction fan whose main interests are books, fanzines, and conventions, besides all of my friends still hanging about, but it’s not hard for me to recognize that SF fandom is no longer A Proud And Lonely Thing. It’s one big money- generator, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. I fear that the genre has expanded so fast, mostly thanks to Star Wars and the Star Trek franchises, that one day it may collapse upon itself like a black hole.

Anyway. As one of the illustrations I have nicked from the Internet to accompany my ruminations shows, one of these fan subgroups is the massive Dr. Who bloc. Traditional science fiction fans, who may have first embraced that television show when it first aired back in 1963, now generally loathe Dr. Who, mostly because of its large and very loyal fan base that actually nominates and votes for the Hugo Awards. This has been fodder for much heated debate for at least two decades now, so I won’t go there. The point I want to finish with is this: many Dr. Who fans are blissfully ignorant of the literary origins of science fiction conventions, and frankly, they don’t care. For the most part they hang out together and enjoy other Whovians as they jabber about their favorite Doctors, episodes, speculate on the direction of the next series…

Sound familiar? I say let them enjoy themselves. I prefer the companionship of my friends in fanzine and convention fandom, and that works for me. Then again, I have been accused of being too reasonable about all this, so pfft! to my naysayers. Still, I stand by what I say.

So why don’t I foam at the mouth and scream incoherent epithets at people who call themselves “sci-fi fans” and point my old, bony finger at these ignorant media fans? Simple. I remember what I was like when I first encountered fandom in 1973. Fandom may have been smaller then, but in my eyes, it was an entirely new world for me to explore. Once I began that exploration I learned a lot and made loads of wonderful new friends. This, of course, is why I have stayed for so long.

My hope is that maybe – it is possible, you know – that some of these media fans might broaden their horizons outside of Dr. Who, Firefly/Serenity, Star Trek, Anime, comic books, vampires, or whatever it is that they are fans of. What happened to me could very well happen to someone else. And in my mind, that would be a very good thing.

This fanzine supports Kansas City in 2016 and in 2018

8 Remembering Lucius Shepard by Randy Byers

I was by no means a close friend of Lucius Shepard, who died Tuesday night [March 18, 2014 – ed]. I got to know him when he lived in Seattle in the '90s. One of my first memories of him was when he, along with his pal, Tony Daniels, got 86ed from Vanguard parties for bad behavior, the details of which I no longer remember. I seem to recall that he was already on the shit list of some of my friends for what was considered mistreatment of a former girlfriend, but again I haven't retained the details. He was certainly capable of insensitive behavior, but by that point we had connected because we smoked and drank and liked rock music. My memory is that he moved to Seattle because of the music scene of that era, but that may be a simplified version of the real story. He had some good friends here because of his connection to the Clarion West writer’s workshop, too, including Bob Kruger and Les Howle, as well as Tony.

I read and enjoyed his first novel, Green Eyes, and I believe I read his first story collection, The Jaguar Hunter, as well. However, that's about all I read, other than a comic book mini-series called Vermillion that he did for Vertigo. His writing was powerful but not really my cup of tea, partly because it almost always straddled a border with horror, which is a genre I often have problems with. He was always a great guy to smoke and drink and talk music (and books and movies) with, however, and what little time I spent with him was spent doing just that. He was a natural-born raconteur, and he'd been all over the world having great adventures, so it was a pleasure to listen to him spin tales about his life. (For an example of what he could do in conversation, check out his LJ post, "10 Christmases".)

One of the legendary moments of his time in Seattle came at a party at Les Howle's house in West Seattle, when he and Tami Vining started thumb-wrestling on the front porch. I can't remember how it all went down exactly, but it got very intense, because they're both very competitive personalities. They shifted around each other, trying to gain advantage, and suddenly Lucius lost his footing and fell off the front porch, which was a pretty long drop. He was a very large man, and I remember feeling the impact of his body hitting the ground -- or maybe it was just that the sound of it was so vivid. Surprisingly, he got up and was able to walk. We'd been drinking quite a bit, so that probably helped. As I recall, he later said he had trouble moving for days afterward. At the time, however, he laughed it off and accused Tami of trying to kill him.

More along the lines of his bad boy persona, there was a time when a bunch of us went to a party at a to find something to drink. We didn't know anybody there, so we stood in a circle in the middle of the room drinking whatever there was to drink. Lucius lit a cigarette, which was expressly forbidden at that party. For a while nobody was willing to confront him, because it was Lucius Fucking Shepard, famous and award-winning writer. Eventually one of the hosts came up behind him and tapped

9 him on the shoulder. Lucius used his big body to block the person and looked over his other shoulder, pretending he couldn't see who was trying to get his attention. The guy moved over and tapped his other shoulder, and Lucius shifted his body to block him and looked the other way. I'll always remember the innocent, baffled look on Lucius' face as he pretended that he couldn't figure out where the tap was coming from. A beautiful physical performance, although eventually he gave in and put out the cigarette.

Lucius was a former musician, and there was a strong thread of music to our conversations. Sometime after the 1993 the still-teenaged Geoff Hartwell was in town, probably with his father, and he wanted to see a live show. He told me that Lucius had suggested an all-ages show that Built to Spill was playing at the OK Hotel. They had just released their first album, and a buzz was building, so Geoff and I went to check them out. I was blown away by their show, picked up the album, and became a big fan, catching a number of live shows over the next few years. Years later, because I'd bought him a bunch of drinks at the 2001 Westercon (about which more later), he mailed me a CD by a Swiss band called the Young Gods. I'd never heard of them and have never run across any discussion of them, but it's a good album that I've returned to periodically over the years. When I finally connected with Lucius on LiveJournal, I told him at one point that I was getting into Spanish-language pop music and mentioned Concha Buika. Knowing his affinity for Spanish-language culture I asked him for recommendations, and he pointed me to Cesária Évora and an album called Afro-Peruvian Classics: Soul of Black Peru. He was a font of knowledge about obscure artists who made great music, and I sometimes wondered how he had the time to listen to all this stuff. Life of a writer, I guess.

Probably the longest conversation I ever had with him was at that 2001 Westercon. He had moved to , Washington from Seattle a few years before that, so I didn't see him as often anymore. I was sitting at the bar at the convention hotel with my friends Ron and AP when Lucius came in and sat down next to me. I proceeded to buy him drinks, and we spent pretty much the whole day there. Perhaps the next day too, I can't really remember. Occasionally other people, such as Gardner Dozois, would come in and sit and talk with Lucius for a while, but in between he and I shot the shit about everything in the world. He told tales of hair-raising adventures in Central America, and I particularly remembered one about a ramshackle flight to a Honduran island named Roatan that I visited years later with my family. He threatened to break the legs of one of my favorite writers, and I told him I'd fuck him up if he did so. This became the running theme of the conversation. Somewhere along the line a Best of Journey album started to play, and I wailed about how terrible Journey was. He wouldn't have any of it. He thought Steve Perry was a fine singer, and the band was good. That was the first inkling I got that my teenage hatred of Journey was out of step with elite opinion. We argued all day, with a lot of laughter, about writers, bands, and movies. He was a man of strong opinions, skillfully expressed, and he loved the push and jostle of an argument. The other thing I remember distinctly from that long day in the bar was when he pulled out a human skull that had been ornamented in what he said was a Tibetan style. He was giving it to a woman he knew, maybe a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend. I never followed up on it later, but I was awe-struck at the time. Is owning a human skull even legal? It was such a perfectly Lucius item -- an exotic, macabre, gorgeous memento mori.

Was that the last time I ever saw him? Probably not, but it was years ago that I last saw him anyway. At some point he started posting on LiveJournal, and I started interacting with him there. By then he had befriended that favorite writer of mine whose legs he'd once threatened to break, and that was heartening to see. We argued about movies on LiveJournal, and he pointed me to obscure ones that he got to see as a judge at obscure film festivals in Europe. Eventually he shifted to Facebook, but while I followed him there I rarely commented, because the threads were always humungous and thus hard to

10 participate in without a lot more reading than I was willing to commit to them. We did chitchat about Roatan in one of those threads at some point, and he remembered the decrepit little resort called Island where I'd stayed with my family. When he fell silent on Facebook last year, it was months before I learned that he'd had a stroke, and it was only after his death this week that I learned his kidneys had failed a couple of years before that. In the pictures I'd seen of him in those last few years, he looked a wan shadow of his rowdy former self.

He had an air of perpetual disappointment with the many failings of humanity, but he clearly had a lot of affection for his friends. A larger-than-life character was Lucius Shepard. I only saw the barest tip of the iceberg, but even that much left an imprint. Because of the lifestyle he had lived for so many years and because of his recent health problems, it wasn't really a surprise when I heard the news of his death, but I still felt a pang of loss. It feels a little presumptuous, really, considering the fact that I didn't know him all that well, but there it is. I had to say goodbye, and this is the only way I know how.

From Randy’s LJ posting: Lucius Shepard on the left.

Since this space needed to be filled somehow, allow me to regale you, my gentle readers, with the titles of some books and stories I have recently read: The Incrementalists by Steven Brust and Skyler White (2013), which I read one or two chapters at a time; “The Legion of Lazarus” by Edmond Hamilton (Imagination Science Fiction, April 1956); “Monsters of Mars” by Edmond Hamilton (Astounding Stories , April 1931); “The Shunned House” by H. P. Lovecraft (, October 1937); In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (1994), which is not science fiction, but a powerful novel based on the true life story of the Mirabel sisters during the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. Of all these, this last one gripped me. The others are all fun, but the Alavrez book is so well written and I highly recommend it.

11 Problematic space cowboys

by Cait Coker

Here’s how it is. There was a really great space western TV show--had a great cast, great writing. Despite all of the episodes being aired out of order, some episodes not being aired at all, and a Friday night death slot, it was much beloved. It eventually got a DVD box set, a full-length major motion picture, a documentary about the fandom, and a passel of sporadic comic books. The show was called Firefly, and its fans were called Browncoats.

This ain’t their story.

Something must be in the air recently because people have been re-watching Firefly. There’s nothing particularly extraordinary in this; it’s a good show, and there’s been a dearth of space operas recently. (It’s probably telling that the recent Star Trek films have spent more time on Earth than boldly going anywhere.) Its tenth anniversary was over a year ago, largely remarked upon by a couple of posters sold from specialty geek shops. So maybe it’s time for nostalgia. After all, in some ways, the space western is as nostalgic as it gets.

The trope is probably most famous per ’s classic billing of Star Trek as “Wagon Train to the stars”: all adventure and romance, thrilling heroics, and just enough exploration and science to justify the next set of make-up prosthetics and mildly racy costuming choices. At its best, you get the brilliance of the original series and at its worst you end up with a hot mess like Cowboys vs. Aliens. There’s something beautiful and primal about “the final frontier” with its connotations of brave new worlds and, sometimes, hints of Manifest Destiny; maybe even that Battlestar Galactica-esque “all of this has happened before and will happen again.” And that is where we start to get into trouble.

12 Let’s rewind a bit. In terms of genre, the Western and the Adventure Story came of age roughly around the same time, at the turn of the twentieth century. In many ways, they were responses to the massive urbanization that was taking place in the period; the actual frontier began to shrink as jobs and wealth started to concentrate in the cities, developing an urban sprawl of population centers along the American coastlines that left a rural middle land hastening to keep up. There was little left that was either unknown or unspoiled. In fiction, on the other hand, the world was always ripe and new and undomesticated. Only two decades later, Science Fiction as a genre came into its own as well, echoing the same basic premises as the other genres, only clad in bright metal and tubes instead of leather and dust. Together, Westerns, Adventure stories, and Science Fiction stories made up three-quarters (the other two being Mysteries and Romances) of those cheap and popular publications called the pulps. Now, these three genres shared a few preoccupations in addition to their mass-consumer appeal (and probably because of it). One was with what we might call “traditional masculinity” or even hyper- masculinity; the heroes were often the sort of ruggedly handsome, muscled, masters of nature that are perhaps best represented by figures like Tarzan or John Carter of Mars. Another preoccupation was with race, promoting a form of white superiority (again, perhaps best represented by Tarzan) over Africans, various “green men,” and of course, the Indian.

[Note: For the rest of this essay I’m going to use the term “Indian” because that was not only the name of the stereotype, but also a very specific fictional representation independent of any genuine Native American or member of an indigenous tribe.]

And this is what brings us back to Firefly.

You’ll notice in Firefly that the world as represented is explicitly shown to be a hybrid of Western American culture and Chinese culture--or at least, some of the trappings of Chinese culture. Because for a world whose denizens speak American English and Chinese interchangeably, there doesn’t seem to be all that many actual Chinese people there at all. In fact, the main cast and the majority of the guest stars are pretty damn white, with only a couple of African-Americans (and one notable British Black) to lend any diversity at all. We might also question why, especially in the motion picture Serenity which had wider distribution, the main villain (Chewitel Ejiofor) was conspicuously English.

That brings to: Who is the greatest enemy of the intrepid frontiersman? The Indian.

Firefly makes the interesting choice to not fill its worlds--all of which, incidentally, seem to be the terraformed moons and planets of a singular solar system, somewhere further than our own--with its own natives. Instead, the insidious foreign enemies are the Reavers, who are initially portrayed as “men gone mad at the edge of space” (“Serenity”). In a later episode, “Bushwhacked,” the crew finds a ship that had been attacked by Reavers, leaving only a single survivor. One whom, our Captain Reynolds maintains, is not longer human himself: “Reavers ain't men. Or they forgot how to be. Now they're just nothing. They got out to the edge of the galaxy, to that place of nothing, and that's what they became.” This story has more in common with the captivity narrative of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries than it does with most traditional Western stories, not even those as problematic as The Searchers.

13 While older westerns may be preoccupied with race and miscegenation, Firefly instead is preoccupied with a trauma so absolute that “Charity is a bullet in the brainpan.” In short, the Reavers are not only nonhuman, but have no culture and presumably no natural children. As explained in the film Serenity, Reavers are the victims of a government mind control experiment, the survivors of whom have become destructive cannibals whose ships have no radiation shields, leaving them physically scarred and (likely) infertile. Their only way to “reproduce” is to make others like them. And yet, Reavers are self-aware enough to coordinate sophisticated attacks on population centers and enemy fleets, leave traps, and apparently, want to continue their line and culture. Indeed, as they are coded as being pushed farther and farther into the margins of space as civilization expands, we are encouraged to view their disappearance as favorable to the common good.

Whedon consciously adopted the visual and narrative language of the Old Western interpretation of the Indian in creating the Reavers: "Every story needs a monster. In the stories of the old west it was the Apaches" (Arroyo). In commentary for the DVD of Serenity, he also references film westerns that were his inspiration for scenes in the film, including the moment in Ulzana’s Raid when a cavalry officer shoots a woman to prevent her being raped to death (as Mal shoots a man in Serenity) and the scene of the Reaver fleet appearing from the Oort cloud as a reinterpretation of the “Indians coming over the hill” moment in classic films. And though by the end of Serenity we are informed of the true nature of the Reavers, we still do not view them as victims. Indeed, as River Tam triumphantly slaughters them en masse, we feel her victory, not their tragic defeat.

And speaking of tragic defeats, let’s talk about the other meaning of Serenity. The background of Firefly as introduced in the pilot is in the aftermath of a stellar Civil War between the Independents and the Alliance. Captain Mal Reynolds and his second-in-command Zoe Washburne served together as Browncoats who opposed Unification; we’re never told what instigated the war or what the Independents were fighting for (some variation of Planets’ Rights?), only that the Battle of Serenity Valley, at which both Mal and Zoe were present on the losing side, sealed the fate of that conflict. (Whedon has also stated that for this sequence he was directly inspired by Michael

14 Shaara’s The Killer Angels, a historical novel that retells the battle of Gettysburg across both sides.) Throughout the show, the language of the Civil War and Reconstruction is reiterated, from direct dialog such as “We will rise again!” (“The Train Job”) to passing references to slaves and plantations (“Serenity,” “Shindig”); given the apparent ongoing existence of a slave trade, the War for Unification was something quite different than the American Civil War.

Mal carries his own psychological scars from the War, as comes up repeatedly in the show. In “Serenity,” Badger tells him “What were you in the war, that big war you failed to win? You were a Sergeant, yeah? Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds, Balls and Bayonets Brigade. Big tough veteran. Now you got yourself a ship and you're a captain. Only I think you're still a Sergeant, see. Still a soldier, man of honor in a den of thieves.” In “Bushwhacked,” he tells the Alliance Commander who has also addressed him as Sergeant that he “May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.” Again, there’s that helpful passage in “The Train Job,” and still later, in “The Message,” the central theme is about the inability to ever truly “come back” from a war.

Now, a cynical person might ask what separates the PTSD of Mal from the trauma of the unnamed victim of the Reavers in “Bushwhacked.” They are both white men in their prime, only one is designated “hero” and the other as either “victim” or “nonhuman.” In reality, of course, the difference is that they play different roles in a distinct cultural narrative that has been historically arbitrated: the “noble Southerner” who must carry on and the “noble savage” who is only doomed to die. From John Carter of Mars to Dances with Wolves, we have seen that story before, and here it is again. It is problematic because you’d think we’d have a different narrative by now (or by five hundred years from now).

“It is the way it is,” Mal says in “Serenity,” but you’d think we could maybe do better than that. Sources and Resources

Arroyo, Sam (October 20, 2005). "Joss Whedon Panel @ Wondercon: Full Report.". Comic Book Resources. 2005 Boiling Point Productions DBA Comic Book Resources.

Rabb, J. Douglas; Richardson, Michael. “Reavers and Redskins: Creating the Frontier Savage.” In: Wilcox, Rhonda V., and Cochran, Tanya R.,eds. Investigating Firefly and Serenity: Science Fiction on the Frontier. : I. B. Taurus, 2008. p. 127-138.

Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels. , 1974.

Watt-Evans, Lawrence. “The Heirs of Sawney Beane.” In: Espenson, Jane/Yeffeth, Glenn, eds. Finding Serenity: Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Dallas, TX: Benbella Books, 2004. p. 17-28.

15

by Lloyd Penney

4 - My first convention

I'm sure you remember your first convention...I sure do. And, as most first cons seem to go, it was memorable, not because it was a great time, but because it wasn't. But usually, if there is fun to be had, the con doesn't have a lot to do with it.

My first convention took place in 1978, and it was called Erincon III. It was held at Erindale College in Mississauga, west of Toronto, now called the University of Toronto at Mississauga. It was an unmemorable convention, except for the fact that Spider Robinson was in town, arrived at the convention, and only found out at that time that he was the GoH. Spider has referred to it as Nonexistacon, and let me tell you why...

Yvonne and I were dating at the time, and she told me about this convention in Mississauga, so we agreed to meet at the far western subway station in Toronto, and take the bus out to the college and the con. Wires got crossed, I probably got the times wrong, but I think we passed each other in the subway twice before arriving at the subway station together.

Never having been to a convention before, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I had been told, and I'd read, that they were a lot of fun. That's what I was going to have, wasn't I?

Once we got there, it was very quiet. Too quiet. We paid our $5 at the door (70's, remember), and proceeded into an open area in the middle of the con facility. There were lots of empty tables. There were lots of filled tables, too... a local comic shops purchased 30 tables from the con, and put 500 or so

16 copies of a single issue of a comic book on a table. Thirty tables carried 30 different comics. Well, that made going through the dealers' room very easy. The art show was surrounded by security guards, so I didn't get to see it.

A hallway beckoned away from the main area...we explored, and found all the Star Trek reruns we could eat. We realized we'd been through the entire convention in the space of about 20 minutes, and wondered aloud, what do we do now? One of our friends had brought a set of the new infrared Star Trek phaser toys, and far too much time was spent shooting each other with the toys, and laughing at the familiar sound effects. That was just the effects of boredom...later on, with nothing more to do, we grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant at the college, and we went home. Spider was right.

Afterwards...one of the organizers said that the convention wanted to save money, so they cut way back on the number of flyers they printed. When asked if there were no flyers how they expected to let people know about the convention, the committee couldn't answer the question.

Well, that was my first con, and it could have been my last. I was told by my new friends not to worry, most conventions were much better than that, and I'm very glad they were right.

Do you remember your first con?

I remember mine. It was Easter Weekend of 1973, and I attended Minicon 7 with my friends Steve Glennon and Lee Pelton. To say that was an eye-opening experience would be an understatement. Over the years I have written about that, so there is no need for me to go into it again. Suffice to say that I had a good time, but the real fun began over the next couple of years as I started getting Rune, the Minn-stf clubzine, in the mail, and then other fanzines as I began writing off to request issues. By 1976, when I began producing my first fanzine, This House, the die certainly was cast and it has been a downhill run ever since then. Must have rolled snake eyes…

“Who was that elevator I saw you with last night?”

17 Fanzines, Hugo Thoughts, and other Minutiae

It seems to me that most science fiction fanzine fans – or traditional fanzine fans, if we want to call them that - have given up on the relevance of the Science Fiction Achievement Awards – the Hugos, our field’s equivalent of the film industry’s Oscars, theater’s Tonys, and Television’s Emmys – to our primary hobby interest.

No, I take that back. It’s not that we don’t care anymore; I believe it is that we are disgusted and disappointed with what has become of essentially our baby, especially the Fan Hugo categories. Over the past five years, the blogosphere has crept into the best fanzine, fan artist and fan writer categories to the point where this year there is only one nominated fanzine rooted in the traditional format (Journey Planet) and only two fan artists I know are nominated: Steve Stiles and Brad Foster. Plus I am completely unaware of all five fan writer nominators.

Is this a disturbing trend? It is if you’re a fannish traditionalist. As for me, I don’t think so. If you read what I wrote on pages 4-6, by now you should have a good idea how I think about this subject.

So what should we do? Push for addendums to the WSFS Constitution regarding Fan Hugo definitions of qualification, or go straight to creating new awards, such as Best SF Fan Blog & Blog Writer? Or combine these into a single new award? Should we drop the Fan Hugo categories? Switch our allegiances solely over to the FAAn Awards?

My thoughts: the Fan Hugo categories will continue, although I expect a new award for Blogs will eventually appear, much as Semi- professional magazines, Related Works, and Fancasts evolved. Tradition does not easily die: if anything, it diversifies.

The cause of all this is the evolution of communication technology. As things change, so will fannish correspondence, therefore it should really not surprise any of us that this sort of thing is

18 going to happen. So with these ideas dumped out of my head, now it is time to move on to the next section of this fanzine, entitled Fanzines Received, Read, & Reviewed – abridged

Well, I’ve been running quite a bit behind on my fanzine reading over the past couple of months. That isn’t to say that I have no clue as to who has been pubbing their ish because I most certainly do know. After all, I’m not living in a vacuum; it only feels that way inside my head.

So which have I read? Well, let me give you a bit of a rundown, in no particular order except which ones have been on the bedside To Be Read pile:

CURT PHILLIPS FOR TAFF!; editor/publisher – Randy Byers and Claire Brialey Produced mostly by Randy Byers and Claire Brialey (aided by Pat Charnock, Ulrika O’Brien and myself), this is a good-sized (48 pages) representation of the fan writing by the 2014 TAFF winner, Curt Phillips, and the material selected is wonderful. I have been dipping into this collection and so far have enjoyed every single piece I’ve read. Curt writes extremely well, retelling events from his job as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician), volunteer fireman, interviewing Harry Warner, Jr., and so on. It really is a wonderful collection of Curt’s writing, and so now it’s on to England he goes to attend LonCon 3 and partake of other fannish events and sight-seeing in the United Kingdom. Availability: By donation to TAFF. Contact information: Curt Phillips, 19310 Pleasant View Drive, Abingdon, VA 24211 USA. His email address is [email protected]. No moussaka, please.

THE RELUCTANT FAMULUS #98; editor/publisher – Thomas D. Sadler A genzine that truly emphasizes the variety a reader can find in a science fiction fanzine. Sometimes there might even be a mention of science fiction, maybe even a book review. One of my favorite fanzine columnists, Gene Stewart, contributes yet another “Rat Stew” that’s bound to raise somebody’s hackles, in addition to editor Tom Sadler’s Mark Twain natterings, there is material from Matt Howard about Indiana history, Alfred Byrd’s continuing saga of Kentucky, ruminations from Dalmer Shasto (more on him in a second), Taral Wayne writing about repression of art and expression, a book review of Charles Stross’ Neptune’s Brood by Michaela Jordan, an anonymous contribution of a rant, Aldo Masters’ “In My Spare Time” column, and a lengthy lettercolumn in which it is revealed by Ned Brooks noticing that “Dalmer Shasto” is an anagram of “Thomas Sadler.” The truth is revealed! What’s next? Will Claude Degler reappear in this fanzine? Do UFO’s really exist? Stay tuned for these and other developments as TRF approaches its landmark 100th issue this coming August. Which reminds me: I promised an article about Mark Twain for that issue, so I’d better get cracking on it. Always an enjoyable fanzine.

Availability: Thomas D. Sadler, 305 Gill Branch Road, Owenton, KY 40359 USA. His email address is [email protected] Besides the usual means of exchange (locs, articles, artwork, fanzines in trade), send him postage costs (~$3 should cover it). Editorial Whim also applies.

19 CHALLENGER #37; editor/publisher – Guy H. Lillian III Always a mammoth fanzine –this issue is 80 pages long – that not only taxes the mailbox, but requires a lot of time to read through. Which is fine by me because I always enjoy this fanzine. This particular issue’s theme is “heroes,” and some ones definitely can be found in these pages. In my mind the two standout articles are Gregory Benford’s recollection of a trip to visit Stephen Hawking(“Leaping the Abyss”) and Dennis Dolbear’s account of surviving Hurricane Katrina. Absolutely riveting. Dennis and Guy go way back in fandom – 1969, I do believe – and based on reading this article, I can certainly understand why Guy considers Dennis a hero: the man saved his mother’s life during this vicious storm! I met Dennis at DeepSouthCon 49 up in Dallas a few years ago, and he is what I would call a gentle giant. A fine man, and Guy’s tribute to Dennis, who died on June 17, 2013, is truly heartfelt. Other fine articles in this massive zine are “Startling Accountancy Stories” by John Nielsen Hall, “24 Hours” in the mind of Taral Wayne, Mike Resnick’s discussion of the heroes in the novels of , and Guy’s account of meeting Lillian Hellman in a creative writing workshop when he was a student at the University of , Berkeley. How cool is that?

Yeah, there is a lot of good reading here, and the front cover by Ron Sanders is very evocative and well done. I may have to contact this fellow for a cover. The only down side to this particular issue is the lettercolumn; usually it is much, much longer, so hopefully a solid issue like this one will generate more responses. Hell, I have to get a loc written to it, but first things first: must finish Askance #31!

Availability: Guy H. Lillian III, 1390 Holly Avenue, Merritt Island, FL 32529 USA. His email address is [email protected]. (that’s a roman numeral 3 after the lower-case initials of Guy’s name). I’m not sure how much money or postage to send to acquire a copy, but $5 should work. Also via the Usual means of acquisition.

There are more fanzines to be read and locced, and they shall be taken care of accordingly. So there.

20

Once again Google Images comes up with another fine picture I can use to as the header for the letter column. Doing this is actually part of the fun of working on this fanzine: I take a good bit of silly pleasure in finding suitable pictures and other illustrations to complement the text, even though at times it can be a challenge. And that is okay by me.

So saying, it is now time to mosey into the e-mail files and see whose comments on the 30th issue are worth sharing. Leading off is our good friend, Lloyd Penney, who is always a welcome presence here.

1706-24 Eva Rd. Etobicoke, ON CANADA M9C 2B2

January 14, 2014

Dear Dr. John:

Thank you for Askance 30. Hard to believe thirty issues, hm? Congratulations on that feat. And you, a grandpa, too! Once I can get past that colourful Stiles cover on the front, I will have a gander at the contents, and see what I can say on the matter.

Having a grandson now certainly makes other things less important, doesn’t it? And, almost happy anniversary to Josie and Zach. We’re still looking at the possibilities of going to the London Worldcon, and frankly, the chances are getting slimmer and slimmer. We are slowly wrapping our heads around

21 the idea that we won’t be going, and probably will never get to another one because the costs have become massive. Are we thinking that they are worth it? More and more the answer is no. Yvonne wants to go to England at least once in her lifetime, and if we can’t afford Loncon, we can afford a trip to England the next year, and not have Worldcon interfere with it.

Honestly, we’re having more fun with steampunk, although we can’t go to their conventions, either. The local group has activities we seldom go to, but we do on the very odd occasion. My main costume has won some awards as well. It’s been fun. (Ah, a very familiar fillo on the bottom of page 10!)

The WOOF covers? Gotta go with the original, number 1. I wish I’d had the resources to do a cover for that when I did it. Not do it again? Don’t blame you, it’s a thankless task, and a sure-fire way for others to take a shot at you for doing it.

My loc…well, I did find some employment for the last two months of 2013, but the work ran out early, and I was not recalled for 2014. I am hoping for something new soon; a local community college is working with me to find something, with luck a little more permanent. This continuous finding, hiring and letting go is ruining our finances. {How well I know. Glad to hear (on Facebook) of Yvonne’s recent job offer! And also now to you, too! This bodes well for future travel plans for you kids. We are very happy for you!}

In response to Burnett…I am not writing the locs I used to because I am also at a loss sometimes re what to say about the fanzine without getting repetitive, and I know I do that regularly. Those who write, draw and otherwise create for fanzine deserve the egoboo they get, and more. I wish I could provide more, but desire and time don’t accommodate that wish. I must allocate more time to the job hunt, and dare I say, the fanzine doesn’t quite have the appeal it used to have for me.

For any future conventions for us, they will be local only. We need the contact, but the added costs of travel are out of reach. And, at those local conventions, we will be vendors, to see if we can make some needed cash. Sometimes, I think we’re creating another stage of fandom, something Bloch never had to deal with.

Onto the second page, and done. This isn’t the letter I wanted to write, but my need for employment is become more and more of a distraction and worry. Shall I send another Tale from the Convention for issue 31? I still have a few unpublished. See you with that next issue.

Yours, Lloyd Penney

{Hearing about your financial difficulties and how that impinges on con-going and other enjoyable activities strikes home for many of us. This is sadly the way of the world, and fandom is not exempt from the difficult economic times by any stretch. In fact, most fans have had to deal with abject poverty for practically all of their fannish careers. Not many of us have well-paying jobs that provide us with the means of pursuing this hobby interest as completely as we’d like to. As it stands, we do what we can and enjoy the company of our friends. That defines the fandom that I know and love. (*) And many thanks for sending along that Tale From the Convention, used in this very same issue. Those are always appreciated.}

22 You know, the addresses of readers in other countries – such as England and Australia – are really unique. Canada isn’t that bad; their mailing addresses are almost as simplistic as America’s. But if you want to see a truly unique return address, get a load of this one:

David Redd Beracah House Redstock Lane, Johnston Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire UNITED KINGDOM SA62 3NQ

February 12, 2014

Dear John,

Have another nod of appreciation for Askance 30. Good reading. Also visual interest; here’s my cover list for what it’s worth.

1. Cross-stitch – great from a distance as the picture resolves. 2. Black-edge – would have loved a black-sky version rather than heraldic pattern. 3. Plastic wrap – not impressed at first, then realised its good points. 4. Cement – some shapes/colours blend with the background too fuzzily. 5. Impressionist – all eyestrain and no picture.

Liked your old building – have one in return from Norway . (Book published c.1947.)

Thanks for the Voltaire paraphrase. We should remember Voltaire and Montaigne more often, but don’t.

As the grandfather of Joseph (8) and Llinos (5), I’d suggest that if you live near Brian you’ll have the chance of a lot of babysitting.

All the best, David Redd

{Yeah, now they do. Josie and Zach bought their first house not even two months ago, moving in by mid-April. Now their young family is less than a 10 minute drive from our house. In fact, I think I’ve made the trip to their new home in seven minutes, and it is very easy to get to. (*) I thank you for your WOOF cover preference list. I like the Cross-stitch version the best, too. (*) No argument about remembering important quotes from the Enlightenment, especially now in this age of dis- enlightenment that seems to be creeping across America. We so need to remember who and what we are and where we come from, especially why this country was formed. }

Another person who is very visually oriented is this guy, and he also had something to say about the WOOF covers:

23 ChrIs GarCiA! 1401 No. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043

Dec 27, 2013

Hey, just wanted to drop a note sayin' that piece on the WOOF covers was great! I really enjoyed the cover and this display here is really good stuff!

Also, I'm not sure what the count of Hugs was, but I know it was at least 12!

Great cover too! When I finally get a chance to sit down and properly read the entire zine, I'm sure I'll LoC, but I had to say how great that art stuff was!

Thanks Chris Garcia

{Say, you never got back to me about those WOOF covers. Which ones do you like the best? Inquiring minds want to know. (*) Next convention we’re at together I’m putting a Hug-o-Meter on you – if you stand still long enough, that is.}

Here is another Canadian who is not only one of fandom’s best artists – and most deserving of an award, says I – but also probably the most prolific fan writer at present.

Taral Wayne 245 Dunn Avenue, Apt. 2111 Toronto, Ontario CANADA M9C 2B2

29 Dec 2013

Walt Wentz was my editor, back in the days when I could laughably claim to be a professional illustrator. In fact, Walt was my only client. He worked for a magazine on the West Coast called Ruralite. It was free to all the customers of an electrical co-op serving Washington and Oregon, so naturally it has a bloated circulation – in fact, roughly a quarter of a million. Far more people were seeing my illustrations in the 1980s than were seeing Frank in Analog, but there was an important difference. People cared about Analog and Frank Kelly Freas; nobody cared about Ruralite and only Walt cared about my illustrations. Walt retired in 1991, and I found out that the new regime didn’t like line art. I suspect they were a lot of gumshoe, bib-overall, mason jar types who tied their own trout lures and drove a nine foot tall SUV with all the chrome work lovingly polished … just like the readers. In any event, they preferred photographs and my “career” in magazines was over.

But Walt and I continued to be friends. In fact we’ve become regular correspondents, and Walt is always treating me to some little product of his imagination such as the infamous letter to the Hanes underwear people in your last issue.

24

Nor did his complaints with Hanes end there. He got a reply to his letter, much to his surprise, but that it addressed none of his concerns was not a surprise at all. Walt wrote to them again. But Walt told me, “enough.” Just send that Purcell guy the original letter, and let it remain a Shorts Subject. {Ouch!}

Back around 2002, when I was learning the ropes on Photoshop, I discovered how much fun filters could be. The trouble with them was that everyone discovered Photoshop filters, sooner or later, and you could count on seeing identical lighting effects, motion blurs, fades and other digitally rendered splurges everywhere. In the end, I rarely resorted to them.

Not before playing around to see what filters could do, of course. I did a couple of dozen experiments with this drawing of Buttercup (the Powerpuff Girl), for instance. These are some of the better examples:

Lloyd has actually done fairly well by the Auroras, considering. By his own count, he’s won twice, the last time in 1998, and has been nominated numerous times. Contrast that with my own abysmal record. Nominated for the first time last year or the year before, and, much to my surprise, again this year. No wins. Mind you, I’m not saying this only as somebody with a wounded ego. Wounded it may be – gored even – but you’d think a Worldcon Guest of Honour, 11-time nominee for the Fan Hugo and Rotsler winner would be better appreciated in his own country. But there’s the logic to this madness. Canadian fandom has nothing to do with fanzine fandom you see – it’s entirely about conventions, the social groups who run them and the politics behind the events. Nobody gives a fig about fanzines or fanzine activity in Canadian fandom. It is to laugh. There is a Canadian fanzine fandom, but it is tiny and nominally an appendage of American fanzine fandom. If you want an analogy, ask a Welsh fan about his relationship to British fandom. So, while Lloyd has recently found his voice to complain about losing fan Auroras to professional writers and academics, it’s only because the fandom he has performed such meritorious service to has lost all relevance to Canadian fandom as such. Even if the voters had a notion of amateur publishing, they would not understand why it was not a blog. At least Lloyd and I have R. Graeme Cameron’s Canadian Fanzine Awards Thingie all sewn up for the foreseeable future.

Speaking of cons and how all-important they are in today’s fandom, I missed this year’s SFContario. The reasons are simple, and have greater implications. The trip to and from SFContario’s hotel was easy

25 enough, involving only a short walk, but I have to make three public transit connections. After midnight, that means sitting or standing on a street in the dark and cold for an hour or more, plus whatever time it takes to actually go from one place to another. I was usually leaving the hotel around 1 and getting home around 3, exhausted. Even the short walk from the streetcar to the hotel was getting to take a real effort. Going from room to room in the hotel was increasingly demanding. If, finally, the effort was too great to attend even a conveniently situated local con, what are the odds of attending a convention anywhere else? Just about zero, I’d say. Like that, 95% of today’s fandom is ruled out of bounds for my participation. If you think this is going to make me even crankier in my fan writing, you are probably right…

Taral Wayne

{Like you, I cannot fathom the logic of the people who are nominating and voting for science fiction awards these days. The Hugos, especially the fan categories, are irrelevant to me since there is no way that I can read EVERYTHING published in a single year, let alone my lifetime. There ain’t no way I could nominate intelligently if I haven’t read at least half of all the published fiction in any given year. Needless to say, the Fan Hugo categories are impossible to keep up with: way too much being published online. This is why I feel the Hugo awards are irrelevant to me. I like being an informed nominator/voter in a field I enjoy. Now, if I was getting paid for doing this as a full-time profession, that’s different! (*) Your health concerns definitely limit your ability to attend a convention. I certainly don’t blame you for being cranky about that, either. The good news for us is that you tend to spew/rant/vent in your fanzine Broken Toys, which I do read and enjoy when it’s posted on efanzines.com. Now if I would just be more dutiful in loccing your zine, I would definitely feel a lot better about myself in doing my fannish duty. Speaking of which, your latest issue (#28) was recently posted, so I’d better get onto that Real Soon Now.}

Another fan editor wrote in, the gent who is half responsible for Alexiad, a very long-running, intelligent fanzine. Apparently he had twenty minutes between books to write the following loc:

Joe Major 1409 Christy Avenue Louisville, KY 40204-2040

[email protected]

March 2, 2014

Dear John:

At least your mundane life that interferes with your fannish life is something productive. We are having a very troublesome time at work and I am often distracted or distressed.

There is no other Joseph T. Major in my family. My older brother has a second cousin who has the same name, though. (Of course he’s also my second cousin, but my name is not the same as his.) With

26 a large number of families in a small area, there is going to be a certain overlap in names. Such as the two children named Madison Major who had the same pediatrician. Never any problem with their records, though. Receptionist: “Madison Major is here.” Clerk: “Boy-Madison or Girl-Madison?”

Fanzines seem to have become a back number with con organizers. As I recall, the Fanzine Lounge at one con was a ring of sofas in a wide hallway. And fanzine items get tucked into the remote back rooms of the convention center.

There was a proposal a few years ago to institute a bunch of new online items Hugos for things like Best Blog. To keep the ceremony in hand, the proposer proposed to get rid of some obsolete Hugos, like Best Fan Writer and Best Fanzine.

Namarie,

Joseph T Major

{Well, let’s start at the end first: no great loss in dumping the Fan Hugo categories, as far as I am concerned. But I said as much a few pages ago. (*) Yes, Fanzines are fast becoming an afterthought at conventions. They still have their place, though, for the people who produce them. Unfortunately, conventions have become more media-oriented, so why provide space for something most contemporary attendees don’t participate in? A sad state of affairs. (*) I still get a kick out of getting the rare email requesting an autograph on one of my albums:

I also heard from –

Arnie Katz – sending out notice of his new fanzine, Claptrap, the first two issues of which are now available on efanzines.com.

Guy H. Lillian III – reminder of his COA to c/o Joe Green, 1390 Holly Avenue, Merritt Island FL 32952.

Jose Sanchez – sending notification of new art and his Facebook page.

Shelby Vick – notification of Planetary Stories new contact address, which is now [email protected]

Taral Wayne – correcting an error I made on the contents page of Askance #30, which was subsequently corrected and reposted.

27

REGIONAL CONVENTION CALENDAR

This is easily one of the most famous photographs from the early days of science fiction fandom. At first I thought of identifying all of these gentlemen – egad, look at how young they were! – then decided to make this a quick recollection exercise for readers. You can find this photo on the Internet, which is where I located it.

So now, let’s get on with the convention listing. The states covered are Texas, , Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Some of these my wife and I will be attending. Certainly not all of them!

Comic Palooza: The Texas International Comic Con

785 SH 121 Bypass Comics & gaming con May 23-26, 2014 George R. Brown Convention Center 1001 Avenida de las Americas Houston, TX 77010 (, TX) 's mission is to provide the best and biggest annual multi-format pop culture convention in the southwest region of the , serving not only the fans of comics, science fiction, fantasy, and table top gaming, anime, music and film, but also as a trade show and showcase for the studios, publishers, and manufacturers in those industries. Largest comic con in Texas. Live Art Event, Comicpalooza Film Festival, industry panel discussions, roller derby games, quidditch matches, live music, dancers, circus performers, and much more. Comicpalooza is also one of the largest art events in Houston, featuring scores of artists as well as numerous writers, celebrities, and performers, and much, much more!

“Trudging through the muck and mire…” “Hello, Muck!” “Hello, Meyer!”

28 North Texas RPG Con

Role-Playing Gaming con June 5-8, 2014 DFW Airport Marriot South 4151 Centreport Boulevard Fort Worth, Texas 76155 Dallas/Fort Worth MetroPlex area Now in our sixth year. The North TX RPG Con focuses on old-school Dungeons & Dragons gaming (OD&D, 1E, 2E, or Basic/Expert) as well as any pre-1999 type of RPG produced by the classic gaming companies of the 70s and 80s (TSR, Chaosium, FGU, FASA, GDW, etc). We also support retro-clone or simulacrum type gaming that copies the old style of RPGs (Swords & Wizardry, Castles & Crusades, and others). ANY RPG games are welcome at the Con, be it D&D 4e, Pathfinder, or something we haven't even heard of, just be sure you can fill a table with 5-6 people before you ask to have it added to the schedule...

A-Kon 24

The Southwest's Largest Anime, comics, , media, & June 6-8, 2014 Hilton Anatole 2201 North Stemmons Freeway Dallas, Texas 75207 (Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area/ downtown Dallas) Dealers Room, Guests, Seminars & Workshops, Multiple Video Rooms, Gaming & Tournaments, Premier Film Showings, Art Show & Auction, Autographs, Banquet, Costume Contest, Goodie Bags&Freebies, and Musical Concert A-Kon is the oldest continually running, anime-based convention in N. America.

Texas ComiCon 2013

Comics & gaming June 20-22, 2014 Norris Conference Center 4522 Fredericksburg Rd. (near IH-10 at Loop 410) San Antonio, TX 78201 San Antonio, TX area Celebrities, Dealers, Artist Alley, Gaming, Kids' Costume Contest, etc.

29 ApolloCon 2014

Houston's Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Conference June 27-29, 2014 DoubleTree Hotel Houston Intercontinental Airport 15747 John F. Kennedy Blvd. Houston, Texas 77032 Houston, TX area GOH: David Gerrold Artist GOH: Theresa Mather Panels, Art Show & Auction, Authors, Artists, Scientists and more, Trivia Contest, ApolloKids, Concerts, Demos, Masquerade and Costume Awards, Dance, Clubs, Displays, Dealers Room, Gaming (including LARP), Film Festival, Media Room, Networking, Room Parties. Writer's Workshop. See also our Facebook page! Sponsored by the Houston Science Fiction Association, a 501(c)(3) organization.

SoonerCon 23

Oklahoma's Oldest and Longest Running Fan-Run Extravaganza! Science Fiction, Fantasy, Gaming Con June 27-29, 2014 Reed Conference Center 5800 Will Rogers Rd Midwest City, OK 73110 Oklahoma City, OK area Guests: Glen Cook Guests: Selena Rosen Don't miss the Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Not For Kids SinnerCon and much more! This incarnation of SoonerCon is deliberately designed to celebrate all aspects of fandom. We don’t intend to have a solely "books" or "TV" or "art" emphasis. The emphasis is on FUN. Events include: Film Festival, Art Show, Gaming, Cosplay and Masquerade. Charity. Panel and Workshops. Video Rooms. We are very happy to announce the creation of the Oklahoma Speculative Fiction Hall of Fame. Beginning in 2013, SoonerCon will induct members into the Hall of Fame, and present them with the newly created "Nucleon Award". Members of the Hall of Fame will be Oklahomans (and those originally from Oklahoma) who have contributed significantly to the development of pop culture and speculative fiction in both Oklahoma and the world. The 2013 Class of the Oklahoma Speculative Fiction Hall of Fame is John Ferguson, aka Count Gregore, and author C.J. Cherryh.

“The minutes slid past, sections of eternity arbitrarily measured by the standards of another planet and having no relevance at all on this tiny whirling rock.”

30 Texicon: Where the West Begins

Gaming con. June 27-29, 2014 Grapevine Convention Center 1209 S Main St. Grapevine, Texas 76051 Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area Texicon supports all three sections of gaming: Miniatures, Role-Playing, and Board gaming. Each year Texicon will focus on a specific section. Texicon is proud to announce its focus for 2013 - 2015 is Table-Top Gaming is Educational. We decided that it was important to bring this aspect of gaming to the forefront. Texicon also hosts seminars that focus on every aspect of gaming. In these seminars, experts will speak about various aspects of games and gaming. Some speakers will be seasoned gamers, others will be industry specialists. We hope you will be brave enough to try a new game.

“Like pitiless jaws, a distant crater opened for their ship.”

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Well, it would be nice to have the 32nd issue ready to hand out at the next convention I am at, meaning Apollocon (June 27-29, 2014), although considering when this particular issue finally getting finished (Mid-May of 2014), this is highly doubtful. Expect the 32nd issue to be ready just before, or right around, Labor Day weekend of this year; I’d like to time it out for LonCon 3, but as the bard says, “We shall see, Meyer.”

I am really looking forward to being at Apollocon 2014 for a number of reasons. First of all, there is the Professional Guest of Honor, David Gerrold. Any fan who pours salt in his beer should know who this is. Probably most famous for writing the classic Star Trek episodes “The Trouble With Tribbles” and “The Cloud Minders” (one of my personal favorite episodes from the original series), Gerrold is also the award winning author of numerous stories and novels, notably “The Martian Child”, which won both the Hugo (1995) and Nebula (1994) for Best Novelette. His Facebook page is not just popular, but I would call it one of the more important pages to read on all of social media. For more information about David Gerrold and his work, go to http://www.gerrold.com/ and catch up on things. I am so excited to meet him I’m going to go total fan-boy and bring along my copy of Jumping Off the Planet (2000, Tor pb) to get his autograph. My heavens, I feel so damn geeky admitting that.

Another important reason to get to Apollocon is that it will be a reunion with a college friend of mine, Barry Short, who is married to Apollocon’s artist Guest of Honor, Theresa Mather. If you attend any convention at all and wander into their art shows, Theresa’s work is probably displayed. As for Barry, I met him when we both attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota back in 1973-1974. Yes, that was a very, very long time ago. Barry even came down and stayed as a guest in my parent’s house during Easter break of 1974 and attended Minicon 8 with me and my buddies Steve Glennon, Lee Pelton, and Steve’s school chum at the University of Minnesota, Ted Meulhaupt. We had a great time. So it is going to be a lot of fun to see Barry again after all these years.

And Valerie will have artwork on display in the Apollocon art show, naturally. If you are there, say hello to us and let’s enjoy the convention. So until then, peace out, dudes.

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