15 CHUNGA is a hunted thing; its horse-wild eyes dart from one rain-slick cul-de-sac to another, lungs aching, ragged breath staining the November air. But it remains forever one corner ahead of its angry, unseen pursuers, as the sinister zither music swells, and shadows consume the entire world. Available by editorial whim or wistfulness, or, grudgingly, for $3.50 for a single issue; PDFs of every issue may be found at eFanzines.com. 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. Issue 15, November 2008 Art Credits in order of first appearance In this issue . Alison Scott front cover Tanglewood Dan Steffan 1 (Corflu Zed logo) 1 An editorial.......................................... Carrie Root 2, 4, 6, 9 (photos) At the Canyons of Corflu Brad Foster 3, 7, 31 A Desert Narrative by Andy Hooper.................... 2 Alexis Gilliland 9 Return of the Man of Steel: Breaking the Chains by Stu Shiffman..................................... 10 Stu Shiffman 12 John B. Speer, Democrat William Rotsler 15, 18, 25, 28, 33 by Randy Byers . 15 Terry Jeeves 20, 26 On the Face of It D West 21, 25, 30 by Taral Wayne . 16 Jay Kinney & Dan Steffan 23 Excerpts from the Fannish Protocols Don Helley 29 by Teresa Nielsen Hayden & Lenny Bailes . 19 Ian Gunn 32 If You Meet a Trufan on the Road by Randy Byers . 22 carl juarez back cover The Iron Pig A letter column . 24 more about the front cover: Thanks to Flickr users lonecellotheory (subway tiling), minx2012 (Roald Dahl Special Post-Election / Pre-Inauguration plass), and tracy_olson (Seattle skyline) for Trauma Edition Creative Commons-licensed contributions. This cover likewise is licensed under Creative Commons (attribution non- ☂ This fanzine supports Steve Green for TAFF ☂ commercial sharealike). Tanglewood Is history thermoplastic? elcome back to our cabinet of curi- rare chance for many of us to meet the Fan from osities. Chunga #15 seems particularly Abingdon. I can hardly wait! We’re also putting suffused with arcana, obscure personal together a fanthology of material by the Cry Gang, obsessions and their associated lore. But in contrast who put Seattle on the fannish map in the ’50s and to many issues, I believe virtually everything in ’60s, hosting a Worldcon here in 1961 and winning #15 is ostensibly “true.” No doubt some hokum has a Hugo for Best Fanzine for Cry of the Nameless crept in regardless, but all our writers and contribu- in 1960. Just last week we heard rumors that the tors claim to have presented us with factual mate- Eaton Collection, which maintains a large archive rial. Fandom’s insatiable interest in everything the of fanzines, including the Bruce Pelz and Terry universe has to offer remains a consistent wonder Carr collections, will be coming to Corflu to do to me, and one of the reasons why I’m still fannish some outreach. We are also looking at having vari- after all these years. ous groups host parties in the penthouse consuite, Fandom itself persists like a creature declared and we’ll have more information about that in extinct by science, but known to those who take future progress reports. the time to find it. We may appear to be an animat- Corflu is an old-school convention that relies on ed corpse to some, but in close-up, fandom is still everyone getting involved to make things interest- teeming with life, full of passionate conviction and ing. Please send us your ideas and make plans to charging in 10 directions at once. But if perhaps come to Seattle next year with your latest fanzine your sense of wonder may feel a trifle mummified, in hand. We’ll show you ours if you show us yours. think of Chunga as the brew of three Tana leaves, — Randy enough to make you walk, and talk . and LoC. — Andy h there’s so much to mention, I feel like an Oompa-Loompa or two. e’re hosting Corflu Zed, the 26th It is perhaps possible that by this time Corflu, in Seattle next year. I’m chair- you will have noticed a certain small difference in ing it, Andy’s handling the program, texture this issue. Yes, we’ve gone to a 20-pound and various of the usual suspects of Seattle fandom stock (the better to see through you). Also, we’re are helping with all the other work that goes into printing this issue on Randy’s nice new HP printer, running a /p/a/r/t/y/ Corflu. We are going to try which does color, so do not adjust your set. to answer the call from one or two quarters (well, A lifelong dream for some, owning the means of okay, Mark Plummer) for a more organized, if not reproduction, but for others outsourcing of produc- coherent, program, but the thing that makes a Cor- tion is the thing to conserve limited global resourc- flu is the people who come to it. We hope you’ll join es, and to scratch that itch we will of course be us and make this Corflu something special. The uploading a slightly more prefected version of what more, the merrier. you have before, upon, or over you to eFanzines, for Corflu Zed will be held 13–15 March 2009 at the those who wish personally to become one with the Hotel Deca — a beautiful old art deco hotel in the Grand Chain of Repro. University District. You may well have received a Speaking of Capitalized Nouns, our lives are the progress report by the time you’ve received this inhalations and exhalations of some Great Force. fanzine. If not, ping me at [email protected], We’ve lost Thomas Disch and mystery/Zen writer and I’ll make sure you’re on the notification list. Janvillem van de Wetering (on the same day), Bar- You can also find more information about joining rington Bayley (underrated van Vogt of British SF), and making reservations at the Corflu website at and are threathened with the imminent loss of For- www.corflu.org, which is maintained by the awe- rest J Ackerman, but there are also our friends who some Tracy Benton. are illing and recovering. God bless us every one, We’re still brainstorming ideas for the conven- and please to keep Bible Spice from our door. tion, but there have already been some exciting Be sure to be with us next time, when Randy developments. The Corflu Fifty has chosen Curt sez, Oh noes! I haz convention! Phillips to send to Corflu Zed, and this will be a — carl And, first of all, with our local robbers, they take the money and run. They’re in and out. They’re not stopping to do artwork. In Memory Yet Chunga 1 At the Canyons of Corflu A Desert Narrative by Andy Hooper Episode One: Corflu Silver Opening Ceremony, April 25th, 2008 have bad dreams that take place in the program room of Cor- Honor. The names of all con members who have flu Silver. The same low-ceilinged space in the Turf Club of the not yet enjoyed the honor are placed in a hat. To Jackie Gaughn Plaza hotel was used for Corflu 21 and Corflu 12, make the selection appear even more random, Las at least one Silvercon, and a notorious Channelspace Inc. editorial Vegas fan Theresa Cochrane, who happens to be meeting. In that room our CEO announced he had spent our remain- completely blind, was to draw the name. Eventu- ing capitol to acquire a rival internet business, with the assumption ally, I mused, the pool of available candidates will that it would help achieve our ultimate goal — to be bought by an dwindle down so that the odds of being Guest of even bigger dot-com that would leave everyone rich. Honor will rise to something like one in ten — and Instead, we drifted into financial deep space, Theresa, conferring with a sighted assistant, said, slowly cannibalizing one another as life support “It’s Andy Hooper.” failed, until the last survivor froze solid with his I felt I might have dreamed it. I have dreams hands still at the keyboard, writing about the col- about that room, and dreams about being Corflu lectability of Smurfs. Sitting down in that room Guest of Honor. But people were applauding, and again was like returning to the clinic where I found there was no mistake. I would have to deliver a out I had diabetes. No question my attitude has speech on Sunday morning, and listen to questions been better at the opening of Corflu than it was about it for the balance of the convention. It was that Friday. my turn; but that also meant that it would never be My foul mood lifted as Vegas fan Bill Mills took my turn again, and all future opening ceremonies the podium to open the convention. Bill has a pow- will be free of peril. erful thespian instrument; his round tones remind Away in the convention suites, I warded off ques- one of the late John Carradine, the late William tions about my speech with fresh copies of Chunga Conrad, or possibly the late Mel Blanc in the role #14. The carousel of friends and correspondents of Foghorn Leghorn. It struck me that he was the was full of familiar faces — some a bit balder, gray- living incarnation of John Barkenhorst, a character er, thinner, but all the more compelling for it.