The World of Fanzines: A Special Form of Communication

Front Cover
Southern Illinois University Press, 1973 - Art - 144 pages

There are well over 200 fanzines in current distribution, originating in al­most every state in the U.S. as well as in Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Spain, and Sweden. This is the first book about them.

Few persons outside the science fiction field (where, historically, fanzine publication appears to have begun) know the meaning of the portmanteau word, fan­zine (amateur fan plus magazine).

Fanzines are published, written, and illustrated by young persons, usually well under 30, and bear such names as ANDROmeda, BeABohema, Comickazi, Granfalloon, and Varolika. The history of the genre is brief, dating from the 1930s, but many of the publishers and contrib­utors have achieved considerable distinc­tion as writers, including Poul Anderson, Ray Bradbury, and Richard Lupoff.

Coming to this serious study of an unu­sual subject with his considerable expertise in the field of violence, Dr. Wertham has been struck, first, by the nonviolent, creative aspects of the genre and, second, by the amateur status of fanzines. His con­clusion, which will surprise many readers, is that herein may lie a message for our unheroic age.

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Contents

Introducing Fanzines 33 Contents
36
Fantasy Fiction
53
Some Fanzines and Their Places of Origin
66
Copyright

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About the author (1973)

Fredric Wertham, M.D., is presently consulting psychiatrist at Queens Hospital Center, Jamaica, New York City. He was the pioneer in the study of violence, about which he has written many books, including The Show of Violence, A Sign for Cain,and Seduction of the Innocent.

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