THE
MEMORY HOLE
PERMACOLLECTION
CATALOG
This is the seventh(ish) edition of what I still call for
sentimental reasons the Memory Hole Permacollection
catalog. It is a straightforward listing of all fanzines
held in my collection as of, well, somwhere around 2004-2007
(I've been distracted recently...), in the format used for the
British
Fanzine Bibliography by Peter Roberts and, latterly, Vince
Clarke. That format of course is closely allied to that used
by RD Swisher and Evans/Pavlat for their groundbreaking works
covering the world's fanzines up to 1952. This is no
fly-by-night evanescent thing we've got going here, there's
real historical background, see! Much as anyone cares these
days now everything gone all electric. See how you all cope
after the Big Solar Flare...
Once upon a time I thought that this sort of thing was
actually important to science fiction fandom; the bitter
reality is that it matters to about two dozen people
worldwide, and that's a descending number as they die off by
age or accident. Anyway, I'm a fanzine collector so I keep
records. It also helps out Peter Weston in researching for his
fanhistorical fanzine
PROLAPSE
so it's not all useless.
To be frank, though, it often seems that the effort to update
this listing is not repaid by the use made of it by sf fans;
I've often seen on mailing lists fans debating at length
simple facts about issue titles, dating and so on that could
have been resolved in an instant by recourse to this listing.
And that is after years of publicising it, several mirror
sites elsewhere, and a now defunct internet mailing list
called - gosh, wow - MEMORY
HOLE -on which some of these aimless
conversations have ocurred without anyone wondering
why it was called
MEMORY HOLE
in the first place. It all seems
so futile.
Anyway, the emphasis throughout has been on providing
identification details of titles and issues - the most
important parts of each listing are the title, issue number,
and date. To a large extent all other information elements
have been simplified -- so please read these notes as
appropriate. All these fanzines here listed actually
exist.
HOW-2
The first three lines are the TITLE, COUNTRY OF ORIGIN,
and EDITOR. In any given fanzine the Title is
usually self-evident, and changes of title are indicated in
the listing. The Country of Origin is usually simple
too, though in this catalog no change is indicated for the
very few instances where a fanzine has been produced in more
than one country during its run; the 'original' country is the
one cited in every case. The abbreviations are standard --
AUS = AUSTRALIA
BEL = BELGIUM
CAN = CANADA
DEN = DENMARK
FRA = FRANCE
GER = GERMANY
IRE = IRELAND
JAP = JAPAN
NETH = NETHERLANDS
NOR = NORWAY
NZA = NEW ZEALAND/AOTEAROA
SA = SOUTH AFRICA
SWE = SWEDEN
UK = UNITED KINGDOM - WALES, SCOTLAND, ENGLAND,
NORTHERN IRELAND and Some Other Bits
USA = UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
WI = WEST INDIES
And probably others I can't recall right now.
The Editor listed is almost always the editor(s) of the
fanzine from its inception to cessation, but some changes of
editor are shown by a ' / ' rather than the ' & ' used for
co-editors. However, for the sake of simplicity not all
changes of editor are shown, and usually (E&OE) both the
original editor, and in the case of a change, the subsequent
editor most closely associated with the fanzine are listed.
I'm actually really surprised how deficient some of the
editor- entries are in this version, but without the time and
energy to go back and re-examine the fanzines and do
corrections and updates there's nothing I can do at the
moment. But really all I can say is you'd be
amazed at how many people have put out fanzines
with no sign on them at all as to from whom they emanated.
The data for each individual issue is presented in up to
six columns --
Issue Number, Date, Format, Size, Pagecount, and
Note.
Issue Number -- the first column, is straightforward.
The only departures from a simple 1,2,3,4 -- listing are
un-numbered issues (obvious) and Volume/Issue numbers, which
are shown as ' 2.3 ' for example, the number before the dot
being the Volume, the one after the Issue number within the
volume. Occasionally you will see entries in the Note column
reminding you of this. Not surprisingly even
more people fail to number their fanzines than
fail to include their names and addresses, so a certain amount
of creative fanzinography has been done here.
Dates are given as Month/Year or Season/Year. In the
case of issues where more than one month is cited in the
colophon (ie Jan/Feb 1995) the first month given is the one
listed. In terms of Season, you will find WINter,
SUMmer, SPRing, FALl, and AUTumn,
and also EASter, which is common for UK fanzines
produced to coincide with the annual Easter convention. When
no Month or Season is apparent in dating the date entry will
show simply ' /56 ', for example. You're probably ahead of me
here - yes, even more people give no indication
of ever having experienced a calendar in their lives, and with
no sense of time and historicity leave their fanzines
undated.
There are many undated fanzines that can't be readily pinned
down even by reference to other fanzine listings. Sometimes
the closest we can get is to a whole decade, so there are a
lot of Date entries showing something like ' /6? ', which
shows that the fanzine in question was produced during the
Sixties, but with no readily identifiable year. And
occasionally even the decade is a guess... . However, overall
in this version of the catalog I have chosen to leave this
element of uncertainty rather than make potentially confusing
guesses. I sometimes think a lot of people simply
expect their fanzines to be thrown away after
one reading - is that a greater insult to themselves or to
their readers, I wonder?
Format -- the third column. The abbreviations here are
pretty standard --
m -- mimeograph/duplicated
h -- ditto, hekto, spirit duplication in all forms
L -- lithography
P -- printed
x -- xerox, photocopied, laserprinted - anything more
highly sophisticated than duper ink, ok?
In every case only one of these options is given. Where more
than one method of reproduction has been used (for example
mimeo and ditto, or mimeo and litho, or even more than two)
the predominant method has been given as the format -- the
essential reason for this is to enable the entry to work as a
quick identification guide, an assist to properly
understanding which issue is which. For that same reason no
great forensic effort has been made to detect exactly which
reproduction method has been used - it is given as that which
it appears to be at first glance. Anyway, I can't actually
tell the difference between good copying, good
pc printing, and litho any more.
Size -- this has been drastically simplified in many
cases. Size isn't everything after all and a rough guide is
all that is required to make a satisfactory
identification.
Q is British Quarto, the once-standard 8 inch by 10
inch page size. The most elegant and visually satisfying
fanzine size, it is tragic that it can no longer be used
easily.
AQ is standard American 8 and a half by 11 paper.
A4 is the standard metric 8 and one quarter by 11 and
one half inch paper. It's ugly but we're stuck with it.
A5 (metric 5 and threequarters x 8 and one quarter)
and A6 (2 and a half by 4) are used both to identify more
recent fanzines of exactly those sizes, and also to provide a
rough ID guide to many older fanzines that used unusual small
page sizes. In most cases predating 1970 these size guides
should not be taken literally, simply as an indication of the
size of the fanzines as relative to, say, Quarto or A4.
Page Count -- in almost all cases pagecount has been
verified by actual tedious counting -- including, please note,
the covers as four pages; ie a fanzine with unnumbered outside
cover pages and an internal pagecount of 40 will be listed as
44 pages. As these pagecounts have been verified by hand,
literally, they sometimes differ from those given in previous
fanzine listings.
Notes -- these include Changes of Title, mentions of
Volume/Issue numbering, some changes of Editor, amalgamations
and so on. In this version of the MH catalog they've been kept
to a minimum, but one day when the Moon is a more distinct
shade of blue they'll be expanded into fuller descriptions -
with anecdotes, pictures, full casts of characters, and live
sound. Maybe. Increasingly unlikely as time goes on, really...
.
The Permacollection catalog is presently on a Paradox
database. If you would like copies of the Paradox tables
(which can also be supplied as Access tables) along with a
copy of the appropriate data-entry form, please contact me at
the usual address.
Please note -- none of this information is 'copyright'
in any sense. Please copy, loan, or otherwise distribute it as
you see fit, as computer data or printed paper. All I ask is a
credit, clearly visible, and the inclusion of my contact
address in every case.
Greg Pickersgill
gregory@gostak.demon.co.uk
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