Classic Fanzines, Anyone?

[Spockscousin]

Okies, I will admit that I'm kinda curious if there is anyone here who remembers the time when Fanzines were a thing during the 70's or so, and I'm also curious if there is anyone on this site who originally helped participate in the world-building of Vulcan and fanzine lore. If there is, I would be very honored to know that you are here and to meet you.

I'm one of those people who is old enough to have watched some Star Trek on TV when I was a very little kid in the late 80's, (some of it being reruns on cable TV...) but it also allowed me to develop a genuine love for the classic version of Star Trek, and I am fiercely loyal and dedicated to it for the most part... although, since neither I nor my family ever went to conventions and never did anything more than watch the movies, TV shows or read some of the novels and a couple of comics, I was not even aware of fanzine or how much creativity, world-building and development went into Vulcan culture during the era of time when TOS had been cancelled.

Also, please forgive me if this thread is inappropriate or has gone against the rules somehow, please let me know if it has. I am just looking for some help in a way, because I am interested in knowing more about how Star Trek was developed by fans during the 70's and 80's, I'd like to know if there are any hidden secrets that anyone can share about how Vulcan was developed and explored, and maybe I'm just really curious if there is anyone here who was there, who remembers that specific era of time. ^^;

So please just tell me... is there anyone here who actually participated in the writing of some fanzine articles or the fan-development projects of the lore? Did anyone back in that day get to interact with some of the authors who published actual novels? Does anyone have any inside info on things like the "Secret of Vulcan Fury" or the novel trilogy that A.C. Crispin was tentatively gonna write about Zar but never got to do that? ^^;

Once again, I apologize if this thread is... inappropriate or violates the rules or etiquette somehow; let me know if it has, and I will do better in the future.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

the novel trilogy that A.C. Crispin was tentatively gonna write about Zar but never got to do that? ^^;

I have the outline for the whole trilogy and the manuscript for the first book. I was sent these by Ann. That's all I'm really willing to say. Ann has died, the cancellation of the trilogy gave her great distress and anger, and it's not my place to say anything.

 

[Spockscousin]

Understandable. I actually spoke briefly with Ann Crispin on Facebook about 15ish years ago or so on Facebook, and... well I never spoke to her that much, though she did mention a thing or two about the first novel, which I will always treasure in my memory. Perhaps it is inappropriate for me to try and paw around for information like this, considering... maybe it is better to respect the memories of these wonderful individuals and let what is private stay private. I guess I just got into a mood tonight, where I have been doing some research online and... I just can't help but feel like it would be a big shame if a lot of things become completely lost to time, considering how many people we have lost when it comes to the wonderful, talented individuals who helped bring Star Trek to life in the first place, whether we are talking about the original actors or some of the truly amazing writers... and I am very worried about what will happen over the next few decades if more becomes forgotten or lost somehow.

But.... maybe it's also not really my place to ask or try to press into certain things, and... I would like to apologize again if I have been inappropriate somehow. I didn't mean any harm or disrespect.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I didn't take it as a disrespectful question, Spockscousin. I was on a panel with Ann at Philcon a few years after the trilogy's cancellation, so 2006 or 2007, and it was a touchy subject with her even then when someone in the audience asked.

 

[Spockscousin]

Yeah... I never really pressed too much, though... I guess I did get that vibe from her in the way she gave me some short responses, although I will always be eternally grateful to her that she was willing to talk to me for a bit on Facebook years ago and share what she chose to share with me when I asked her a couple questions. I mean... I guess you could say that I've always kinda idolized the great Star Trek authors who gave us the wonderful novels/stories that we got, and... I grew up on some of those novels. They were an intricate part of my childhood and young adulthood.

Actually I'm kinda embarrassed in some ways because I feel like... I did make a teensy bit of an idiot out of myself back then by asking her, in private, if she might want to co-author something with me, even if it was just a fanfic, and... well, if I had realized back then (I was rather immature in those days) that it was kinda disrespectful and perhaps a breach of etiquette to do that, I wouldn't have done it. Plus... being the younger and more immature person I was back then, I also suppose.... I was rather dumb and naive and I sorta thought in a way that... well... maybe since I had grown up reading some of her books and idolizing her, that would've meant I was somehow on-par with asking her to do a project with me. ^^;

I just really wish I could speak to her again now, maybe I would've come across better and I wouldn't have been so silly as I was back then. But one thing I can say about her is that I am truly grateful, even in retrospect, that she was willing to take time out of her day to talk to a random somebody like me who asked her a few questions out of the blue and possibly got on her nerves a tad. ^^; I never knew much about her, I never spoke to her that much, but I really do think it was very awesome of her to just talk to me.

I am also grateful that she was willing to satisfy my curiosity on just one area; I absolutely adored her character, D'Berahan, from "Time for Yesterday" and I asked if she had ever planned to use that character again, and she said no. So... if nothing else, it is kind of a relief to know that I wasn't missing out on seeing that character in any of the unwritten novels. ^^;

 

[Therin of Andor]

Okies, I will admit that I'm kinda curious if there is anyone here who remembers the time when Fanzines were a thing during the 70's or so, and I'm also curious if there is anyone on this site who originally helped participate in the world-building of Vulcan and fanzine lore.

I would definitely recommend to you the wiki site, Fanlore.

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Main_Page

There are many full articles and snippets from hundreds of fan reviews over the decades. Lots of info on Vulcan lore and the fan world builders, some of which permeated into canon.

 

[Spockscousin]

I would definitely recommend to you the wiki site, Fanlore.

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Main_Page

There are many full articles and snippets from hundreds of fan reviews over the decades. Lots of info on Vulcan lore and the fan world builders, some of which permeated into canon.

Um just curious... is the site malfunctioning? I tried clicking on it twice and it keeps saying "try again later". ^^;

 

[Therin of Andor]

Um just curious... is the site malfunctioning? I tried clicking on it twice and it keeps saying "try again later". ^^;

Still working for me. Sometimes that front page's search bar can be weird.

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Vulcan

 

[Daddy Todd]

I’m a first generation Trekkie, and I have a memory of having had a memory of watching The Man Trap when it first aired. I was 6 at the time.

Loved running home from school to watch Star Trek reruns in the early 70s. Collected the Blish novelizations starting in about 1972, and was there as a 13 year old when the animated Star Trek debuted on Saturday morning TV.

But I lived in a backwater that didn’t have conventions — I learned about the thriving Star Trek fanzine scene from the book Star Trek Lives! But had no opportunity to collect fanzines until much later.

Thanks to eBay, I’ve managed to collect a lot of Trekzines, focusing almost exclusively on ‘zines from the 70s and very early 80s. So, I have at least 7 or 8 shelves of ‘zines, with at least a few from most of the major publishers. I’ve got lots of reading to look forward to, now that I’m retired!

 

[F. King Daniel]

Searching "Star Trek fanzine" at archive.org for a massive library of lovingly scanned PDFs of old Trek fanzines.

I came along decades after, but it's been a joy to see the Star Trek universe as people imagined it back then.

 

[Forbin]

I've got a bunch of fanzines on a shelf, including the Giant Poster mags, which I only just found out Drexler had a hand in. I got a bunch of others from the Trek Cons I went to in the 70s and 80s.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Does anyone have any inside info on things like the "Secret of Vulcan Fury"

One of my employees at EB Games in 2002 had worked at Interplay in the late 90s. He was a producer on Starfleet Command, he appears in videos on the bonus disc, and he was there when another team was working on Vulcan's Fury. So, I asked him one day what he knew.

Interplay had cashflow problems. They pulled the team off of Vulcan's Fury to develop a quickie Star Trek game to generate income so they could finish Vulcan's Fury. That game? Star Trek Pinball. It did not generate income, and the team was let go. The computers with the Vulcan's Fury work were landfilled.

The tl;dr: Star Trek Pinball killed Vulcan's Fury, and Vulcan's Fury is completely gone.

Over the years, John Ordover at Pocket Books and Dorothy Fontana expressed interest in novelizing the game. Ordover said there were some legal issues, Fontana IIRC said she didn't know what the issue was.

 

[Spockscousin]

That is a big part of what makes me sad. I mean, I know that we still have plenty of things that did make it that we can enjoy, (I particularly enjoy "Star Trek Judgement RItes to this day

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) and we still have plenty of novels and episodes that did make it, but... it also still breaks my heart that there are specific things (Like Vulcan's Fury) where the talented content creators put so much into it, but it never saw the light of day and never will.

I dunno, perhaps instead of doing Star Trek Pinball, they could've tried doing something else as a fundraiser if they really needed the cash, though I'm not sure what.

 

[Steve Roby]

I've got a bunch of fanzines on a shelf, including the Giant Poster mags, which I only just found out Drexler had a hand in. I got a bunch of others from the Trek Cons I went to in the 70s and 80s.

I don't think the poster magazines count as fanzines, considering at least some issues had newsstand and bookstore distribution.

I spent about a decade as a bit of a fanzine collector, but not until the late 1980s, when I was old enough to have a job so I could afford to go to cons in Ottawa and Toronto and buy fanzines there or by mail order. I stopped for a combination of reasons -- fewer cons, everything moving online, getting married. But I still have dozens of them, some still unread. I really need to get back to them one of these days. Maybe they'll get me through the next wilderness years.

Interplay had cashflow problems. They pulled the team off of Vulcan's Fury to develop a quickie Star Trek game to generate income so they could finish Vulcan's Fury. That game? Star Trek Pinball. It did not generate income, and the team was let go. The computers with the Vulcan's Fury work were landfilled.

The tl;dr: Star Trek Pinball killed Vulcan's Fury, and Vulcan's Fury is completely gone.

There's a copy of Star Trek Pinball in this house somewhere, though I don't remember if it was one of my wife's games from before we met (she had several Star Trek and Star Wars computer games, but that wasn't the only reason I married her) or if we bought it later. Can't say it was ever played much. Still, we did our part for Interplay's cashflow.

 

[Spockscousin]

I spent about a decade as a bit of a fanzine collector, but not until the late 1980s, when I was old enough to have a job so I could afford to go to cons in Ottawa and Toronto and buy fanzines there or by mail order. I stopped for a combination of reasons -- fewer cons, everything moving online, getting married. But I still have dozens of them, some still unread. I really need to get back to them one of these days. Maybe they'll get me through the next wilderness years.

Now you got me curious, do you feel that we are already in the next "wilderness years" phase, or have we already been in it for a time now? ^^;

 

[Spockscousin]

Now you got me curious, do you feel that we are already in the next "wilderness years" phase, or have we already been in it for a time now? ^^;

Please forgive the double-post but I can't find the edit button (I know this is against the rules, perhaps someone on the staff can help me merge posts? ^^; ) but what I MEANT to say up there was, "Do you feel we are headed toward the next wilderness phase, or have we already been in it for some time?" and instead I ended up sounding like an idiot because I wasn't watching what I was typing before I hit the 'post' button. ^^;

 

[Steve Roby]

When Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy are finished, I think we may have a few years without new filmed Star Trek. Star Trek is now part of a bigger corporation than it was, but it's also a corporation with a lot of debt. It's going to need to sort out its organization, its plans, its streaming.... If something like Star Trek, which doesn't make Star Wars or MCU money, has to wait a bit, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Fanzines of the 60s and 70s were not widely distributed. I was out there, haunting bookstores and newsstands for anything related to Star Trek. I bought it all (novels, non-fiction, Giant Poster Books, Starlog, Blueprints, you name it) but I wasn't going to conventions, and I think that's where people got hip to the fanzine scene. Those things were published via photocopier, mimeograph, and spirit duplicators. Very small-time. Word of mouth.

 

[Steve Roby]

Yep. You got fanzines at conventions or by mail order. According to one academic history of fanzine culture, K/S zines in particular were usually mail order only, often under false names and through PO boxes, because some writers didn't want it publicly known that they were writing material that could be considered obscene.

 

[Denise]

I had a friend who made a fanzine and distributed it
It was mimeographed. I had one poem published in it. She and I ended up becoming penpals for over 15byears as a result of it. I doubt the fanzine went more than a few issues as she got busy with university. There was another fanzine focused on Data that I contributed to when TNG was on the air.

There are some pieces from fanzines in the AOS.

Many fanzines lasted only a few issues.