Posts Tagged ‘fanzine’

Library Additions: Several Jack Vance Items

Monday, October 16th, 2023

A private collector downsizing his library sold me some of his books, most of which was for Lame Excuse Books stock (hopefully that catalog will be out near the end of November), but there were a few things I found to add to my own collection.

  • Vance, Jack. Night Lamp. Tor, 1996. First edition hardback (precedes the Underwood Books edition), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Vance. This is one of the rare cases where adding a new book will actually free up some space in my library, as this volume will replace both a Fine unsigned copy I’ve already read, and a signed copy with a remainder mark, both of which should show up in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog. Cunningham, 61a. Supplements the Underwood Books limited edition. [Edited to add: I misremembered: It’s Lurulu I have the signed, remainder-marked copy of. But I’ll still have two firsts of Night Lamp, one signed, in the next catalog.]

  • (Vance, Jack) Laws, Robin D. The Kaain Player’s Guide: A Supplement for the Dying Earth RPG. Pelgrane Press, 2002. First edition (“First printing June 2002”) trade paperback original, a Fine copy. Supplement for the Dying Earth RPG. My role-playing game days are long behind me, and I haven’t really made a point of picking up RPG stuff for authors I collect, but this was cheap, and I have some books from the Amber Diceless RPG I haven’t cataloged yet from the last Bob Pylant purchase. Now I just need to find a place to put them…

  • (Vance, Jack) Parmentier, Gregg. The Vance Phile issues 1 through 6. First edition center-stapled fanzine originals, each #5 of 30 copies, signed by Parmentier (and sometimes other contributors), each a Fine copy. Fanzines full of interesting articles from Vance fans, from reprints of rare Vance works to a lot of bibliographic updates (include some from Jerry Hewett to his Vance bibliography). Strangely, I’ve been on a private Vance collector’s list with Gregg for decades now, but I believe I started getting those only after his period of publishing these, so I never heard about it. There was evidently an Issue 7 I’m still trying to track down a print copy of. I seem to be picking up quite a number of Vance fanzines this year. (See here.)

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    Library Additions: Three Jack Vance Fanzines

    Tuesday, August 15th, 2023

    The final items from that Jack Vance lot.

  • (Vance, Jack) George L. Mina, editor. Cosmopolis: a nexus for the admirers of of the works of Jack Vance. George L. Mina, 1988. First edition comb-bound with clear plastic covers fanzine original, a Fine copy, with letters from Mina and L.W. Currey laid in. Fanzine miscellanea related to Vance, including Vance’s essay “The Symbol,” which according to Hewett (D20) is its only appearance. Hewett, M140 (which notes a total of 75 copies: 12 copies with hand-colored illustrations for contributors and 63 copies with uncolored illustrations (this edition) for subscribers). Not to be confused with the later newsletter of the same name published by the Vance Integral Edition project.

  • (Vance, Jack) Offut, Robert Jr. The Many World of Jack Vance Vol. 1 No. 1 Spring 1977. First edition fanzine original, #185 of 300 numbered copies, a Near Fine+ copy with a touch of staining along staple fold edge, signed by Vance. Includes an appreciation by Poul Anderson, a lengthy interview by Tim Underwood, and some bibliographic material. Hewett, M31a.

  • (Vance, Jack) Robert Offutt Jr., editor. The Many Worlds of Jack Vance & The Horns of Elfland. Robert Offutt Jr., 1978. First edition illustrated fanzine, a Fine- copy with a couple of small spots of dust staining to rear, signed by Vance. Features Vance’s “The Secret,” the first chapter of an illustrated adaptation of The Eyes of the Overworld, etc. Second (and last) volume of an illustrated, semiprozine quality publication dedicated to Vance’s work (though the cover illustration, “Boromir’s Fall,” is obviously from The Lord of the Rings). Chock-full of illustrations from Rod Whigham, who later did a great deal of comic book work. Hewett, M31b, who notes there were 1,000 copies of this printed. Replaces an unsigned and less attractive copy.

    • Plus an old issue of Locus with an interview with Vance I’ll shove in the closet with the rest of the issues from back when I subscribed.

    I hadn’t really been planning to track down Jack Vance fanzines, but now that I have these, I should probably look for issues of Honor to Finuka…

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    It’s Been A Bad Month for Old Fans

    Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

    First Jan Howard Finder (AKA “Wombat”) died February 26.

    Now Locus Online brings word that Richard E. Geis, Hugo-winning fanzine editor of Science Fiction Review and The Alien Critic, died back on February 4th.

    I wasn’t particular close to either of them, but both were on the Nova Express mailing list, and I occasionally got mail from them.

    Geis may be most famous for killing the porn book market for writers in the 1970s. Writers used to be able to get $1,000 a pop for a porn novel (not great, but far from chicken feed), but Geis turned them out so fast the price dropped to $500 a pop.

    And here’s an appreciation of Geis by Michael Swanwick.

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    The New Ansible is Out

    Monday, April 2nd, 2012

    For your skiffy reading pleasure.

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    Library Curiosities: The Space Squid Cuneiform Clay Tablet

    Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

    You may have heard about science fiction fanzine Space Squid printing one of their issues on the ultimate form of Dead Media: inscribed in cuneiform on a baked clay tablet. Of these, I think they auctioned off five at Armadillocon.

    Being one of the few people in the world with a complete collection of Space Squid issues (they actually told me that Nova Express was one of their sources of inspiration, the poor deluded fools), naturally I had to pick one up, which I did for the munificent sum of $11. (Bidding seemed more brisk for the usual cats-with-wings and dragon-related art items.)

    My tablet. Let me show it to you.

    Click to gallery-ize, the click again to embiggen. The first picture is of it sitting in it’s resting place on my mantelpiece, and the other two pics are close-ups of the front and back. (And here’s another Wired story with pics.)

    In truth, the tablet (which contains the Kevin Brown story “Hunting Bigfoot”) is actually pretty hard to read, and I’m not sure how permanent the medium is; the clay has a tendency to flake off. Still, I’m sure that some 50 years hence an insane fanzine collector will be paying big bucks for one…

    Here’s Matthew Bey’s step by step tutorial on how he created them.

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