DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Le Zombie, v. 5, issue 3, whole no. 50, November-December 1942

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Le Zombie, v. 5, issue 3, whole no. 50, November-December 1942

Page 3

MILESTONES IN FAN HISTORY DEPT
After four years of dependable, continuous publication; after 30 consecutive issues without a break; after 46 stories, 68 poems, 137 columns and departments, and 147 articles; after 771 printed pages; after uncounted hundreds of thousands of words----after all this---the White Star passes. Spaceways has turned up its toes.
We took the time to count all of the above because we thought it worthwhile. Those 771 pages of Spaceways have provided for us more entertainment than any other fanzine in existence, past--present--and would you say future? It is regrettable that the publication did not live to see its fourth anniversary----a bare month away. Had Harry Warner been able to bring out one more issue: November, 1942 would have been its fourth birthday.
Spaceways revolutionized the fanzine world. 1938 was noted for its crummy publications, with the exception of an outstanding few like Fantascience Digest, Imagination!, and Scienti-Snaps (all now dead and gone). Spaceways almost came out in hectographed format, but at the last moment the grape jelly failed, as is its habit, and we had the splendid mimeographed magazine of today...or yesterday, rather. Undoubtedly the magazine's history would have been far different (and possibly far shorter!) had it appeared hectographed.
With its first issue, the name of James Avery appeared on the contents page as associate editor. It remained there until the June, 1941 issue, altho Avery had long before dropped active participation in the magazine. Warner has, for the greater balance of the time, published it alone and unaided, either mechanically or financially. HIs father, we believe, drew the cover for the first issue. His mother has been represented in various issues with poetry. --Unless we are badly mistaken and have been misinformed.
The circulation figure has always been a minor mystery, fan zine editors usually being as jealous of them as pro editors. It was the concensus of opinion that Spaceways led the parade merely because it was the most popular. Such is not the case. The first issue saw but 69 copies, and the peak was 185. We know of three fanzines, offhand, that top that figure for circulation.
LeZ is interested in finding just how many complete files of the magazine exist. Warner himself has four. We have one. There are but 2 in England, and possibly -- just barely possibly one in Australia. It is the opinion of Harry Warner that not more than 20 complete files exist in America. May we hear from you if you own one of those 20?
We personally thought a great deal of the magazine from the beginning. Second only, we suppose, to LeZ itself; and contributed accordingly. During the 30 issues we were represented 28 times, and once -- in the second issue -- appeared four times under three names. As hard as we tried since then, we couldn't quite equal that record, altho we did manage to get three items in the July, 1940 number. To polish off the record, we hard articles in the first and last issues, as did only two others: Jack Speer and Larry Farsaci. The highest rating ever accorded a Spaceways article was a score of 9.4 --- which was captured by a report on the 1940 Chicago convention...written by us!
The ironic payoff is this: is this last issue, September, 1940, (volume 4, number 7, whole number 30) is an article by Julius Unger, entitled: "Why Fanmags Fold Up."

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MILESTONES IN FAN HISTORY DEPT After four years of dependable, continuous publication; after 30 consecutive issues without a break; after 46 stories, 68 poems, 137 columns and departments, and 147 articles; after 771 printed pages; after uncounted hundreds of thousands of words----after all this---the White Star passes. Spaceways has turned up its toes. We took the time to count all of the above because we thought it worthwhile. Those 771 pages of Spaceways have provided for us more entertainment than any other fanzine in existence, past--present--and would you say future? It is regrettable that the publication did not live to see its fourth anniversary----a bare month away. Had Harry Warner been able to bring out one more issue: November, 1942 would have been its fourth birthday. Spaceways revolutionized the fanzine world. 1938 was noted for its crummy publications, with the exception of an outstanding few like Fantascience Digest, Imagination!, and Scienti-Snaps (all now dead and gone). Spaceways almost came out in hectographed format, but at the last moment the grape jelly failed, as is its habit, and we had the splendid mimeographed magazine of today...or yesterday, rather. Undoubtedly the magazine's history would have been far different (and possibly far shorter!) had it appeared hectographed. With its first issue, the name of James Avery appeared on the contents page as associate editor. It remained there until the June, 1941 issue, altho Avery had long before dropped active participation in the magazine. Warner has, for the greater balance of the time, published it alone and unaided, either mechanically or financially. HIs father, we believe, drew the cover for the first issue. His mother has been represented in various issues with poetry. --Unless we are badly mistaken and have been misinformed. The circulation figure has always been a minor mystery, fan zine editors usually being as jealous of them as pro editors. It was the concensus of opinion that Spaceways led the parade merely because it was the most popular. Such is not the case. The first issue saw but 69 copies, and the peak was 185. We know of three fanzines, offhand, that top that figure for circulation. LeZ is interested in finding just how many complete files of the magazine exist. Warner himself has four. We have one. There are but 2 in England, and possibly -- just barely possibly one in Australia. It is the opinion of Harry Warner that not more than 20 complete files exist in America. May we hear from you if you own one of those 20? We personally thought a great deal of the magazine from the beginning. Second only, we suppose, to LeZ itself; and contributed accordingly. During the 30 issues we were represented 28 times, and once -- in the second issue -- appeared four times under three names. As hard as we tried since then, we couldn't quite equal that record, altho we did manage to get three items in the July, 1940 number. To polish off the record, we hard articles in the first and last issues, as did only two others: Jack Speer and Larry Farsaci. The highest rating ever accorded a Spaceways article was a score of 9.4 --- which was captured by a report on the 1940 Chicago convention...written by us! The ironic payoff is this: is this last issue, September, 1940, (volume 4, number 7, whole number 30) is an article by Julius Unger, entitled: "Why Fanmags Fold Up."