DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Voice of the Imagination, issue 50, July 1947

Transcribe
Translate

Voice of the Imagination, issue 50, July 1947

Page 3

VOM the defunct fanzine

50th and Final issue, spontaneously combusted during july 1947 by its sire and slave, Forrest J Ackerman, Bx 6151 Stn, LA 55.
It has been a year since Vom #49 was issued at the Pacificon. As months ensued and no Vom was issued, I was pepperd with postal inquirys.  Individuals who were owed a single 15c issue twinged my conscience with their questions as much as if I owed them 10 times the amount. On numerous occasions I was tempted to return all outstanding moneys and call the whole thing quits. Two things deterd me: One, because I was born with 10 fingers I felt a compulsion to publish a 50th number--to abandon the magazine at #49 would be monstrous, unthinkable. (Had I been born into a society of 12-fingerd homo saps, 48 would have been the magic number and I doubtlessly would have ceased publication with that issue. For there was no question but that the whole project had palled on me. While reproducing everyone else's articles, I had little time to create my own. I--but I will not go into the whole thing.)
    But months passed and I never got started on the last issue. That was because I was so appaled by the prospect. The final number had to be something extraspecial, ofcourse, surpassing all that had gone before. The line-up of contributors shoud be stellar, the lithografs several. The oustanding letters of the past 10 years shoud be selected, reprinted, commented on. A resume should be made of the first 49 nos., and predictions for the next 50 pronostigacted (oops!) -- but the overwhelming work involved whelmd over me...
Bit by bit I began to read references in the fanpress to "the defunct Vom". At a time when I still intended to "keddy on" altho my heart was no longer in it, more & more mentions of the ex-Vom finally sold me on the idea of giving up altogether. BUT I HAD A BEAUTIFUL COVER ALREADY L I THO'D! At least I think it's a beauty--  all hail the arist, Lou Goldstone-- and double hail Earl Leeth, the swellow (that's Ackermanese for "swell fellow") who did the wing-work on it. In other words, Leeth was the angel. The regalength 2-color job set him back the better part of 10 bucks, and that, friends, is what I call a fan size hunk of angeling. Makes me feel quite salaamy, and that's no baloney. Thanx, Earl; and thanx again. Incidently, how many of U recognize what the picture illustrates? It's the "cast of characters" as it were, from S Fowler Wright's tremendous futurian fantasy, THE WORLD BELOW, my personal favorite of all book fiction I have ever read. If, as I have heard it rumord but not confirmd. Wright shoud recently have died, the cover will prove a timely memorial for the master author of this magnificent novel.
--Without further ado, then, adieu. A latter, an article, and an ad--and that's the end of Vom. Will only charge a nickel, tho, for this Voice of the Slimagi-nation.

Saving...

VOM the defunct fanzine 50th and Final issue, spontaneously combusted during july 1947 by its sire and slave, Forrest J Ackerman, Bx 6151 Stn, LA 55. It has been a year since Vom #49 was issued at the Pacificon. As months ensued and no Vom was issued, I was pepperd with postal inquirys. Individuals who were owed a single 15c issue twinged my conscience with their questions as much as if I owed them 10 times the amount. On numerous occasions I was tempted to return all outstanding moneys and call the whole thing quits. Two things deterd me: One, because I was born with 10 fingers I felt a compulsion to publish a 50th number--to abandon the magazine at #49 would be monstrous, unthinkable. (Had I been born into a society of 12-fingerd homo saps, 48 would have been the magic number and I doubtlessly would have ceased publication with that issue. For there was no question but that the whole project had palled on me. While reproducing everyone else's articles, I had little time to create my own. I--but I will not go into the whole thing.) But months passed and I never got started on the last issue. That was because I was so appaled by the prospect. The final number had to be something extraspecial, ofcourse, surpassing all that had gone before. The line-up of contributors shoud be stellar, the lithografs several. The oustanding letters of the past 10 years shoud be selected, reprinted, commented on. A resume should be made of the first 49 nos., and predictions for the next 50 pronostigacted (oops!) -- but the overwhelming work involved whelmd over me... Bit by bit I began to read references in the fanpress to "the defunct Vom". At a time when I still intended to "keddy on" altho my heart was no longer in it, more & more mentions of the ex-Vom finally sold me on the idea of giving up altogether. BUT I HAD A BEAUTIFUL COVER ALREADY L I THO'D! At least I think it's a beauty-- all hail the arist, Lou Goldstone-- and double hail Earl Leeth, the swellow (that's Ackermanese for "swell fellow") who did the wing-work on it. In other words, Leeth was the angel. The regalength 2-color job set him back the better part of 10 bucks, and that, friends, is what I call a fan size hunk of angeling. Makes me feel quite salaamy, and that's no baloney. Thanx, Earl; and thanx again. Incidently, how many of U recognize what the picture illustrates? It's the "cast of characters" as it were, from S Fowler Wright's tremendous futurian fantasy, THE WORLD BELOW, my personal favorite of all book fiction I have ever read. If, as I have heard it rumord but not confirmd. Wright shoud recently have died, the cover will prove a timely memorial for the master author of this magnificent novel. --Without further ado, then, adieu. A latter, an article, and an ad--and that's the end of Vom. Will only charge a nickel, tho, for this Voice of the Slimagi-nation.