fandom, c/d

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Have been reading The Best of Xero, a collection of stuff from some "big" sci-fi/comics fanzine from 61-63, whose contributors included Harlan Ellison, Donald Westlake, Roy Thomas and Rog Ebert (who wrote poems!) (and there's even a letter from OTTO BINDER)!
Ebert wrote the intro and he talks about how fanzines anticipated internet messageboards: "Today a 12-year-old kid in Urbana has other ways to connect with alternative ideas, other worlds to explore. No doubt they are as exciting as fandom was for me." Which is a pretty rare and generous POV. Most nostalgic fanboys wax "OH TODAY YOU'LL NEVER KNOW HOW PURE ETC."

And Don Thompson writes an energetic love letter to the Spectre and Dr. Fate in "The Wild Ones" where he (unwittingly) reveals some overlooked FIFTY-TWO stuff:
Spectre debuted in More Fun #52, his origin story was continued in MF53, where the previous story is recapped in 52-word caption.
Also the Spectre sewed his own costume!

― Dr. Superman, Monday, 30 April 2007 21:00 (eighteen years ago)

Classic in its 1960s/70s heyday, dud to try to hang onto. CAPA-Alpha is gross and embarrassing to read these days, and I've only been hanging around the waitlist because one member distributes CD-Rs full of Golden and Silver Age scans. But I'm dropping off this month.

― Rock Hardy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 03:31 (eighteen years ago)

Well Ebert is in the position of having transcended fandom so he can afford magnanimity! For Roy The Boy the battles are eternally to be fought!

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:04 (eighteen years ago)

Amusingly, yer man Wertham thought fandom was great. he just did not want there to be anything of which people could be fans.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:18 (eighteen years ago)

eleven months pass...

Do the fandom haters think that it is today's particular type of fandom that is bad, or do they reckon that there is something intrinsic to fandom that makes it rubbish? at one level it seems like there is nothing wrong with people discussing comics.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Monday, 28 April 2008 14:54 (seventeen years ago)

Well, obviously, ppl discussing comics, esp. on the internet, is rubbish.

― Dr. Superman, Monday, 28 April 2008 18:20 (seventeen years ago)

It did kind of seem like that was what was being unconsciously implied.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Tuesday, 29 April 2008 09:16 (seventeen years ago)

Also possibly self-hatred. Despite comics being a lot more accepted and mainstream today, it's still the same old story when it comes to "normal folk" and dealing with them. Most of the people who go out and see an X-Men movie wouldn't think of actually holding a comic book in their hand.

99% of discussion of anything on the internet is crap anyway... certainly far from exclusive to comics fandom.

― Nhex, Tuesday, 29 April 2008 12:35 (seventeen years ago)

four years pass...

I don't know why I called K-a gross and embarrassing back then.

Scans of CAPA-Alpha #1-20 (late 1964 - mid 1966) here:

http://comicbookplus.com/?cid=744

― Neil Jung (WmC), Monday, 2 July 2012 18:32 (thirteen years ago)

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