Fanzines (Comedy, Doctor Who and in general)

[TJ]

Oddly enough, these fascinating tomes never seem to be discussed much on here. Personally, I used to get far more excitement from sending off a cheque or PO with SAE, and waiting for a chunky A5 effort to return a couple of weeks later, than I ever have done from checking a website to see if anything new has been added. So what were (or indeed are - I personally believe there's still room for printed reading matter even in this high-tech age) your favourites? Some of mine included:

Time Screen - 'The Magazine Of British Telefantasy', started by the now-legendary Andrew Pixley in his student days. Although much of its content has probably now been superceded by later efforts, this was a staggering effort for the day, with hefty research on everything from Doctor Who and Gerry Anderson shows to an obscure 1973 BBC version of Alice Through The Looking Glass. Later issues started to get a little list-heavy, and if you weren't into lists were a little poorer for that, but it was never less than immensely readable and the final issue (a special on the history of British Telefantasy tie-in comic strips) was arguably the best of the lot. Apparently copies are very hard to come by now.

Christ's Fat Cock - as far as I know this was the only Morris/Iannucci/L&H etc fanzine ever published (it dates from 1994ish), and was the work of two certain individuals who hover around these boards. Again a lot of it is probably now relatively out of date, but it was an immense achievement for the time, and was the first place I ever saw a proper explanation of the wrangling over the On The Hour tape. Unfortunately I can't find my copy or it would long since have been scanned for perusal.

Publish... And Bedazzled - if anything shows how much times have changed since the rise of the internet, it's the fact that the Official Organ Of The Peter Cook Appreciation Society has folded. Time was when interviews with the rarely-interviewed, coupled with a smattering of archive reprints and sketch transcripts, was enough to satisfy the Cook and Moore fanbase (although, I hasten to add, I think www.stabbers.org is fantastic).

This Way Up - OK, I have a vested interest in pushing this, but it's also one of the few regular print fanzines still in existence and even though huge chunks are written by myself it still gives me that sense of excitement at waiting for a zine to arrive in the post. Originally spun off from the irreverent and energetic Doctor Who fanzine Faze (itself spun off from the even more irreverent and energetic Doctor Who fanzine Top), it now covers all areas of the arts and media with a definite slant towards sci-fi and indie music. And is very fond of taking the piss. Further details can be found at http://www.stanley115.freeserve.co.uk/

Nothing At The End Of The Lane - I have to admit that I've never even read this highbrow Doctor Who fanzine, as I've been just too late to be able to purchase both issues so far, but the list of contents alone has made it my 'holy grail' of reading matter...

[Munday's Chylde]

Oddly enough, these fascinating tomes never seem to be discussed much on here. Personally, I used to get far more excitement from sending off a cheque or PO with SAE, and waiting for a chunky A5 effort to return a couple of weeks later, than I ever have done from checking a website to see if anything new has been added..

Absolutely! I used to regularly send off for a variety of horror fanzines that were advertised in (vaguely) more respectable publications! They used to seem to provocative and dangerous, often talking about films which never used to see the light of day in 80's britain and which I used to just pray would accidently get shown on itv without anyone realising! I think my excitement was doubled by the fact I used to have to cut off the postman early because my parents would never have approved - the guys who made these things were always really cool too, I would often just send them five pound notes instead of cheques (i was too young to have a cheque book) and they always obliged! My only regret is that I never kept any of them.

[TJ]

Absolutely! I used to regularly send off for a variety of horror fanzines that were advertised in (vaguely) more respectable publications! They used to seem to provocative and dangerous, often talking about films which never used to see the light of day in 80's britain and which I used to just pray would accidently get shown on itv without anyone realising! I think my excitement was doubled by the fact I used to have to cut off the postman early because my parents would never have approved - the guys who made these things were always really cool too, I would often just send them five pound notes instead of cheques (i was too young to have a cheque book) and they always obliged! My only regret is that I never kept any of them.

Doubtless one of these was Samhain, briefly the target of a spot of tabloid vilification because it was edited by a primary school teacher and covered material as obscene as - gasp - old Hammer films!

[slim]

I often wistfully look back at my youth, with a tear in my eye, and think of the music 'zines that used to be in circulation in Essex. I'm not sure if there's any about any more, but they're certainly not as well distributed and/or prolific as they were. The 'zine scene died here along with the live music scene (as I knew it anyway).

I found an article I wrote for a 'zine the other day. I was 17 when I wrote it and it shows. I cringe looking at stuff I wrote a year ago, let alone 12. Yeuch.

[Munday's Chylde]

Doubtless one of these was Samhain, briefly the target of a spot of tabloid vilification because it was edited by a primary school teacher and covered material as obscene as - gasp - old Hammer films!

Yes I did get samhain - i didn't know it got tabloided! But i do recall it made the leap into proper publishing at one stage and wound up on the shelves of WHSmiths. I wonder if the 'negative' publicity helped it achieve this?

[TJ]

Yes I did get samhain - i didn't know it got tabloided! But i do recall it made the leap into proper publishing at one stage and wound up on the shelves of WHSmiths. I wonder if the 'negative' publicity helped it achieve this?

I'd imagine it probably did; to be fair a lot of people very vocally came down on the editor's side, including the parents of the children at the school he worked at.

Incidentally, Dreamwatch, the exclusive-heavy high street sci-fi tome, started life as the rabble-rousing and weirdly laid-out mail order fanzine Doctor Who Bulletin.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Christ's Fat Cock - as far as I know this was the only Morris/Iannucci/L&H etc fanzine ever published (it dates from 1994ish), and was the work of two certain individuals who hover around these boards. Again a lot of it is probably now relatively out of date, but it was an immense achievement for the time, and was the first place I ever saw a proper explanation of the wrangling over the On The Hour tape. Unfortunately I can't find my copy or it would long since have been scanned for perusal.

I've got the one and only issue (April '95) sitting right here - I did start scanning it a while back, but got distracted by tea.

[Bert Thung]

Here's a few I remember offhand

The Totting Times - Steptoe Fanzine from the early nineties

???? Australian fanzine about British Comedy from around the same time. Used to give detailed episode guides to the likes of The Goodies and Not Only But also. Black and white A4 publication. Anyone remember the name of this one?

Doctor Who Digest - The first ever Doctor Who fanzine, ran by a schoolboy from Edinburgh named Keith Miller during Jon Pertwee's time on the show. Stunned the shows production office when he turned up, in his capacity as head of their fan club in his school uniform.

DWB - A sort of Private Eye of the Doctor Who world. Hated by one of its fans, loved by the other half.  Always slagging off the show during the Bonnie Langford, Sylvester McCoy days.

[TJ]

Actually, that's not such a bad idea - if you have favourite vintage zines and access to a scanner, why not scan them in for others to enjoy? I must dig out Let There Be Lighthouse, a bizarre dadaist League Against Tedium-like Lighthouse Family fanzine that was around in the late 1990s.

[Bean Is A Carrot]

???? Australian fanzine about British Comedy from around the same time. Used to give detailed episode guides to the likes of The Goodies and Not Only But also. Black and white A4 publication. Anyone remember the name of this one?

Laugh Magazine. Edited by Peter Tatchell (not that one) and including contributions from people like Matthew K. Sharp (who among other things helped unearth the Python Satan animation). Later spun off into Laugh Radio, an occasional community station in Melbourne that played nothing but archive comedy - http://www.laugh.net.au/

[benthalo]

Nothing At The End Of The Lane - I have to admit that I've never even read this highbrow Doctor Who fanzine, as I've been just too late to be able to purchase both issues so far, but the list of contents alone has made it my 'holy grail' of reading matter...

It's great apart from the hopeless 'personal view' articles, which are a complete waste of everyone's time. The rest is super-dry but pretty essential.

Not sure about the list-heavy criticism of Time Screen. It was only the BBC Archives guide (Issue 7 revision, so quite old anyway), the tie-in records listing and the comics special that extended into infinity, wasn't it? I still use the first of those very frequently indeed.

[weekender]

My favourite Doctor Who fanzine was Second Dimension, from a Doctor Who fan group known as The Whonatics.  Not only did this contain a remarkable sense of humour and perspective about Doctor Who, but was generally very well written and contained salient arguments against a lot of Doctor Who stories which were considered to be 'classic'.  I managed to find a picture of a cover, look:

http://thefanzinedatabase.tvheaven.com/seconddimension.gif

I think it also contained a cartoon strip which I think was called 'Rupert The Time Lord' which, as you can imagine, was a cartoon strip featuring a time travelling Rupert The Bear and his chums.  I have fond memories of this, because I can clearly remember that they had tried to emulate the actual Rupert strips, insofar as they tried to make it funny but couldn't actually do so as they needed all the captions to rhyme.  I believe Ambient Sheep may still have my old copies, but they're probably in a box somewhere and his scanner's broken ;).

[difbrook]

There was also a fanzine called "Fan Mail", which produced a superb run of Doctor Who comic strips, in which every different character was a small furry animal. The absolute peak of this silliness came with a retelling of a certain Arthurian-slanted tale from Season 26, featuring Doctor Duck in "Bottlefed".

I still have all of my old fanzines, stacked up in boxes in the attic. About 90 percent of DWB, for my sins (and my god, I'm glad my critical faculties have developed enough to see past the editorial slant nowadays), a complete run of the 90's revival of Skaro (high water mark in fanzine production, that - critically astute, with professional production values - albeit with an occasionally eccentric approach to typesetting); a good few issues of Time Screen, and an extensive run of In Vision, the very dry but definitive guide to the production of Doctor Who. I stop somewhere around season 18, oddly enough - more or less the year (1994) that I took out my mortgage and had to stop being frivolous with money!

Second Dimension I've got a few of, Spectrox, Pickled in Time, Cottage Under Siege... a good run of 1985/1986 Celestial Toyrooms, which take on an ever more doom-laden aspect as we stampede through arguably the darkest two years in Doctor Who's history (there wasn't much grounds for optimism when the production team was falling out with each other, and the lead actor was being sacked...).

I contributed a bit to Paisley Pattern in my time, but not a terribly large amount - just a couple of articles. That was primarily the work of some supremely talented individuals, some of whom have gone on to make a fair name for themselves in media research themselves. The actual fanzines themselves are packed with good stuff, and like a good fanzine should (I feel), display all the little quirks and tics of the editor in charge at any given time. Davy Darlington's issues tended to be stuffed with gags about Adric (Davy being one of the few people in fandom who actually liked him), and had quotes from Scottish pop bands cropping up all over the place. Alistair McGown, Kenny Smith and Alan Morton's issues were superbly designed, and very very silly indeed, but with a serious approach to research stuck in among the frivolity. Ah, happy times.

I'm also very fond of Bostock's Pocket - co-edited by Davy Darlington and our very own dr_lightning. Neither of them have a good word to say for it these days, but I still think it's rather nice. Davy and Alistair went on to produce a one-off zine called "November Spawned a Monster", which apart from having one of the single best/only  Doctor Who/Morrissey related jokes for a title, also had a Smiths/Morrissey quote on every page somewhere. And was utterly superb, to the point where it more or less killed off fanzine production in Glasgow and Edinburgh, as I recall. A sort of "how the hell do you top that?" sort of thing.

Outside of Who, I do have a fairly large run of "Mostly Harmless", the Hitch-Hikers guide fanzine of ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha (I think - it's been a long time). Seemed to centre around "slouches", or pub meets as they're more commonly known.

I'm sure I've got a few more bits and pieces. Scared to look, as those boxes were sitting right under the beginnings of the water flood that destroyed a large proportion of my book collection back in October last year. Another good incentive to get scanning, I think!

[TJ]

It's great apart from the hopeless 'personal view' articles, which are a complete waste of everyone's time. The rest is super-dry but pretty essential.

I did guess that might be the case!

Not sure about the list-heavy criticism of Time Screen. It was only the BBC Archives guide (Issue 7 revision, so quite old anyway), the tie-in records listing and the comics special that extended into infinity, wasn't it? I still use the first of those very frequently indeed.

There was also the video listing, which wasn't that long but made for spectacularly uninteresting reading. As I'm sure you're well aware, I loved the list-heavy editions, but was aware that a lot of other readers weren't anywhere near as keen.

[23 Daves]

Actually, that's not such a bad idea - if you have favourite vintage zines and access to a scanner, why not scan them in for others to enjoy? I must dig out Let There Be Lighthouse, a bizarre dadaist League Against Tedium-like Lighthouse Family fanzine that was around in the late 1990s.

That sounds brilliant!  Well, the concept just made me laugh, anyway.

There were quite a few spoof fanzines around in the eighties and nineties, but sadly I never chanced upon them, or if I did I probably dismissed them as serious work at a casual glance.  I'd be interested in seeing scans of anything anyone has to that effect.

Other than that, there used to be a superb literary fanzine called Ah Pook Is Here which I think was often 'superb' by dint of the fact that the editor had access to a wide library of material and wasn't afraid to break copyright regularly and often.  Hence you'd get a lot of obscure Thom Gunn short stories in there as well as really good work by new writers.  I picked up an old copy of this recently and realised that a mate of mine was in it, but at the time of buying the copy I hadn't even met him yet... he's got a publishing deal these days, which goes to show that the zine was pretty forward thinking in what it chose (they always rejected me, though...)

And I hate to appear to brown-nose a forum mod, but I did really like Paintbox, and was reading that before I was even a Cookd and Bombd regular.  It was very wittily written, very persuasive in its arguments, and I loved the scatter-brained approach of what it included each issue.  Like all good fanzines it appeared to give no toss for things such as demographics... I periodically came close to seeing the author's point of view on Menswear and Noel Edmonds, but rejected it out of hand in the end, despite having been entertained by the nagging to see the other side of the story and the anecdotes.  Better still, it introduced me to the Bonzos, for which I will always be thankful.

[Mr Skinnylegs]

I'm also very fond of Bostock's Pocket - co-edited by Davy Darlington and our very own dr_lightning. Neither of them have a good word to say for it these days, but I still think it's rather nice.

That's bostock's pocket young man. Lower case. Get it right, please.

And I'm still tremendously fond of it. It's the one we did after that I think is a pile of tripe.

Fanzines are great. I loved International Electromatix. Looked awful, but there was some great writing in it.

I still miss Paisley Pattern to this day.

I liked Skaro, but never actually bought more than about two issues for some reason.

And a mention of some football fanzines:

The Absolute Game was a fantastic Scottish football fanzine;

The Northern Light was the Aberdeen fanzine that led to about four others and launched the career of Sun TV reviewer Ally Ross for its sins.

[Clinton Morgan]

Yes! Bring back 'Paintbox'!

Otherwise this
will happen to this

[Ambient Sheep]

Rumour has it that she's pitching for a part in Torchwood, y'know.  Same rumour has it that she auditioned for the Billie Piper role in Who proper, too.

[23 Daves]

Actually, I can't believe I forgot this one... there was a Brum fanzine back in the early nineties called (I think!) Budgerigar.  It was noteable for managing to blag some interviews with some rather high-profile music and comedy celebs, then to piss on its chips completely by going on venomous attacks about their ability (if it was felt by the editor this was warranted - there was never any doubt in my mind that they were motivated by passionate beliefs rather than shock-horror lets-taunt-the-celeb tactics).

There was a classic interview with Rik Mayall in one issue which, if memory serves, consisted mainly of a critique of how limited his style of comedy was, how limited his character acting was, and how he really wasn't doing anything to further the cause.  He replied with a stunned "Well... er... you wouldn't ask John Lee Hooker to play something other than the blues, would you?".  It was seriously like reading SOTCAA grilling someone - I'll be amazed if Rik's PR ever had anything to do with the fanzine again afterwards.  The fact that of all the Rik Mayall interviews I've ever read that's the one that almost always springs most readily to mind goes to show that the underground press could be responsible for some incredibly readable and memorable stuff.

Somebody will probably post to say that the editors of Budgerigar now write substandard crap for the NME.  Which of course is perfectly possible.  That's where a lot of really good fanzine producers have ended up, wasting their abilities.

[benthalo]

Another vote for 90s Skaro - a genuinely ground-breaking Who zine, which would come to have a massive influence on the Marvel/Panini magazine. I only wish Ness Bishop still had a poetry column.

I still prefer the more thoughtful Who zines. Tat Wood occasionally does reprints of Spectrox, which are always worth getting. That epic article on the relationship between art deco and Planet of Giants certainly separates the men from the boys. His last epic, Spaceball Ricochet, got me through many dull train journeys to work.

There was also a decent Who A5 based in Scarborough, c.1991, which Tim Munro used to contribute to. Can't for the life of me remember the name, mind.

Someone gave me a full run of Web Planet a few years back. Dear Christ. I could quite happily damage a few 'pro fan' careers by publishing those on-line.

[benthalo]

Somebody will probably post to say that the editors of Budgerigar now write substandard crap for the NME.  Which of course is perfectly possible.  That's where a lot of really good fanzine producers have ended up, wasting their abilities.

See also Peter Robinson, of KLF zine fame.

[Bert Thung]

Skaro fanzine from 1983. "A report on the Longleat Dr Who celebration by David Richardson"

Page One
Page two
Page three
Page four
Page five
Page Six

[difbrook]

There was also a decent Who A5 based in Scarborough, c.1991, which Tim Munro used to contribute to. Can't for the life of me remember the name, mind.

"Eye of Horus"? Possibly "Star Begotten?"

Wasn't Tat Wood one of the prime writers on "Perigosto Stick"? I seem to recall that one doing more to damage people's cherished memories of the bionic grandad, sorry - Jon Pertwee, than anything else. Except when Stephen Moffat coined the phrase "bionic grandad", of course.

[another Mr. Lizard]

Nice to see 'Samhain' mentioned here, TJ and Munday's. I was a regular contributor and wrote for the mag for about ten years. The word 'fanzine' means punk rock and horror mags to me, more than anything else, so although I was aware of Pixley's work I didn't realise until reading this thread that there was much of a 'comedy zine scene'.

I also wrote for many other small press horror mags, ranging from local stapled-together publications done by my mates to more professional offerings, John Martin's fondly-remembered 'Giallo Pages' being another for which I was a frequent contributor. Great days, and although I love the internet, one of the worst things about it is that it has rather killed off the old-fashioned zine. Film/t.v. websites just aren't the same, somehow.

[Jemble Fred]

Can't find the proper site, but flipping heck, it's quite upsetting that this hasn't been mentioned yet: http://tv.cream.org/potpourri/arkket.htm

Okay, I occasionally infest the pages with minor articles, but it's still the best we've got, despite me. I have to admit it doesn't give me any of the thrill that Pub & Bed used to when it plopped through the slot, but it's always a slap-up treat.

I still think that Pub & Bed was too definitely abandoned, too early. I may have missed four or five of the early issues, so I'm not entirely sure of everything that was covered during the mag's life, but it's been proved since that there's always plenty of material, year on year, for a Cook 'zine. It was fascinating enough to hear the opinions of comics who'd never even met him, let alone the many many other people that Cook worked with throughout his life who never got into the mag. I'd have thought it could at least have become an annual publication. But then I'm not the poor get who had to spend half my life keeping it going, so what do I know?

[TJ]

Pickled in Time

Blimey. I used to know Liam and company quite well, and I imagine they'd be surprised to know that it was still being fondly remembered over a decade on. I'm still amused by how delighted they were to discover copies being sold in the Nottingham branch of Forbidden Planet in Madonna's "Sex"-style protective wrapping.

[TJ]

Actually, that's not such a bad idea - if you have favourite vintage zines and access to a scanner, why not scan them in for others to enjoy? I must dig out Let There Be Lighthouse, a bizarre dadaist League Against Tedium-like Lighthouse Family fanzine that was around in the late 1990s.

That sounds brilliant!  Well, the concept just made me laugh, anyway.

They guy behind it later turned out to be a frequent poster to an early incarnation of this board ('Kip Saunders'), but I haven't heard anything of him for ages. It really was an amusing piece of work, and I was even more amused by the idea of real Lighthouse Family fans buying it and being frightened by big full-page pictures of Nick Ross above the caption "this is the future, and you are not welcome".

[difbrook]

Pickled in Time

Blimey. I used to know Liam and company quite well, and I imagine they'd be surprised to know that it was still being fondly remembered over a decade on. I'm still amused by how delighted they were to discover copies being sold in the Nottingham branch of Forbidden Planet in Madonna's "Sex"-style protective wrapping.

any fanzine that came with a "pin the tattoo on Pertwee" back cover *deserves* to be wrapped in "Sex"-style protective wrapping... <g>

I always loved their self-confessedly feeble attempt to start a Troughton backlash. Didn't work...

[TJ]

And I hate to appear to brown-nose a forum mod, but I did really like Paintbox, and was reading that before I was even a Cookd and Bombd regular.  It was very wittily written, very persuasive in its arguments, and I loved the scatter-brained approach of what it included each issue.  Like all good fanzines it appeared to give no toss for things such as demographics... I periodically came close to seeing the author's point of view on Menswear and Noel Edmonds, but rejected it out of hand in the end, despite having been entertained by the nagging to see the other side of the story and the anecdotes.  Better still, it introduced me to the Bonzos, for which I will always be thankful.

I wasn't expecting anyone to mention any of my old efforts! Mind you, it seems quite odd to look back on how popular it was at one point (over one hundred and fifty copies of issue fourteen shifted, which I still find hard to believe), considering how rapidly its popularity tailed off once the net took off and the "I Love..." shows and their ilk muscled in on its territory (if I may say so myself, to much less impressive effect). Interestingly, my original model for it was the Beastie Boys' early-mid 1990s magazine Grand Royal, which I thought was great but was still slightly annoyed by the way it limited itself to vaguely 'cool' topics.

Yes! Bring back 'Paintbox'!

Um... I really don't know about that. I kind of felt that it had run its course, and the turn-of-the-millennium nostalgia boom made it harder to a) flog copies (it's a sad fact that people with Bagpuss mobile phone covers aren't necessarily going to want to read about how it was made) and b) find subjects to cover that nobody else was covering. The last couple of issues are a little self-indulgent, not least because I had the additional burden of writing pretty much all of them in their entirety myself. Also, I got a bit sick of recieving daft letters from freaks sending me massive diatribes about how listening to The Moldy Peaches was a surefire way to instigate a bloody revolution, appearing to think that I had a personal responsibility to travel overseas and knock on the doors of foreign film archives to search for lost television shows, or just illegibly scrawling in crayon. Then there were all the piss-poor bands sending me their latest CDRs because I made the mistake of showing off about having discovered a couple of bands that went on to do rather well, and finally the tabloids pestering me at home for a quote on the BES rather put me off the idea of having traceable contact details on public display.

The eventual replacement is this music? is something that I'm still fond of and haven't abandoned entirely, but I think on reflection I'd seriously overestimated the simplicity of doing a downloadable online print-it-yourself fanzine, and just seemed to be both endlessly explaining the procedure to people and endlessly adding to the (admittedly initially meagre) instructions on how to do so on the site. I have toyed with doing another print venture of some description, but I'm currently caught up in a number of other interesting projects and also have some personal commitments that limit the time I can spend on anything like that.

[TJ]

I still prefer the more thoughtful Who zines. Tat Wood occasionally does reprints of Spectrox, which are always worth getting. That epic article on the relationship between art deco and Planet of Giants certainly separates the men from the boys. His last epic, Spaceball Ricochet, got me through many dull train journeys to work.

Tat Wood is one of the few non-professional writers that causes me to go out of my way to read anything he writes. His knowledge of trivia, mastery of lateral thinking and infectious enthusiasm for subjects is virtually unmatched. I've always been particularly fond of 'Whizz For Atoms', his exploration of the naive science on display in early Doctor Who, and also his barnstorming piece on the Troughton Dalek stories which came accompanied by a sidebar adivising "this article should be read whilst listening to The Who Sell Out".