 {{ 
Letters, letters, we love to get letters of comment! They are the energy source
that keeps fan editors like us publishing. We do appreciate all the letters we
receive, and we want to let you know that all your comments, whether or not they
appear here in the letters column, are collected and sent on to the contributors.
So please keep writing! Our contributors value the feedback as much as we do.
We'll begin this time with the M19 cover, by Debbie Hughes. It was a bit of
a departure for us, in that it had the appearance more of a painting or even a
photograph, rather than a drawing. We expected it would get some interesting
comments, and we were right... }} - - - - - - - - - -
Martin Morse Wooster, Silver Spring, Maryland I hope the cover of M19
doesn't get you in trouble with fannish fans. Most of your previous covers have
been pretty traditional cartoon-style covers that tell the reader that Mimosa
is a genzine. But there's nothing light-hearted about Debbie Hughes's artwork;
it's dark, brooding, mysterious, and not very Mimosa-like. In fact, Hughes's
cover and the saddle-stapled binding of the fanzine may lead readers to think that
Mimosa is a semi-prozine.{{
As you can see from her M19 cover, Debbie Hughes is an excellent artist.
This was not her first cover for Mimosa, however; she had previously drawn
the back cover for M3 a decade ago. Since then, she's been successful in
the professional side of the SF art world. Nowadays she prefers to work almost
exclusively with the computer as a replacement for the pen and paintbrush, her
M19 cover being an example of this. }}Forrest J Ackerman's article
{{"Through Time and Space With Forry Ackerman, Part 4"
}} was, as always, very interesting. I've read a great many articles about
how nice Heinlein was -- how he once bailed Philip K. Dick out, how he gave Theodore
Sturgeon a dozen story suggestions for free, etc. But it's also clear that, as
Ackerman makes clear, Heinlein had his nasty side. Why couldn't Heinlein apologize
or admit he was wrong? Did he think he was as infallible as the heroes of his
novels? (And what happened to Heinlein's Hugo for Double Star? If Ackerman
didn't have it, who did?){{
Nobody, actually. Double Star won the Hugo Award for Best Novel at the 1956
Worldcon; it was the year that the Hugo trophies were not completed in time for the
convention. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Brad Foster, Irving, Texas It's interesting to compare the
cover for Mimosa 19 with the one for the previous issue, from Ian Gunn's
heavily detailed line art to this softer, greytone cover. Makes for a nice visual
shift.{{
We mentioned to Debbie that, like you, many readers found her cover artwork for
M19 visually stunning, but, unlike you, a bit incongruous with what was
normally expected from us. Her response was interesting:
"The piece is called 'Annabelle Lee', though it is a combination
of two pieces I did for Poe's most lovely poem. It was published originally
by the Bookworm and Broderbund, i.e., as two pieces and in color. Incongruous?
Well, we all need a bit of change in our lives."
}}Also, way cool letter column art
from Julia Morgan-Scott. Can another incredibly impressive cover presentation for
Mimosa be far behind from her? I hope not! You don't see a whole lot of
scratchboard art any more.- - - - - - - - - -
Vincent Clarke, Welling, Kent, United Kingdom Let's get the awkward bit over
first. Mimosa 19 doesn't look a bit like the sort of fanzine I've
grown to cherish over many years. Photo cover, slick printing, gold-plated staples
... well, not those exactly, but I feel a bit uneasy. Like swapping your wife for
some slinky temptress. I guess that's progress said he, shrugging uneasily,
but...Luckily, the contents are in
excellent form, as usual. Your opening comments were interesting {{"The Road to L.A.Con" }}. I had a few words with Forry Ackerman at
the hurly-burly of Intersection in 1995, and at that time he was still trying to
find a city to provide a suitable site for his immense collection. Seems they all
chickened out when they realised the security precautions they'd have to take. Now,
there's my dream job -- security guard at the Ackerman Museum. I wonder how
much I'd have to pay him?John Berry, in "Shaw to Please,"
was his usual fantastic self. I remember that can of beans being used as a
carriage return spring. As you'd expect, the Belfast Triangle plus John were full
of similar ingenious ideas. Walt Willis once thought of sprinkling rice grains on
freshly inked pages as they emerged from his duplicator, thus preventing offset
by separating them. It didn't work out. Probably Madeleine objected to good food
going to waste. Don't think that even in that household they'd want their rice
puddings flavoured with duplicating ink.Quite a coup, getting the Harry
Warner article. His "North By Noreascon" was, naturally, first class. But it made
me wonder what's happened to all the tapes that have been made at conventions?
Where have they all gone? And why isn't there a SF tape fandom nearly as big as a
reading fandom? In the old days, with reel-to-reel recorders, there used to be
little directories published in fanzines, telling you who had recorders and at what
speeds they ran. In some circles it was thought of as the Coming Thing -- in the
Gernsbackian future, all SF fans would correspond by tape.- - - - - - - - - -
Ned Brooks, Newport News, Virginia Hilarious article by John Berry.
The typewriter with the carriage driven by the weight of a can of beans was a
re-invention of the original Remington carriage drive -- instead of a spring it had
a weight in a cord, and in fact several typists suffered injuries to their toes
when the cord broke.I guess I must be slow -- until I
saw George Flynn's letter in the M19 lettercol it never occurred to me that
the title Mimosa was chosen because the zine was originally printed by mimeo.
But I think 'Printosa' sounds silly -- the current version appears to be printed by
what is technically called 'lithography', so perhaps you should change the title to
'Lithium'...{{
Is that your way of saying we need to get more happy? Actually, our method of
reproduction has nothing to do with the name we chose. (How's that for an
out-of-context line?) Mimosa was named after the ubiquitous tree that
populates the South. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Ken Lake, Thornton Heath, United Kingdom Another unusual fannish cover,
delightful but enigmatic, set me up to be perplexed by your Opening Comments: why
should anyone, walking downhill for ten minutes, need a 'rest stop'? Then I
recalled an American tourist fly-driving through the English countryside: finding
himself in urgent need of a toilet, he finally found a country hotel and dashed in
demanding the 'rest room'. Said the bemused receptionist, "Oi'm sorry, zur, we
don't 'ave one o' they -- but you can go in the lounge if you loike."- - - - - - - - - -
Terry Jeeves, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom Your visit to San Francisco
reminded me of our own experiences in that lovely city in 1982. We stayed in the
Yerba Buena Hotel at the foot of Powell Street and it was a dump. The corridors
were narrow and dingy, with boarded off windows to keep out burglars. Our room
window gave a delightful view of the side alley where the garbage cans were loaded
and unloaded throughout the night.Just across the main road was a
fire station which had a four-appliance turnout every couple of hours between dawn
and dusk. Perhaps there was a City Ordinance against fires during daylight hours.
One advantage, indeed the only one, was the fact that the hotel was quite near the
transport centre at the foot of Powell Street. In the morning we foolishly
breakfasted in the hotel, along with several helpings of Japanese tourists.
Naturally, the cook was overwhelmed. Somehow, one meal got misplaced out of order
and from then on, everyone got part of what the next in line had ordered.{{
In our Opening Comments in M19, we had mentioned our displeasure with the
Granada Motel. On the other hand, we were very pleased with The Monticello in San
Francisco, and would gladly both stay there again and recommend it to others. It
was also located very near the cable car turnaround at the end of Powell Street,
but there must have been another City Ordinance in effect because there were no
fire engine disturbances whatsoever. }}4SJ's put-down of Heinlein was a
real eye-opener. I enjoyed reading it, but it's a sad thing to find one of one's
idol had feet of clay. Willis was superb, what more can one say. Likewise Dave
Kyle's article {{"Those Wonderful Turbulent
Thirties" }}. He brought back many memories and made me wonder why I ever
sold of my collections of Flying Aces (I still have five issues),
Amazing, Wonder, and Everyday Science & Invention. As for
Ahrvid Engholm's piece on fan slang
{{"A Smorgasbord of Fan-Slang"
}}, it made me realize that not all SF fen use English as a first
language.- - - - - - - - - -
Roger Waddington, Norton, Malton, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom One comment I can offer this time
around on the cover is that as soon as my eye caught it, I thought "Steven Fabian!",
instantly back in my early years when he was as much a fanzine artist. So herewith
my compliments, if rather backhanded, to Debbie Hughes. And that saddle-stapled,
wraparound format is most professional; in fact, I didn't know whether to be
relieved or disappointed that the layout inside kept to the same format as
before.Reading Harry Warner's piece, I was
greatly taken with the idea of putting convention programme items on record (and
tape) for posterity, to catch at least some of the happenings and the atmosphere of
the Worldcons, more than a written con report could give. Perhaps it could even be
extended to minor cons as well. It would be an ideal solution for me; my first
convention, the London Eastercon in 1970, was also my last.{{
L.A.Con III proved it can still be done, but the logistics and resulting cost of
recording a multi-multi-track program have got to be formidable. All the more
credit to the L.A.Con committee for managing it. }}Mind you, there's one aspect of
science fiction I've never known through my sole reliance on the written word, of
never being where fans gather; and that's "how do you pronounce the author's names?"
My knowledge is encyclopedic otherwise; I'd be quite prepared to air it in public
on radio or TV quiz show, if only I didn't foresee being covered in confusion when
attempting to Name That Author. Right from the start, there's Poul as in Anderson
and Vogt as in Van which still escape me, and when I came across Somtow
Sucharitkul... no wonder his books are now labelled as S. P. Somtow. Is there a
quick and easy answer, a Bluffer's Guide to SF?{{
A bit of verse by Bob Shaw (originally from Anvil 55) comes to mind and
seems appropriate here:
"It's Zesty and Zingy, is the name of Vinge; And a Cheerful ring, attaches to
Vinge. But something's so dingy, in the
sound of Vinge; And surely they cringe, at the
mention of Vinge." }}Well, concerning Ahrvid Engholm's
article (and how do you pronounce that?) as far as place names go, 'gates'
are very much in evidence over here as well as in present-day Swedish, thanks to
our Viking heritage. You don't even need to go as far as the justly more-famous
York. The four main roads of Malton are Castlegate, Wheelgate, Yorkersgate and Old
Maltongate, reflecting one of a wave of colonisers; but the rest are streets.
Through I do wonder how many of his constructions are able to be used in polite
conversation and how many are limited to the pages of fanzines. Indeed, what of
American fannish? A 'beanie' is easy enough and so is 'corflu'; you can stretch a
point for 'fiawol', but has anybody managed to pronounce 'fijagh' without going
into a coughing fit? My favorite thing in this issue was
the way you interlocked "Through Time and Space with Forry Ackerman" and Walt
Willis' "The Harp Meets #1 Fan." Forry's brief, but amusing description was a
great lead-in to Walt's longer, affectionate piece about the meeting. Being almost
entirely faanish, meaning not following the pros that much, I was surprised by
Forry's descrprition of RAH's nasty behavior. I was aware that he had become
somewhat irascible later in life, but had no idea that this behavior was apparently
indemic to his personality. (By the way, I envy your visit to Forry's house!)It occured to me while reading
David Kyle's memoir (which continues to be wonderful, and engagingly written) to
hope that this project is something he's commited himself to do with his entire
fannish career, and would hope that he intends to publish it as a book, or at least
as a complete fanzine. I, for one, would buy it without hesitation, happy to have
it on my book shelf.{{
We have some good news for you then: Dave is indeed planning a book comprised of
his Mimosa articles and some related writings. The project isn't far enough
along yet for us to provide any more information (or even a title!), but we're
happy to hear that he will be adding his contribution to the growing accumulation
of fan historica. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Derek Pickles, Bankroot, Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom Your description of the motel
matches that of a pub we stayed in for a couple of days -- the power supply for the
TV was a long cable draped over and around a door frame and round the room, there
were giant cobwebs behind the bathroom door and a mysterious white powder in the
bath. We had booked for four days but got out as soon as we arranged accommodation
at another inn in the little town. The new place was 500 years old, black oak
beams and white plaster, immaculately clean and beautifully furnished and only $4 a
person a night more than the doss-house.The thing to watch out for is when
the towels have other hotels' names on them.Ahrvid Engholm says that English
has borrowed from Scandinavian languages -- English, especially Northern English
has more than borrowed as very many place-names are clearly Nordic. Bradford's
three original main roads are called Westgate, Ivegate and Kirk(church)gate and
radiated from the old market square. The first mention of Bradford is in Domesday
Book when it is described as having six townships (small settlements) spread over
some thirty square miles. Bradford ('Broad-ford') is described as having a pasture
half a mile long -- alongside the 'beck', another nordic word -- and as being
'waste', no inhabitants and derelict, which is not surprising after William's
ravaging of the North of England when putting down the revolt of 1070.- - - - - - - - - -
Buck Coulson, Hartford City, Indiana Engholm is right about the
advantages shared by U.S. and British fans. There are authors in other countries,
but very few famous ones. Stanislaw Lem in Poland had fame for a while, at least,
and several Russian authors had their books translated into English. Argentina had
its own stf promag for a time but it didn't circulate much outside the country.
Nor do the Japanese stfmags; I'm assuming there are some because I know there's a
fandom there, and has been for some time. But to make money at the game, one needs
to write in English.{{
Probably so, but non-English science fiction publications are still very much in
evidence if you look for them. For instance, we know for a fact that Poland has at
least one promag because a fan club there sends us several issues at a time.
Nowa Fantastika features short stories by big name authors translated
from English, reports on movies, fan and professional news (this is partly a guess
as it's all in Polish) and some really marvelous artwork, both in black & white and
in color. It's a really slick looking production, and we feel badly we can't read
Polish nearly well enough to enjoy it more. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Ron Bennett, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom Yes, many thanks indeed for
Mimosa 19 and yes, another excellent cover. Beautiful shadow work over on
the back cover. Definitely not a piece of work dashed off in four and a half
seconds flat.That was an inspired piece of
editorial decision making, running Forry's account of his first meeting with Walt
Willis back to back with the reprint of Walt's account of the affair. Two excellent
articles.Concerning Bob Shaw's speech about
"Beer," over here, way back in the 1950s, we had a run of four consecutive
Eastercons in the Midlands market town of Kettering. I think it was the second, in
1956, that Dave Hammond, who, at that time, was hiding from the Florida Mafia by
serving in the armed forces under the name of 'Dave Jenrette', introduced British
fandom to canned beer. Until then we'd known only bottles. Highly antiquated.
The cans, of course, had to be prised open with a special piercing instrument, in
two places to allow easy pouring. "The can must be shaken," Dave told us, "to
ensure that the flavour is uniform throughout the can." Some poor sucker among us
followed his dead-pan instructions to the letter. The can was shaken. The can was
pierced. The jet of beer hit the ceiling. Those were the days... I'd love to learn more about the
techniques Debbie Hughes used for her interesting and atmospheric cover. As ever,
the illos are of a high standard and apt. The most smile-worthy one for me is on
page 38. I don't know how Joe Mayhew did it but that dragon is smug!Hooray for Sharon Farber!
{{"Tales of Adventure and Medical Life #13½"
}} It's a while since I saw an article in a zine that discusses science in
fiction. Let's hope she starts a trend, that is, as long as people write with her
deft light touch and from equally knowledge-based viewpoints. Much as I enjoy
Sharon's medical reminiscences this article is, for me, her best yet.Dave Kyle made me reflect that the
delightful timebinding in Mimosa and some other zines is not only on a
fannish level but for some of us (who may not be quite as mature as Dave but have
seen a few summers come and go) on a personal level. Dave's casual comment on the
Cigar Store being the place where people could use the telephone really gave me
pause for thought. Heck, I'm living in tomorrow's world. When I was a child,
telephones were kept in red framed, glass boxes, on street corners. Girl Guides
were taught how to use them in order to summon emergency services. I knew, of
course, from films, that rich people, newsmen and businessmen could phone that far
land of America by booking a call with the operator. Recently a friend mentioned
that the cost of phoning home, when flying at 30,000 feet, was rather high. I can
sit here at my computer and send letters that can be read within minutes in every
corner (how about custom squaring a circle) of the globe. One of our grandsons
asked me to help him with a school project: about aspects of life in grandparents
childhoods and how the grandparents felt about some of those changes. That request
came a couple of days after Dave's article had caused me to ponder that very topic.
A new role for Mimosa, an aid to a British boys' school work?- - - - - - - - - -
Joseph Major, Louisville, Kentucky After reading your opening comments,
I am surprised that you survived a baseball game at San Francisco's Candlestick
Park. From picking up on Tim Lane's abundant baseball material, I have been
informed that the 'Stick is the worst park in baseball -- chilly, foggy, and
especially windy. And coincidentally enough, Tim will be working on the equivalent
of the Worldcon for baseball statistics fiends next summer. Not quite as
interesting as belly dancers, I am afraid.As for 4E's disagreement with
Heinlein (in "Through Time and Space with Forry Ackerman, Part IV"), part of it may
have stemmed from Kornbluth's general disgust with humanity. Look at the
descriptions of him in The Way the Future Was and The Futurians. And
too, he was mortally ill (malignant hypertension, remember) and may have been
depressed, perhaps even trying out the medicine, which made him unable to write.
All which means that Kornbluth may have been going about a mission of spreading
ill-will. (N.B. Contrary to Teddy Harvia's title illustration, I am certain
Heinlein would like to have 4SJ, also Alexei Panshin, and no doubt several other
people perhaps even including myself, stand on his grave and declaim. However, as
befitting a naval officer, Heinlein was buried at sea.)You are in trouble. Running an
article ("Tales of Adventure and Medical Life #13½") that not only is not
about the minutiae of the in-group of fandom but actually dares to comment on
science fiction! That will lose you the approval of the trufans from Seattle to
Falls Church, and you will be cast forth into eternal darkness, damnation, and
mundania. What it primarily shows, however, is how one ill-thought decision made
early on in the development of a work can lead to complications of massive
proportions. Asimov, you will recall, decided that he could not do much more with
the Foundation Series after finishing the story of Arkady Darrell because of this;
he had made plot decisions and settings that excluded things, and the net total of
his efforts was to get him in circumstances where he felt he really could not say
any more. Sometimes one could wish that he had stuck to that decision.As for the Bob Shaw memorial work
("Beer"), with its comments on "the chilled, fizzy drink which is served up in
American bars and given the name of beer," it reminds me of a story. A man goes
into the a pub in and orders a drink. He wants, he says, the closest thing to
American beer they have. They give him a glass of water.- - - - - - - - - -
Richard Dengrove, Alexandria, Virginia I agree with Sharon Farber. It is
fun to make consistency out of what is patently inconsistent, like the Star
Trek canon. John Alkins in his book Tomorrow Revealed (1956) set an
even more Herculean task for himself, to reconcile all the science fiction works
with one another: the historical period in which War of the Worlds took
place with the one where The World of Null-A took place. Somehow we wound
up being ruled by 'sophocrats', and the great world power was New Zealand.I also agree with Bob Shaw, that
pundit of pungent humor: many things that are thought to be fun actually make us
miserable. And we grin and bear them like stoics. For instance, getting stone
drunk and passing out. Also, flitting from relationship to relationship like
butterflies; we remain uncommitted until they commit us to the nut house. And then
there are things that are 'authentic'. They don't beat around the bush here; the
philosophy is you VILL enjoy them. I can relate to Bob's insistence that the only
authentic beer is flat and lukewarm. I grew up at the New Jersey Shore and
remember 'authentic' saltwater taffy. You rejected taffy unless it was hard as a
rock and you couldn't separate it from the wax paper. Somehow, I've escaped the emotional
upheaval of attending a Hugo award ceremony in which I was a finalist. I'd probably
be even more excited than Michael Burstein was {{
in "Worldcon, the Hugo, and Me" }}, if I'd experienced the tension. But I
believe I attended only one worldcon in the same year that I was a nominee and I
left that one before the Hugos were awarded because I wasn't feeling well and
thereby missed the climax of losing to someone else in my category. His
description of the 1996 Hugo awards makes me wonder if the trophies will continue
to become more complicated and handsome every year. The one I won four years ago
was a major advance in design over my earlier ones and obviously, this year's was
even more exciting to look at and possess.I'm glad to know you have more
Forry autobiography material on hand, besides this exciting episode. Heinlein must
have been a complicated person. He seems to have been kindness itself to some fans
who came into his presence, like the one who showed up uninvited at his home near
the end of his life and was given all the hospitality anyone could want. This
contrasts with some things he said and did to other people in the field and the
eccentricities of his conduct at certain worldcons.I hope Sharon Farber resumes her
medical narratives after detouring this time for attempting the impossible. Nobody
could make anything in the Star Trek universe make sense under close
scrutiny. It's just fairy tales coated with a thin layer of futuristic props.Inspired by Shelby Vick's accurate
suspicion {{in "A Flame Flickered" }}, I
looked up my fan history notes on fandom in Florida and he's right; I had nothing
on the Florida Flames or an anything else happening in that state between the
activity of Raym Washington, Jr., in the early 1940s and the creator of a university
fan club or two in the early 1950s. Shelby unintentionally caused an old wound to
reopen when he referred to his group's screening of The Shape of Things to
Come. I referred to that film in All Our Yesterdays and someone at
Advent thought I was wrong to call it Things to Come. The Advent
representative thought the film had the same title the Wells book, and we went back
and forth over the matter. I forget how I finally convinced Advent that the movie
had a shorter title than the book. Now Shelby leaves me wondering if some prints
used the longer title for the movie.{{
Your memory can be put at ease, as Things to Come is indeed the correct
title of the film. Makes you kind of sorry that Leonard Maltin wasn't a science
fiction fan back then, doesn't it? }}- - - - - - - - - -
Kim Huett, Woden, Capital Territory, Australia I was rather taken with your
editorial comment in Mimosa 19 in regards to San Francisco. As it
happens San Francisco is the city I've most enjoyed while visiting the US. In
contrast to your experience, I find it almost impossible to imagine spending time
elsewhere in California, especially L.A. When Perry Middlemiss won DUFF I sent him
a note of sympathy. As I wrote, bad enough that he should have to suffer the horror
of a worldcon, but to be sentenced to one in LA is just cruel beyond imagining. It
came as no surprise to me that after such an experience he should join the ranks of
the living dead and become chair of AussieCon 3.Shelby Vick's remembrance of the
Lynnhavention is the article in this issue to catch my eye, mainly due to Shelby's
doubt that there was any record of this convention made. Now such a wise and long
standing fan as Shelby should know that all knowledge is recorded in fanzines.
Consequently it should be no surprise that the Lynnhavention was indeed the subject
of a conreport by Lin Carter, in Quandry #8 (March 1951) no less. Not
surprisingly, nowhere in Lin's detailed coverage of the con is any mention of the
costume party that Shelby remembers. Just goes to show that the practice of
everybody attending a different convention started very early indeed.- - - - - - - - - -
William Bains, Melbourn, Royston, Herts, United Kingdom Thanks for Mimosa 19.
Pretty impressive, just getting to 19 issues -- some national newspapers have not
managed as much. This does beg the question of what you are going to do for
Mimosa 20. With your fan historical bent, you should clearly have the
entire issue dedicated to articles on the history of -- Mimosa. (But has
Sharon Farber personally operated on you, to give the required medical tale?)Anyway, 19 was very entertaining as
always. I am struck by the difference your articles point up between fandom in the
1950s and the fandom of the 1990s. Mind you, I did not participate in the fandom
of the 1950s -- I was too young to read or write or, before 1955, exist. Nor do I
really take part in fandom of the 1990s -- I have too many jobs and young
children. So, in fine fannish tradition, I am uniquely well qualified to comment
on both. The 1950s seem much more, well, cuddly is the only word to
describe it, like fandom was all carried on by a small coterie of close friends in
a cupboard somewhere. Now it is 10,000-person worldcons and Internet fanzines that
anyone can read and no one Locs. (Even Mimosa is on-line. In a moment of
absent-minded egocentricity I typed my own name into Altavista and one of the hits
was in the Mimosa 18 Loccol.)I mean, is this just because I am
an outsider, or has the nature of fandom really changed? Is fandom today made up
of hundreds of cuddly groups of people in cupboards, or one huge, amorphous
CyberMass? Young fen reply, please!{{
Things have obviously changed since the 1950s with the enormous growth of fandom.
It may not be possible to know 'everyone' as in the past because so many more
people classify themselves as 'SF Fans' without actually being part of fandom as
we've come to know it. }} I should first explain that I'm
another relic from the Fifties, never very active but I did publish my own fanzine,
was a member of OMPA and FAPA, visited Oblique House (and played ghoodminton with
Willis, Shaw and Berry), met Chuck Harris and James White, attended the Supermancon
of 1954, was in our local SF club with Ethel Lindsay, etc. And have been in
the Glades of Gafia since 1960 or so!Naturally, therefore, many of your
writers and correspondents are very familiar names to me and Mimosa is a
real time machine. In Number 19, out of your ten contributors, for instance,
seven are old familiar faces (although your artists, with the exception of William
Rotsler, are new to me). John Berry's article about Bob Shaw
was, to me, one of the best things in this issue. I was shocked, along with
everyone else of course, to hear of his death, especially at such an early age.
I'm one year younger than Berry, but Bob was considerably younger than both of
us.Of the rest of the material in
No.19, Walt, Forry and Harry Warner are very enjoyable, although I have no
particular comments to make. Same goes for Shelby, although, to nitpick, the
book is The Shape of Things to Come while the film was simply
titled Things to Come, as Dave Kyle enthused in his article back in
Mimosa 13.In the letters column, Vincent
Clarke and Ken Bulmer struck some responsive chords in their recollections of early
pulp reading, particularly Flying Aces which I too read around the time I
discovered science fiction. Unlike Ken and Vince, I didn't stop buying the mag
when I discovered Wonder Stories in 1936 (at age 9) which, as Dave Kyle says,
was a great year! And, to me anyhow, continued to be a great year because I
quickly discovered Astounding and I found I liked the new
Thrilling Wonder Stories. Anyway, Dave's articles are great.Looking back over the eleven issues
of Mimosa I've been able to obtain, I can see a distinct progression -- it
gets slicker-looking. Actually, your mimeoing was impeccable -- as good as I've
seen -- but the latest issue is really a work of art. The cover is beautiful. I
hope I'll be allowed to see the next one.{{
You shall! We should mention at this point that Fred obtained his entire run of
eleven issues not from us, but from Greg Pickersgill's "Memory Hole" project. For
the past several years, Greg has been running a middleman service of gathering
current and old fanzines and getting them into the hands of fans who are interested
in having them. It certainly is a good way to help fan editors locate new readers,
and Greg certainly deserves some recognition for this activity. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Teddy Harvia, Hurst, Texas Anticipating the criticism of my
cartoon rendition of the Irish accent, I say it is filtered through deaf ears
(mine).{{
Not to worry -- we didn't receive even one criticism of your cartoon. Or your
accent. }}Some other comments on art: Debbie
Hughes' cover art looks like Maxfield Parrish and Roger Dean meet the West Coast.
Airbrush can make things look so real! Brad Foster's amorphous being opening the
sphere to an illuminating sense of wonder is brilliant in its simplicity. Bill
Rotsler and Alexis Gilliland's masked man collaboration was eye-popping for what it
didn't show. Titillatingly funny.Sharon Farber's analysis of the
alien battle of the sexes in the Star Trek universe brought back memories of
my youth. I was not the only one with impure thoughts of Julie Newmar
naked.And I love Michael Burstein's
description of his alternate Hugo. I want one!- - - - - - - - - -
We Also Heard From: Harry Andruschak, Martha Beck, John Berry, Mark Blackman, Al Bouchard, Les Cole, Chester Cuthbert, Ahrvid Engholm, George Flynn, Steven Fox, E. B. Frohvet, Bridget Hardcastle, Dave Hicks, Lee Hoffman, Ben Indick, Tom Jackson, Ali Kayn, Leigh Kimmel, Irv Koch, R'ykandar Korra'ti, Roy Lavender, Rodney Leighton, Mark Loney, Sam Long, Patrick McGuire, Ed Meskys, Perry Middlemiss, Catherine Mintz, Murray Moore, Lewis Morley, Pär Nilsson, Chris Niswander, Jodie Offutt, Sian O'Neale, Lloyd Penney, Marilyn Pride, Dave Rowe, Ben Schilling, A. Langley Searles, Ruth Shields, Alex Slate, Gene Stewart, Mae Strelkov, Alan Sullivan, Shelby Vick, Wolf von Witting, Henry Welch, Mike Whalen, and Walt Willis. Thanks to all! Title illustrations by Sheryl Birkhead Other illustrations by Harvia & Rotsler, Stiles & Rotsler, Gilliland & Rotsler, Foster & Rotsler, and Gunn & Rotsler |
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