The World of Fanzines: A Special Form of Communication - Hardcover

Wertham M.D., Fredric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809306190 ISBN 13: 9780809306190

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973

Synopsis

There are well over 200 fanzines in current distribution, originating in al­most every state in the U.S. as well as in Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Spain, and Sweden. This is the first book about them.

 

Few persons outside the science fiction field (where, historically, fanzine publication appears to have begun) know the meaning of the portmanteau word, fan­zine (amateur fan plus magazine).

 

Fanzines are published, written, and illustrated by young persons, usually well under 30, and bear such names as ANDROmeda, BeABohema, Comickazi, Granfalloon, and Varolika. The history of the genre is brief, dating from the 1930s, but many of the publishers and contrib­utors have achieved considerable distinc­tion as writers, including Poul Anderson, Ray Bradbury, and Richard Lupoff.

 

Coming to this serious study of an unu­sual subject with his considerable expertise in the field of violence, Dr. Wertham has been struck, first, by the nonviolent, creative aspects of the genre and, second, by the amateur status of fanzines. His con­clusion, which will surprise many readers, is that herein may lie a message for our unheroic age.

About this title

About the Author

Fredric Wertham, M.D., is presently consulting psychiatrist at Queens Hos­pital Center, Jamaica, New York City. He was the pioneer in the study of violence, about which he has written many books, including The Show of Violence, A Sign for Cain, and Seduction of the Innocent.

Edition details

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 1973
• ISBN 10: 0809306190
• ISBN 13: 9780809306190
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160