JULY 8

• Dick Geis’s Hard Plasm - (adults)
• Jean Martin and Chris Garcia’s Science Fiction/San Francisco #69

JULY 12

• Dick Geis’s Taboo Opinions #111
• Dave Locke’s Time and Again #4 (successor to David Burton’s Pixel)

JULY 14

• Christopher J. Garcia’s The Drink Tank #174

JULY 15

• Arnie Katz’s Vegas Fandom Weekly #108
• Peter Sullivan’s Virtual Tucker Hotel #12

If you publish an electronic zine and are interested in having ezines.com post your work, contact Bill Burns at billb@efanzines.com.

He died as approximately 3 a.m. Saturday morning in his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as discovered by Ruth, his wife of many years.

In the mundane world, John Bristol Speer was a retired lawyer who resided in Albuquerque since 1962; previously, he was a Democrat state representative from the Bend, Washington area during 1959-1961.

Jack was a giant in science fiction fandom, a founding member of N3F, FAPA and the original historian of science fiction fandom.

His 1944 Fancyclopedia has spawned many imitators over the years (including one on this site) and his 1939 book, Up To Now: A History of Science Fiction Fandom, is still used as a reference almost 70 years after first publication thanks to its recently resurrected electronic form on efanzines.com.

Fellow science fiction historian Harry Warner credited Jack Speer as “the first to stress [fandom's] subcultural aspects. Single-handedly, he made fandom’s ayjays something entirely different from the mundane amateur journalism groups.”

During his early prankster days in fandom, Speer was also known by the fannish name, John Bristol (his first and middle name sans surname).

A fandom innovator, he is also credited with being the father of the fanzine mailing comment.

Jack was the second editor of N3F’s The National Fantasy Fan in the 1940s, after founding editor, E. E. Evans.

LINKS:

• UP TO NOW is available as a free PDF at efanzines.com
• Jack’s entry on Wikipedia
• Jack’s bio at N3F.org

Please feel free to leave your remembrances of Jack in the comments section at the bottom of this article.

* Special thanks to Robert Lichtman for fact-checking details of Jack Speers’ life.

Chris Garcia sends two fanzines produced at the recent BayCon:

Orange Soda, the Fanzine in an Hour???????? ????? ????????, and Naught Left but the Lash, the
hoax newszine.

Both available on Chris’s page at http://efanzines.com

They are available here: http://efanzines.com/DrinkTank/index.htm#bc2008

Along with the regular features of officer and bureau reports, this issue includes two essays: The Computer in Our Lives and The Power of Nothing by Jack Robbins.

Additionally, Jon Swartz reviewed the books The Contested Earth and Other SF Stories by Jim Harmon and Next by Michael Crichton. He also reviewed the fanzine, Notes from Bob Peterson #97 (Dec. 2007) by Robert (Bob) Peterson.

You can check out the public version at the N3F main website here: The Fan, March 2008