42 Years from There to Here

Once upon a time, I published Degler! (and if you don't know who Claude Degler was, search for his name, read a book, or ask someone) for apa-F, the weekly New York Fanoclasts/FISTFA apa. Apa-F began in the summer of 1964 and died exactly 69 weeks later, after New York fans lost interest. Apa-F spawned apa-L, the weekly LASFS apa, which continues to this day. After apa-F died, I continued to publish Degler! on a sporadic basis, and even published one issue for TriCon, the 1966 worldcon, where the Fanoclasts were bidding for the 1967 worldcon (we won, but that's another story). It was at Tricon that Jerry Kaufman foolishly implanted the idea in my mind that I should publish the zine as a weekly newszine, and so, shortly, I did. Eventually, Degler! changed its name to S.F. Weekly, and continued, weekly, until March 1968, when it died (as did my job at the time: the two facts were most certainly related). Interestingly, Locus began publishing a few weeks later. Let's not consider "what might have been's"...

Issues of Degler! appeared sporadically over the intervening decades; the idea of doing a newzine remanined in my mind, eventually resulting in Science Fiction Chronicle, which I published, initially monthly, from 1979 until 2000, when I sold it, having burned out and undergone many life changes. When I decided to start a sporadic zine again, I returned to my roots (with a foray out on a limb with Monadnock — which apparently no one could pronounce, or knew what the word meant).

Now, having gotten a spiffy new computer and DSL service, a much wider window into the world of fandom has opened before me. Through the kind services of Bill Burns and his Hugo-nominated (and deservedly so) website eFanzines.com, now everyone can read my issues, which have come out far too infrequently so far. Read, enjoy, and e-mail me with comments, if you want.

—Andrew Porter