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In 1963, TERROR #1, above, was hand cranked on an old mimeograph machine (and I doubt many would even recognize the process today, or even the word, itself) in the dingy showroom of South Shore Office Equipment, Hempstead, New York, owned by Sidney Weinberg, the father of my best (and oldest) friend, David (who will, hopefully, be posting a tidbit here later). I can smell the mimeo ink to this day, and I can still remember pounding out copy, literally, on dark green mimeo stencils (and smell their smell, too) on a twenty pound manual Remington Rand typewriter my mom schlepped all the way home from her office in New York City, with the help of my Aunt Florrie--- driving both ways via the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, Long Island Expressway, Grand Central Parkway and Southern State Parkway. (Is this how urban myths start?) Then, of course, there were always problems with typos on the stencils, and the special fluid one needed to apply to the error before retyping. It was archaic; it was exhausting; it was rudimentary. But is was excruciatingly exciting, and completely hands on, in the best sense of the word. Every ounce of creative juice surged. Every brain cell sparked. It was a wondrous thing.
From the collecting of material, to the collating of same, the typing, illustrating, editing, printing, stapling and distribution, it was all a grand adventure. TERROR #1, though amateurish and simple, had a profound affect on me, and the production itself seemed a tangible entity and omni-present. It was all I thought about, dreamed about, pursued. To have been able to hold the first finished copy of TERROR #1 in my hands--- the grain of the paper, the smell of the ink, the size and weight, the yellow of its cover, the glistening of its new staples--- well, how does one describe the feeling?
) - but to answer Mel's question - I first read about Fanzines in the early
issues of FM (circa 1962-1964). There were sections titled GRAVEYARD EXAMINER, THE VOICE OF FIENDOM, and HAUNT ADS - which had its own sub-section titled
"FANTASTIC FANZINES!" These were the departments where I first saw the covers for HORRORS OF THE SCREEN, VAMPIRE'S CRYPT, KALEIDOSCOPE, MONSTER
JOURNAL and GARDEN GHOUL'S GAZETTE. FM#27 is known to have several especially unique "fanzine" sections. What - no plug for "Terror"
inside one of these early issues?
