PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Newt Boxtop

Back in the 1970s and 80s I used to publish a mystery magazine called Nick Boxtop Mystery Magazine. It went through 11 issues and a stand alone novella. As a bit of fun Ray Allard drew the Newt Boxtop piece below in 1980. Sadly it never got published in the magazine before it discontinued 9 years later. I think the drawing went into one fanzine or another. I'm still sorting all my old zines for scanning and eventually I'll have a better idea what was published and when. There are hundreds of zines and 2-3,000 pages to go through so it's going to take a while. Somewhere I might have a cut-out and colored version of the doll. It sat on my desk for years but it got put away. I just don't know where. I don't know who adapted the newt above either. I wish I did. I'll post it on Facebook and see if anyone remembers who might have done it.

Phantasm II

Back when I posted an album on this blog, Facebook and Flickr about the party with the Phantasm II movie promo standup and the pictures we took of everyone who stuck their head through the hole.

Going through some boxes I found the cut out head of Angus Scrimm. He played the Tall Man. He was great in the role. I scanned it in for no good reason.

UN-CON Program Book 9-9-1978

In 1978 we planned and held our first science fiction convention in Winnipeg. We were using the name The Winnipeg Science Fiction Society which we had borrowed from Chester Cuthbert. He was the only existing member of the club that had been formed in 1951. We had the convention in the Winnipeg OPlanetarium theater and meeting rooms. We had some dealers, some talks, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Bambi Meets Godzilla, refreshments and sitting about talking. I remember we had a pretty good time and the club made some money. I moved away from town a couple of months later. You can see the whole booklet on Flickr.

Winnipeg In '94

In 1977 we had a started a bid for the Science Fiction Worldcon. We were bidding to have the convention in Winnipeg in 1994. It was so far into the future that we all thought we'd be dead or moved out of Winnipeg by then. We were pretty right, several people in the group had moved away when the convention was actually held in Winnipeg in 1994. None of the people who were involved with the 1977 bid had anything much to do with the real 1994 Worldcon but some of us did go.

Back in 1977 we promoted the bid at the conventions we went to that summer. It was something to do, create some silliness, and meet some people. I've always handed out pieces of paper I've put ink on for my whole adult life. I'm still doing it now, leaving a trail of artifacts and effluvia. We actually got supporting membership money from people, as you can see Greg Ketter was one. Someone, and it might have been Greg, got a cheaper membership to the real 1994 Worldcon because they showed them their reciept for the supporting membership.

     

This is the 1st Progress Report and it's dated January 1978. I don't think there was another one. We tended to run out so steam or get distracted pretty easy. The cover illustration is by Ed Ackerman and the piece above is by Roldo. I've been digging through the boxes and finding stuff that I haven't seen in years. It's being enjoyable. Click on the pages to see them in a larger size.

Chester D Cuthbert Has A Lot Of Books

Friday Sept 8 1978 Winnipeg Free Press article on Chester and his massive science fiction collection. Sadly Chester passed away a few years ago and his collection was donated to The University of Edmonton. Several of us fans used to spend Saturday afternoons at Chester's, talking about science fiction and anything else that came up. Chester supplemented his income by selling off his duplicates. He had lots and lots of duplicates. I still have a few of the books I bought from him.

UN-CON Poster September 9 1978

Sept 9 1978 The Winnipeg Science Fiction Society held a one day SF con. We had a bit of stuff to look at, a couple of people selling books, a bake sale and we showed 2001: A Space Odyssey in the theater. We had several hundred people show up and they seemed to have a nice time. artwork is by Roldo, a notable Winnipeg artist, actor and character.

All Our Own Work 1986

I think this was something created to hand out at Christmas time. Karen Trego and I were into stamping back then. We bought some stamps and eventually started carving our own. Neither of us are any good at drawing but we managed to make a few good stamps. Karen set the type courtesy of the Star Tribune. I drew the lines for the stamps title page. That's why they are sort of jittery. You can see the whole booklet on Flicker by clicking that link.

The Garth Danielson Christmas Booke 1976

 

Back in 1976 I created a booklet to give out as a Christmas card. It was a little commentary on the commercialization of Christmas by me and some really nice drawings by Stephen T Riley and Stuart Gilson. I made a bunch of copies to mail out to people I knew. James Hall took 3 or 4 of them and bound them in hardback form. I kept one, one went to each artist, a possible 4th one James kept for himself. I'm not in contact with James anymore so I can't ask him. I lost track of Stu but had heard from him in the early part of the century when the Decadent Winnipeg Fandom guys were talking about getting together. It didn't work our and we all drifted apart again. Stu is a professor in one of those big fancy colleges you might of heard about. .
I had lost track of Steve in the 80's and hadn't even known he had died until I found a mention of it on a web page. The other day I had Goggled Steve's name and found a listing on Ken Lopez Bookseller's site for the copy that had been sent to Steve. I emailed Ken and found that he had become the recipient of books and fanzines from Steve's collection. I asked Ken if he can put me in contact with the man who had gotten Steve's collection and passed along some of it to Ken. Perhaps I can fill in more of Steve's story.
I thought that the book had come out pretty good when it was new but today I see a lot of the type is awfully crooked. It was typed on a Selectric typewriter and pasted out by hand. I sure seem to have invented some odd hyphenations. The title page is rub on lettering and it too is a bit crooked.
There's nothing wrong with the art, I think it's still great. I have all the pieces and the cover mounted and framed. That was done by Steve in 1977. He mailed the huge frame, with unbroken glass, to me. It occasionally gets hung up on my wall. To see the whole booklet find the link in the post and click it.

 

Fans - 3 Speed Electric

One of my favorite pictures of me. That's Steve George on the right. The photo is by the late Mike Hall. It got used in a fanzine back in the 1970's.