Ah!
The seventies! Postage was cheap and so were ditto reproduction
machines and supplies. Fanzines were everywhere. Sometimes you
didn't even have to pay for them - the people who produced them
were so eager to get them into the hands of readers that they
often sent them round like junk mail. Except they weren't junk,
at least to those of us who read and enjoyed them. I was one of
those.....couldn't get enough of them and bought or traded for
every one I could find. In time I wanted to try producing my own
zine, too, but it took me quite awhile before I came up with a
format for one that suited me. That was how POTBOILER was
born.
It
is extemely difficult for a beginning publisher to attract enough
material to fill the pages of a new zine. It often takes months
if not years to get word round before contributions begin to come
in from aspiring writers and artists. Having said that, some zine
publishers never solicit contributions from others - they produce,
publish and mail out everything themselves, perhaps with the help
of a few friends. I wanted POTBOILER to be something different.
I wanted the best printing and layout/graphics I could manage;
the very best writers, stories, illustrations, comics, etc. I
knew that was never going to come from within me - I enjoyed writing
and drawing (still do) but I had no illusions about the quality
of my work.....my own stuff wasn't good enough for POTBOILER,
or at least what I wanted POTBOILER to be. Call me a tough
editor if you like!
Having
said that, I was forced to use some of my own work in the first
couple or three issues; there just wasn't enough material to do
the job. So I used a pseudonym because I didn't want potential
contributors to think they had to compete with the editor to get
into the magazine. By the time issue #4 came around I was able
to stop drawing (no pun intended) from my own reserves. There
was more material coming in 'over the transom' (as they say) than
I could deal with.....an embarassment of riches! So many talented
people were contributors to POTBOILER that I'm not going
to try list them here in a mere introductory paragraph. Look below
for a link to that page (or click here).
There
was a 300 copy print run of every issue of PB except #11
which was printed but only a half dozen dummy/galley copies went
out to contributors for proofreading.It's been fifteen years since
the last issue of POTBOILER was slipped into an envelope
and sent off to the readers. Why now this page? Partly cause I
felt like it; partly because I've been asked by others to set
down some memories of those days. Partly because a certain amount
of interest has arisen in 'vintage' zines. Go figure! With any
luck a few of the old contributors will show up here or on the
Lulu page from time to time. And just like in the good old days
they'll have the freedom to do and say whatever they want. For
now I'll just put the old covers below so you can see what they
were like. Click on the covers to see a larger image.
