Let's try for a whole issue full of d.c.'s this time:
Jim Schumacher -- A colorful cover, though not one of your best. the use of heavily shaded areas is interesting, but I'd've preferred something with more illustrative detail. ## This is our first dittoed cover in a long time, come to think of it; maybe a full year or more. When I was OC, it was all I could do to get art on stencil that I could run off on the LASFS Rex -- and you know how much of that was rerunning old stencils, even so. Dittoed covers were almost impossible to come by. Dian seems to be doing a good job of getting original covers (even if she does draw a fair number of them herself), and I hope she can go on getting good dittoed work from yourself and other artists. ## Incidentally, I'm assuming that this is by you, Schu, because it's signed "Schu", although the Table of Contents says it's by Terry Romine. It is by you, isn't it?
By the way, any of you who haven't yet done so might find it handy to jot down my new address & phone number on the 1967 Fan Directory. I'm wondering if it would be worth while to make the Fan Directory a regular publication, issued every six months on this scale -- a one-sheet streamlined job, listing only the most active local fen of the moment? I'd like comments on this. (Mainly, if I published an updated list every six months at 10¢ a copy, how many of you would buy it regularly?
Tom Digby -- Your "brainstorming" sessions sound like a good idea, and I think that we should try the idea out, at least one time for an experiment. (It might make a good Program, and Roscoe knows we haven't had many of them recently.) The Exec. Comm. could announce the night of the brainstorming (or should we call it "fanstorming"?) session, and accept topics for discussion from all of us up to that time. At the session itself, the selected best of these topics would be presented for fanstorming, possibly alternating one serious topic with one silly one (I expect the silly ideas to predominate). It might turn out to be the best club group activity since we had that string of stfnal charades 5 years back (and would anybody want to revive them?). This still doesn't solve the blackboard problem, though, does it? Well, there's our first topic for fanstorming: What can we use for blackboards? ## The only reason I can think of offhand for installing teleporters in elevators or airplanes, instead of using them to replace elevators and airplanes entirely, is one of economics, if their use cost too much to let them be used for anything other than an emergency exit, as you suggest. Any other reason I can think of has a physical flaw.
Dave Fox -- I agree with your comments on the Oz movie, except for the point that you feel that the set & costume designers ignored the illos in the book. To an extent, this is true, but I don't feel that it was a drawback. Judy Garland is certainly an improvement over Denslow's pudgy 19th-century farmgirl. The Munchkins were not predominantly blue, true, but I can understand Hollywood wanting to make this first technicolored part of the movie as colorful as possible. The Wicked Witch did look more like the standard Halloween witch than like Denslow's pictures, and Oz was rather obviously constructed along the Modern Architecture styles of the period; but these are small liberties and don't detract from the enjoyment of the picture. Visually, there was nothing in the movie that I considered to be wrong; and as for differing to an extent from the "official" illustrations... Well, just remember that the Oz books are in a lot of company when it comes to having "definitive" illustrations disregarded. A good example is Alice in Wonderland; the fact that its first illustrations by Tenniel are as definitive as any illustrations can be hasn't stopped any number of other artists from illustrating their own editions, including such as Peter Newell, Arthur Rackham, and Mervyn Peake. The same with The Wind in the Willows and its illustrations by E. Shepard. The Wizard Of Oz itself has been reprinted all over the world, usually with original illustrations by local artists, some of which are as good if not better than Denslow's work. So I have no complaints about the "original artwork" in the movie -- MGM sure did a better job than the first company to film Oz, back in the '20's, with Oliver Hardy as the Tin Woodsman and an old backdrop of the Kremlin as the Emerald City. ## It's pictures like "The Wizard of Oz" that'll probably cause me to buy a tape recorder instead of a hi-fi stereo set; there are so many movie soundtracks that I want to record for their music, off the TV set. ## You aren't the only one to compare Oz with California. In fact, Roger Price has flatly stated that Oz is Los Angeles, and the Mayor is Ruggedo, the Nome King, in disguise.
Bruce Pelz -- I hope you have better luck with the Ox from now on; I won't be around to give you & Dian a lift into LASFS any more. ## I think that this last round of golf was played at the most interesting course yet; too bad it also had the most poorly kept-up greens of the lot. I'm afraid I have no interest in bowling, so you can count me out on any Tournament there. Actually, that close to the WesterCon, I'll probably be too busy on The Best from APA L to participate in any kind of Tournament. ## Well, you now have a complete list of all of the LASFS' lettering guides, plus some miscellaneous other material. I loaned you all of the LASFS folding chairs that I had in storage, so you should have a better idea than I as to how many there are -- and who knows how many more are still in the storage at Al Lewis' mother's house. ## Doesn't the LASFS Rex Ass'n Representative, whoever he may be, have an up-to-date record of all Shareholders? Dave Hulan was the last Representative, though he says he's resigned now. I don't know whether he still has the records or not.
Dian Pelz -- 12 pages; golly wow! And all worth reading, too. How long did it take you to write "Prince Morganstern"? It sure doesn't look as though it were composed on-stencil. This is definitely going into The Best from APA L. Would you be interested in doing some more original illustrations for it? ## I suppose the idea that Apa L covers had to be mimeoed got started when I never used anything but mimeoed covers. But that was only because I couldn't get anything else; you know the problems I had even getting enough used mimeo illustrations to make sure Apa L had a cover every week. ## LASFS excursions to such places as the Huntington Museum, or the L.A. County Art Museum, or the Descanso Gardens, or the L.A. Zoo, are something I'll gladly join if I have the time. I've been suggesting a trip to the Busch Gardens for over a year now, myself; and I've also brought up the idea of a Zoo picnic, but there's not been too much response. I suppose I should've handled it your way -- announced the date the excursion would take place, and hold it for whoever shows up. Anyhow, rather than jump right into a new long-term Tournament activity, such as we just finished with the golf rounds, I'd prefer a small series of such cultural excursions. Bruce will probably try to schedule both simultaneously, I suppose.
Al Snider -- If you mean how do I mimeo the illustration of Profesor Mental in the logo of the most recent issues of RR, it's photostencilled and I use it over.