We've all been crying about the dearth of good genzines in Fandom these days, so we should be ready to get up and support one when it does come along. Right? Well, one has come along, and you are hereby notified of it.
This is the revived PSYCHOTIC, published by Dick Geis. When I joined fandom back in 1960, Geis had gafiated a couple of years earlier, and PSY was just a name I heard from time to time, as one of the jiants of the past. But just recently, Geis has returned to fandom, and he's pubbing PSY again. The first issue, PSY #21, came out a couple of months ago, and was mostly filled with his own writing -- book reviews, fanzine reviews, comments on "Star Trek", on fannish politics, and the like. Good reading. PSY #22 just arrived in my mailbox this week, and in the last couple of months, it's jumped up to 40 pages, with articles by Ted White and Bob Tucker, and a column by Harlan Ellison, not to mention letters by such as Bob Bloch, Lee Hoffman, Rick Sneary, Bĵo, Dean Grennell, and others. And more reviews, comments, etc., by Geis himself. It's one of the best fanzines I've read all year. And Geis says that he's going to continue this on approximately a monthly schedule. Roscoe; it's the good ol' days back again.
PSY is 25¢, or a trade for your fanzine (I don't think this includes one-sheet Apa L zines), or contributions -- and I suppose this includes letters of comment. Geis doesn't really need your support; he's got more than enough from the rest of fandom, from the looks of this latest issue, to keep going indefinitely. But you are missing something if you don't start reading PSY. Why did you join fandom? Whatever the reason, you'll probably find it in PSY. Dick Geis' address is 5 Westminster Ave., Venice, Calif., 90291. Try to get PSY #22, if he's got any copies left, and get on his mailing list from here on out.
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Something else that's becoming active is the LOS ANGELES IN 1972 Fan Club. For the last few months, I've been selling memberships; now we're starting to produce tangible results. Our first full-page L.A. in '72 ad -- a delightful Simpson cartoon -- has been sent in for the BayCon's 2nd Progress Report. The first issue of our fanzine is now out, with the resounding title of SELAKEJUHEUALÉHÉPAOTREUPAHR (just call it SELAKE). No regular schedule is planned; this first issue was published mostly to reassure those who've joined the Fan Club so far that their money hasn't just disappeared into my pocket. Future issues will probably be just newszines. On the other hand, SELAKE may develop into a respectable literary-type fanzine; at this stage of things, anything is possible. If you haven't joined the LOS ANGELES IN 1972 Fan Club yet, why not do so now? It's only 50¢, payable to me. I'd like to have at least a hundred members by F-UN CON time.
Earl Thompson -- I'm beginning to feel that I should delay the publication of the new LASFS Directory for a couple more weeks, so many fans seem to be planning on moving to new addresses by mid-January. I'd prefer to get it out by the end of this month anyway, though, if all those who know what their new addresses will be will give them to me now.
Chuck Crayne - I agree that there is a Bad Scene going, and simply banning it from Apa L won't help much as long as we all talk about it freely at the Meetings. Aside from any possible legal considerations, it is at the least not going to help us get new members. (We used to enjoy being discovered by the starry-eyed kid in his late teens, who could hardly believe that he'd finally found someone else who liked to discuss s-f. Can you imagine what would happen if this kid got involved, even if only through involuntary eavesdropping, in one of these discussions of the current Big Topic? Would we see him again? Or what if he took Apa L home, and his mother read Ken Goldsmith's zine, or one like it? Remember Gregg Wolford, who was regularly active in Apa L a couple of years ago, and the problem he had with his parents trying to read and censor everything? If his folks read APA L CAN GO TO THE PARANOIDS, that zine would have been ripped from his copy and in the mail to the police by the next day noon, I'll bet. Some of us still remember Steve Epstein, a really promising new member -- like Len Bailes, in some ways -- who suddenly disappeared because his father decided we were all a bunch of drunks, dope fiends, and probably sex perverts, just because he saw Dik Daniels weaving around with a bottle and a strong breath one night.) At the worst, it could seriously damage our prospects of bringing more Cons to L.A. We've got enemies in fandom, and they'd just love to spread the word around that L.A. fans not only do Bad Things, they discuss them openly at their Meetings and in print in their weekly apa. A charge like this brought up in a hot campaign could cost us votes, particularly if the fan making the charge could hold up a copy of Apa L with one of these discussions as irrefutable proof. (And with 40 copies of Apa L floating around, anybody who wanted could get at least one copy of any issue.) Why should we supply our enemies with the ammunition they want, in print or otherwise? ## I intend this to be my last word on the matter. To quote, of all people, Bill Donaho: "The way to drop any discussion is to ignore it, not to keep jumping up and down about it. And especially not to drag in new ideas and comments into the discussion ..." (in Don Fitch's HONNEUR SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE #6-A)
Bruce Pelz -- Okay.
Dian Pelz -- I wouldn't be at all surprised if practical immortality is developed in our lifetimes. (In which case we'd better be able to colonize the other planets, if only to have somewhere to put all the people.) I gather that this heart transplant illustrates nicely Larry Niven's story in Dangerous Visions. ## The Beast was three completely unconnected short novels written together to make a marketable "novel" out of them. The War Against the Rull is even worse; Van Vogt tried to tie together about six different short stories there. ## Zelazny is good. I haven't read Lord of Light yet, but I'm looking forward to it. If you enjoyed it, I'd like to know what you think of some of his other books. I recall hearing somewhere recently (but I don't remember where; can anyone else verify this?) that Zelazny is now popular enough that Doubleday is going to reprint one of his earlier paperback novels, originally in a cut Ace edition, in hard covers in its full manuscript length. And if you like Zelazny, have you read anything by Delany yet? Their styles are similar, though Delany is a bit more surrealistic.
Bill Glass; Dave Hulan; Jean Berman -- Enjoyed, but I found no comment hooks.
Mac McCaughan -- We've had much worse first issues; welcome to Apa L. ## When you say s-f "pulp artists", do you mean prozine illustrators in general?
