Page 11 - Fandom: Fic Writers, Vidders, Gamers, Artists, and Cosplayers

In the first issue, Gernsback appealed directly to fans to get involved:
“How good this magazine will be in the future is up to you. Read
AMAZING STORIES—get your friends to read it and then write us
what you think of it.” Crucially, Gernsback added something new to
the usual Letters to the Editor column: he printed the addresses of letter
writers along with their letters. For the first time, fans could contact one
another directly. Inspired, the magazine’s fans—most of them male—
exchanged letters, met in person, formed clubs, and argued with one
another in print. It was much like Internet fandom but in slow motion.
By connecting fans, Gernsback planted the seeds of the fan community.
In the 1930s, fans began to make their own magazines. These
do-it-yourself publications are called fanzines (from fan + magazine)
or just zines. Most contained some combination of fic, reviews, and
essays by fans, as well as letters from readers. Collections of fan letters
were called letterzines. In the vibrant science-fiction culture of the
time, “fanzines were the social glue that created a community out of
a worldwide scattering of readers,” according to fan historian Camille
Bacon-Smith. Made on the cheap, zines were often mimeographed on
8½” × 11” typing paper, folded and stapled. Mimeographs were hand-
cranked duplicating machines that forced smelly purple ink through a
hand-typed stencil. Zines passed from hand to hand at local fan clubs
or conventions, or they circulated through the mail. Their price covered
printing and mailing costs.
In the mid-1950s, the publication of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the
Rings (LOTR) trilogy sparked another long-lived fandom and helped
create modern fantasy as a genre for adults. Excited fans used zines
to discuss Tolkien’s characters, speculate on the evolution of orcs and
forging techniques for magic swords, and write their own stories set
in Middle Earth. The first organized Tolkien fan group, called the
Fellowship of the Ring, formed in 1960 and published a fanzine,
i-Palantír, containing articles, original stories, and even a musical.

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