Checkpoint 51

Checkpoint is published by Darroll Pardoe, 24 Othello Close, Hartford, Huntingdon PE18 7SU, England. Subscription rate is 10/60p (overseas rates airmail are US 5/$1.00; Australian 8/$1.00) and a free sample will be supplied on request. This issue August 19th 1974.


SEACON 75 The first progress report of the 1975 British Easter Convention is now out. The venue is the De Vere Hotel, Coventry, a large (215 rooms), modern and of course expensive (£10.25 for a double) hotel. The GoH is announced as Michael Moorcock. Large, expensive hotels are a cross we have to bear nowadays, I'm afraid, since there are just so many of us. The George, Kettering, is alas no longer big enough. Registrations are 50p supporting and £2.00 full until 1st October, thereafter £1.00 and £2.50, and the address to write to is 19 Ranmoor Gardens, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 1UQ.

NOVACON 4 There's a Novacon progress report out too. They report 233 memberships so far. Their GoH is Ken Slater, and the dates are earlier this year: October 25th to 27th. The place is the same as usual, the Imperial Centre Hotel in Birmingham. We recommend Novacon as a very pleasant, relaxed occasion without the frenetic overtones which Easter conventions have acquired in recent years, and have no reason to suppose that this year's Novacon will be any different to usual. Robert Hoffman, 44 Middleton Hall Road, Kings Norton, Birmingham 30, is handling registration. I don't seem to have a note to hand of the cost, but he can no doubt tell you. There are very few rooms left unbooked in the Imperial.

SFANCON5 Is the next event on the convention circuit, to be held over August 30th/September 1st in Ghent, Belgium. A multilingual programme has been lined up, including from the UK the GoH Ken Bulmer, as well as Peter Roberts and Gerry Webb. The place is the Fabiola Home on the University Campus, and accommodation (out of season hall-of-residence) is very reasonably priced. British representative is Vernon Brown, Department of Pharmacy, University of Aston, Gosta Green, Birmingham B4 7ET, and registration is £1.35. Vernon is also arranging group travel to Ghent. See you there?

DISCON The final Discon progress report included a financial statement from Torcon 2. They passed on $300.00 each to Discon and Aussiecon, made $150.00 grants to TAFF and DUFF and the Ontario SF Club. The Worldcon Emergency Fund now stands at $668.95. As a measure of how fandom has grown, the total income of Torcon 2 was given as $30,458.85!

THE TUCKER FUND which, as I keep reminding you, is hoping to send Bob Tucker to the Aussiecon in 1975, has put out its newsletter, TUCKER BAG, no. 3. Funds now stand at $405.85 (as of 30th July). I know you lot in England won't see any direct benefit from making a donation to the Fund, but it's a good fannish cause just the same and I urge you to donate. They're running an auction which has a good deal of interesting material in it. Write to Jackie Franke, Box 51-A, RR2, Beecher, IL 60401, USA or Bruce Gillespie, GPO Box 5195AA, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.

GANNET UPHEAVALS Don Allen writes "Just before the Con the group was involved in an argument with the Gannet's manager and informed that they were no longer welcome in the establishment. This presented us with the problem of finding another suitable place to hold our weekly meetings. It was finally decided that the Sunderland arts centre (scene of 'Beyond this Horizon') was a suitable venue. Unfortunately the Centre holds events on irregular days during most weeks and sometimes the days chosen happen to be Tuesday, effectively putting the block on our meeting. On these Tuesdays meetings are held at the Mowbray Park Hotel, not far from Sunderland station. Anyone paying us a visit is strongly advised to contact one of the group first to establish where in fact the meeting will be held."

ISAAC ASIMOV Further to his visit to England in June. I've been sent a copy of the brochure published by Aardvark House to mark the occasion. A glossy, rather pretentious production, which nevertheless includes some nice photographs and a bibliography of the good Doctor's works.

THE BRITISH FANTASY SOCIETY has recently gone over to litho reproduction of its bulletin, which is now edited by Jim Pitts and Dave Riley and is a useful source of news on fantasy subjects. The BFS publications seem rather too enamoured of faint carbon ribbons on the typing of their masters, though, resulting in quite faint (but still legible) reproduction. Rosemary (who runs the BFS Fanzine library) reports booming business in that sphere: the library is probably the only fanzine library available for lending that concentrates on fantasy subjects. BFS membership is £1.50 to Sandra Sutton, 194 Station Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B4 7TE.

DRACULA has been having quite a run on British TV lately; there was a documentary about the modern aspects of the Dracula cult (tourism in Romania, the Prospect of Whitby, Hammer Films and so on) which unfortunately bogged itself down in peripheral matter such as exorcisms and Highgate Cemetery. The next day there was a bit on the old steam radio on the same subject. And then they showed 'Dracula Prince of Darkness' as the Friday late film (the 1965 Hammer film where Dracula falls through the ice and drowns, an original fate for him). Whatever is Auntie BBC coming to? 'Dark They Were And Golden Eyed' made a brief appearance on the documentary.

FANZINES RECEIVED

GODLESS 7 (Bruce D. Arthurs, 527-98-3103, 57th Trans.Co, Fort Lee, VA 23801, USA) (34pp dp USQ) (50¢ or usual). Nice furry animal article by Dave Locke. Imagine leaving a guard-spider in your house! Incidentally, Bruce, Godless arrived on July 25th.

DYNATRON 5 (Roy Tackett 915 Green Valley Road NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87107, USA) (8pp dp USQ) (show of interest). Long-established personalzine. Roy reveals how he moves holes in his garden.

FORTHCOMING SF BOOKS 20 (Joanne Burger, 55 Bluebonnet Ct, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566, USA) (6pp dp USQ) (6/$1.50) Useful.

INSTANT MESSAGE 152 (NESFA, Box G, MIT Branch Station, Cambridge, Mass. 02139, USA) (8pp dp USQ) ($5.00/year). Mostly local stuff in this clubzine. Their Control Number, incidentally, is 72 58837.

MAD MUSES 2 (Pete Presford, 10 Dalkeith Road, South Reddish, Stockport SK5 7EY) (8pp fcp dp) (a ROMPAzine). Largely mailing comments, but it prompts me to think that ROMPA made a mistake in adopting the old-fashioned bundle technique that has been the bane of OMPA. Many APAs (including my favourite one, ELANOR) use the combozine system, more suited to a relaxed type of APA such as ROMPA is trying to be.

SCOTTISHE 68 (Ethel Lindsay, 6 Langley Avenue, Surbiton, Surrey, KT6 6QL) (24pp dp 4to) (3/40p). Good old SCOT goes on for ever.

BIG SCAB 2 (John Brosnan, Flat One, 62 Elsham Rd, Kensington, London W14) (16pp dp 4to) (Usual) Very fannish, often very funny Ratfanzine.

HITCHIKE 20 (John D. Berry, 6614 Quinton Street, Falls Church, Virginia 22043, USA) (10pp dp USQ) (Usual). Nice personalzine, with an account of a Joni Mitchell concert and a mugging.

LEVIAL 2 (Bruce Townley, 2323 Sibley St., Alexandria, Va 22311, USA) (10pp, ditto USQ) (Usual) Very cruddy looking and in parts impossible to read. Sorry but I didn't bother.

ZYMURGY-f (Dick Patten, 2908 El Corto SW, Albuquerque, NM 87105, USA) (20pp dp USQ) (Usual or 35¢) Exquisite two-colour front cover. The rest has to be a letdown after that! Actually though it's quite an interesting small genzine.

HELL 10 (Skelton & Robinson, 25 Bowland Close, Offerton, Stockport, Cheshire SK2 5NW) (58pp dp 4to) (Usual, but this is the last issue) Although I always rather enjoy reading HELL I tend to finish the zine feeling that I haven't read anything! This issue however is brightened by a really weird letter from Alan Hunter.

IT COMES IN THE MAIL 10 (Ned Brooks 713 Paul Street, Newport News, Va 23605, USA) (20pp dp USQ) (Usual and through SFPA) Very useful indeed for its profuse fanzine reviews.

PHOTRON 10,11 (Steven Beatty, 1662 College Terrace Drive, Murray, KY 112071, USA) (38pp dp USQ) (usual or 5/$1). Fantasy slanted. A reasonable article on Aldous Huxley.

BREAKTHROUGH 4 (Henry Bitman, Box 968, Azusa, CA 91702, USA) (3kpp dp USQ) (3/$1.00) Talk of leviathans this time, and a plea (which I echo) for remembrance of Robert Abernathy.

MADCAP 4 (Pete Presford, as above) (56pp 4to dp) (usual?) The contents of this fmz unfortunately do not live up to the promise of its appearance, which is excellent.

GEGENSCHEIN 16 (Eric Lindsay, 6 Hillcrest Av, Faulconbridge, NSW 2776, Australia) (20pp dp 4to) (6/£1) A curious article on the USSR by Jack Wodhams, who appears not to realise that in the West the regimentation is still there, just more subtle.

FANEW SLETTER 10,11 (Leigh Edmonds, P0 Box 74, Balaclava, Victoria 3183, Australia) (2pp dp fcp) (7¢A per) Useful source of Aussie news.

LOCUS 162 (The Browns, Box 3938, San Francisco, CA 94119, USA: Pete Weston is British agent) This newszine is more useful for news of the sf field itself than of fandom, and achieves quite a thorough coverage.

CERA PLAN ORBIS 6 (Martin Eisele, 7332 Eislingen, Schillerstrasse 20) (102pp pr A4) CDM5) Beautifully produced in light blue (reminiscent of the blue I used for LS21). I was able to stumble through some of the contents: recommended to those who can read German.

WRINKLED SHREW 1 (Pat and Graham Charnock, 70 Ledbury Road, London W11) (usual?) (46pp dp 4to) A PaDszine born out of time, but it's good to see Charnock publishing.

VORPAL 2 (Richard Brandt, 4013 Sierra Drive, Mobile, AL 36609, USA) 20pp dp USQ) (3/$1). The letter column full of interesting comment on Chapdelaine's Scientology article in the first issue. Otherwise rather thin.

NO 5 (Ruth Berman, 5620 Edgewater Boulevard, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55417, USA) (36pp dp USQ) ($1/3). The usual mixture; G&S pastiche, Berry's Baedeker, letters, reviews. Pleasant.

WILD FENNEL 8 (P.W. Frames, 205A West Holly, Bellingham, WA 98225) (24pp letterpress A3) (usual) An unusual looking fanzine, and not only in appearance.

'Radio Times' reports that the cartoon STAR TREK series will be shown on BBC TV starting August 31st.

Rosemary (who incidentally did some of the fmz comments this time) is planning a fanzine about fanzines, largely criticism. Anyone interested should address their fanzines to both of us (only one copy needed though!) when they will get both CHECKPOINT and the new fanzine in trade. First issue will be around October.