Checkpoint 19

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Checkpoint is a news and reviews zine published by Peter Roberts, 87 West Town Lane, Bristol, BS4 5DZ, UK. Subs are available at 5/20p or 10/40p (2nd Class & Europe), and 6/$1 (foreign airmail). Australian Agent: David Grigg, Box 100, Carlton South, Victoria 3053; US Agents: Charlie & Dena Brown, 3400 Ulloa St, San Francisco, Ca.94116; South African Agent: Nick Shears, 52 Garden Way, Northcliffe 4, Johannesburg, Transvaal. News this issue comes from Jan Jansen, Nick Shears, John Piggott, Ian Maule, and others. Restormel Press Publication: 61.

OMPACON IN BRISTOL: Next year's British Eastercon will be held in Bristol, almost certainly in the Grand Hotel (the Hawthorns, home of the '67 Eastercon, is not available). Competition has been increased in the city because of the new hotels being built or recently finished and thus rates should be quite fair. Further details remain unconfirmed; but membership is 50p from Fred Hemmings, 20 Beech Rd, Slough, Bucks, SL3 7DQ. Sam Long will shortly be American Agent, since he is leaving Britain in July.

SPECULATION III: This year Birmingham's annual one day conference on science fiction was held at the University of Brum, a rather depressing red-brick place and at least three miles (as the Roberts walks) from the station. It was organized by Pete Weston and the university extra-mural department and attracted at least fifty people, roughly the same as the two previous years. Pete apologized to me several times for the arrangements, or rather the lack of them, at the lunch and coffee breaks; but personally I preferred the place to last year's soul-destroying setting, the Arts Centre. I must say I enjoyed the conference and that seems to be a general feeling amongst those who attended. Pete, however, doubts whether the series will continue, since the growth of the Brum group and the start of the Novacons has lessened the need for such an event in Birmingham.

The conference started on a fannish note by being late, however Geoff Doherty, sf fan and anthology editor, soon appeared and delivered a talk on the well-worn theme, 'SF – Does It Have A Future?'; Geoff hit out at hard-core sf and read some James Joyce and Brian Aldiss, resulting in a fairly interesting and entertaining talk. Phil Strick, chairman of the conference and a well-known cinema critic and sf lecturer, then gave a beautiful survey of humour in science fiction; Phil is an excellent speaker and a particularly fine reader, so I'd recommend tapes of this, since Gerald Bishop (of the BSFA Tape Library) was busy at work with his recorders, monitor and headphones. Phil read from Vonnegut, Beaumont, Disch, Frederic Brown, and, of course, Phil Dick; his conclusion was that humour and sf are closely linked and, although satire and parody are pre-eminent, certain authors are using humour somewhat more interestingly and in something of a new way (Disch, for example).

John Sladek, well-known American sf writer who has been resident in Britain for some time, talked on 'Pseudo-science in SF', a subject on which he is presently writing a book. Much of the material should be known to readers of Martin Gardner's Fads and Fallacies In the Name of Science which John recommended (available in Dover pb, incidentally). His talk indicated that a certain overlap exists between sf and pseudo-science, though John really only had time to skim through the subject. Edmund Cooper, sf author and critic, stopped at the conference just long enough to give a talk on 'Violence in SF'; I rather think that the sight of him was of more interest than his subject, since he is one of the few British sf writers who doesn't seem to have much contact with fans and, indeed, other professionals. His analysis of violence in sf was somewhat sketchy and not in any way memorable, unfortunately. A panel discussion was held afterwards with Phil Strick, Geoff Doherty, John Sladek and Brian Aldiss which attempted to continue with the same topic; however, the audience seemed to control most of this session and guided the whole thing firmly away from any relevancy to the subject.

Speculation III lasted from 10am to 6pm, though there was a Brum Group meeting cum party the previous night (June 23rd) and some attendees stayed on in Birmingham for an evening meal on Saturday. People present included Forry and Wendayne Ackerman (which surprised me, at least!) en route to Trieste, Brian Aldiss, Mark Adlard, Chris Priest, Jack Cohen, Dave Kyle, Josephine Saxton, Tony & Simone Walsh, Malcolm & Christine Edwards, Tony Sudbery, Fred Hemmings, Dave Rowe, and many others. The occasion seemed somewhat more fannish than last year, although of course there's no alternative to the programme; it's probably due to the good people who turned up.

A curious postscript was that Josephine Saxton and I had both been invited to the same party that evening at Keele and I encountered her there later, dancing energetically despite a somewhat wearying, though interesting, day. – PJR.

SARF EFRICAN NEWS: The SFSA's annual short story competition will be judged by Michael McCabe and anyone thinking of entering should remember that the deadline is August 31st. It's open to outsiders and details are available from Mrs.G.Ball, 34 Jubilee Av, Dawnview, Germiston, South Africa.

CoAs:
Tony & Simone Walsh, 36 Wanscow Walk, Henleze, Bristol.
Danny Frolich, 7444 St.Charles Av, Apt 3N, New Orleans, La.70118, USA.

FANZINE NEWS: The second issue of Fantastic Worlds, a plush horror and comic zine, has apparently appeared (says a postcard from the Republic of Tunisia!). I didn't receive a copy of the first issue, so I can't recommend it one way or the other. David Soren (22 Chauncey St, Apt 18, Cambridge, Mass.02138, USA) will sell you one for a dollar, however. // Fouler has apparently folded and Cynic may disappear after one more issue; neither report should be taken as 100% definitive, of course. // John Piggott considers the response to The Turning Worm 2 "gratifying" and intends to publish again in early August, possibly on the occasion of Ian Williams' birthday when John, poor fool, is visiting Gannetfandom. // Maya 4 is apparently 2/3rds on stencil and should be finished by the time this Checkpoint is posted. We've heard such tales before, Ian... It has litho covers, "nice blue paper", and contains material from John Hall, Ian Williams, and John Piggott.

FANZINES RECEIVED: Those with an asterisk are recommended.

Chao 8 (50p:¼o:d). John Alderson, Havelock, Victoria 3465, Australia. General – Iain Ban, &c. (40¢ or 20p)

*Energumen 12 (50p:A4:d). Mike & Susan Glicksohn, 32 Maynard Av, 205, Toronto 156, Ontario, Canada. General – Bill Watson, Warner, &c. (75¢)

Hell 5 (46p:¼o:d). Brian Robinson & Paul Skelton, 9 Linwood Grove, Manchester, M12 4QH. General – Meara, Conesa, &c. (LoC + 3p)

Mobius Trip 13 (52p:A4:d). Ed Connor, 1805 N Gale, Peoria, Ill.61604, USA. Sf & general – Jeeves, Walker, &c.;(2/$1)

*MRU 124 (46p:A4:sd). Waldemar Kumming, 8 München 2, Herzogspitalstr. 5, Germany. In German. General – Chessmancon photos, Petri, &c. (DM 1)

Norstrilian News 3/1 (4p:¼o:d). Robin Johnson, Box 4039, Melbourne, Vic. 3001, Australia. Sf & fannish newszine. (6/$3)

Paranoid 2 (9p:¼o:d). Ian Maule, 59 Windsor Tce, South Gosforth, Newcastle on Tyne, NE3 1YL. Fannish & general – John Hall, Ian Williams. (free)

Placebo 3 (54p:A4:d). Moshe Feder & Barry Smotroff, 142-34 Booth Memorial Av, Flushing, NY.11355, USA. General – Hank Davis &c. (35¢)

*Vector 60 (40p:1/3o:p). Malcolm Edwards, 75a Harrow View, Harrow, Middx., HA1 1RF. BSFA Journal – Sf – Brunner, Strick, Gillespie (30p or 60¢)

Viewpoint 8 (28p:fscp:d). Fred Hemmings, 20 Beech Rd, Slough, Bucks., SL3 7DQ. Sf & general – Dave Rowe, &c. (12p)

*WSFA Journal 79 (52p:A4:d). Don Miller, 12315 Judson Rd, Wheaton, Md.20906, USA. Sf & general – Swann, Warner, Gilliland, &c. (60¢)

SFANCON III (Belgium, April): (Jan Jansen) "We had a really good con here – attendance was far higher than we, at our most optimistic, had expected; the chapel and its cobbled courtyard contrasted nicely with the space painting of Andre Beguin which adorned the walls, part of an exhibition arranged through SFAN and the gallery owner. Round about 120 people were present at the main afternoon sitting, and with the official programme breaking down often enough there was plenty of time for friendly banter and getting to know each other better.

Mike Moorcock, Guest of Honour, spoke about Ted Carnell and then about his own work, mainly Behold The Man which has seen Flemish publication. Ron Bennett, Fan Guest of Honour, was in the unique position of being able to compare Antwerp activities in the fifties and the seventies.

SFAN awards were presented to Julien Raasveld for his English language fanzine, Parallax, and Eddie Bertin for his professional short story collection, De Achtjaarlijkse God. Other than that there was the presentation for the winning short stories in SFAN's yearly Belgian contest. This was won by Thijs van Ebbenhorst Tengbergen, with Eddie Bertin and M. Van Loggem as runners-up. Paul Torfs, publisher of the club magazine, Info-Sfan, was also presented with an honourable certificate in appreciation of the work he does to keep the club together.

But this doesn't, can't, describe the atmosphere. Outside the chapel in the courtyard a temporary bar was set up and a sandwich counter at the other end; in between were some eight yards of tables covered with new and second-hand sf and fantasy hardcovers, paperbacks, and comics – probably the biggest choice ever offered at one go in Belgium. According to later reports from the dealers it was quite profitable too.

The film, 2001, drew record attendances both on Friday night and one Sunday, when several would-be spectators had to be turned away: full house.

Conclusion: Here there be fans..." (Jan Jansen)

NOTES: This issue is only being duplicated two days after Checkpoint 18, so many British subscribers will receive two together. The 20th CP should appear in 10 days or so and then there will be a gap of nearly a month before the annish, Checkpoint 21. Since this will contain the Fan Poll results, could any voters please send ballots in before the 10th of July; the write-up of the results will resemble that of Fanac, rather than the straightforward listings of Skyrack. // Many of the fanzines for sale in the 17th issue are still available, though the Crys, Seagulls, Cyphers, Oz and early Crabs have gone. I'm also selling the Corgi New Writings in Sf (ed Carnell) 1 to 14: offers for the lot, or 10p each (inc postage); good condition. There are piles of F&SF for sale as well – write if you're interested (1964-9).

STOP DUPER! Speculation 30 has just arrived. // The Aliens and almost all the Vectors listed for sale in Checkpoint 17 have been sold. // Sam Long, the US Agent for the OMPAcon, will be at: Det 11, 6WWg, Patrick AFB, Florida 32925 – a long way of saying Cape Kennedy, I believe.

OMPA: This, the only British apa, now has 25 members. The 65th mailing ran to 447 pages from 18 members and the 66th bundle contains 198 pages from 11 members (there's usually a large number of postmailings). Anyone interested in joining OMPA should contact the Association Editor, Ken Cheslin (36 Chapel St, Wordsley, Stourbridge, Worcs., DY8 5QP).

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CHECKPOINT II. 19

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Peter Roberts
87 West Town Lane
Bristol, BS4 5DZ
United Kingdom

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Converted to digital form by Peter Sullivan, June 2006