Checkpoint 52

Published by Darroll Pardoe, 24 Othello Close, Hartford, Huntingdon PE18 7SU, England. Free sample on request; subscription rate is 10/60p. Foreign rates: Belgium 10/60F, France 10/6F, USA and Canada (airmail) 5/$1.00, Australia (airmail) 8/$1.00. This issue dated September 9th 1974.


KNEES UP IN GENT

SFANCON 5 was held in Gent, Belgium, from August 30th to September 1st, and was truly international, with Flemish, French and English language programme items. The Guest of Honour was Ken Bulmer, and the British attendees included such well known fans as Peter Roberts, Rog Peyton, Vernon Brown, Hartley Patterson, Dave Rowe and Jake Grigg. Ken Bulmer's GoH speech revealed the tale of Burgess' lights in three languages (ably assisted by convention chairman Simon Joukes, who summarised what Ken said as he went along in French and Flemish). Simon's marvellous linguistic abilities were shown to the full later on in the auction, where he called the bids in the language appropriate to the bidder: the only trilingual convention auction I've ever attended. Other programme items included a panel discussion of fandom (Jan Jansen, Peter Roberts, Ken Bulmer and Simon Joukes); and talks on super-space and on Jewish SF. The films included 'La Jetee', the beautifully atmospheric French film which I had seen at Bristol in 1967 and was glad of the chance to see again; and 'The Green Slime', entitled in this version 'War in Space' with a French soundtrack and Flemish subtitles.

The whole UK contingent had been assigned rooms on the fifth floor, and it was on the fifth floor that most of the room parties took place. Indeed it was claimed that the party in 526 on the Friday night was the first room party ever at a Belgian convention. The Sunday night party however was held in the solarium on the eighth floor, a very airy room just the right size for a big room party. A parrot was observed to nest in the hair of a well-known British fan during this party, and later on most of the English fans present astonished the continentals with their rendition of 'Knees Up Mother Brown', the 'Okey Cokey' and other frolics.

Two monetary oddities were passed round (a 1/4 -Franc piece and an Indo-Chinese 20F note) gaining value at each sale. I think eventually they reached 3F!

It was a most enjoyable convention, and the organisers (including Simon Joukes and Andre de Rijcke) did a marvellous job. We certainly intend to go again next year.

THE HUGO WINNERS The following awards were announced at Discon:

BEST NOVEL: Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
BEST NOVELLA: The Girl who was Plugged In, by James Tiptree Jr. (from NEW DIMENSIONS 3)
BEST NOVELETTE: The Deathbird, by Harlan Ellison (from F&SF)
BEST SHORT STORY: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, by Ursula K. LeGuin (from NEW DIMENSIONS 3)
BEST EDITOR: Ben Bova
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: Sleeper
BEST PRO ARTIST: Kelly Freas
JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD: Lisa Tuttle and Spider Robinson
BEST FANZINE: ALGOL (Andy Porter) and THE ALIEN CRITIC (Dick Geis)
BEST FAN ARTIST: Tim Kirk
BEST FAN WRITER: Susan Wood Glicksohn
GANDALF AWARD: J.R.R.Tolkien

CURRYCON 1 Will be held on April 31st 1975 at the Tipton Working Hens' Club, Tipton, West Midlands. Guests of Honour are Enoch and Eli, and the programme includes discussions of 'Whippet Racing in Zero Gravity' and 'Coal Mining on the Moon'. Ray Bradbury is taking registrations at 12 1/2 p each (I don't have his address to hand at the moment, but Rog Peyton, (Andromeda Book Co., 57 Summer Row, Birmingham B3 IJJ) can probably help). There will be a dual language programme in Black Country and English.

BRITAIN IN '79 Progress Report 01 of the British Worldcon bid has now appeared, offset with a pleasing cover by Andrew Stephenson. This Progress Report appears to be mainly directed towards the American audience, and the list of supporters (201 so far) includes an impressive number of American names (but some notable absences). Supporting membership is 40p, to Peter Roberts, c/o Malcolm Edwards at 19 Ranmoor Gardens, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 1UQ, England.

MORE ON THE TUCKER FUND The latest report of this Worthy Cause has just arrived (TUCKER BAG 4). Funds now stand at $595.10 (as of August 24th). The auction material available has been augmented by even more goodies, including the MS of two Tucker novels. The Fund addresses are Jackie Franke, Box 51-A, RR2, Beecher, IL 60401, USA and Bruce Gillespie, GPO Box 5195AA, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. As I never tire of reminding you, the Tucker Fund is hoping to pay for Bob Tucker's trip to the Aussiecon in 1975, and is one of those fan charities we should all support (like, for instance, the Tenth Anniversary Willis Fund, for those with long memories).

FANZINES RECEIVED

FANEW SLETTER 13 (Leigh Edmonds, P0 Box 7k, Balaclava, Victoria 3183, Australia (9¢A per issue) The Australian newszine. Leigh is in the US at the moment (having won DUFF) so there won't be another issue till October.

FLATULETTE 2 (Robert Jackson, 21 Lyndhurst Road, Benton, Newcastle on Tyne NEI2 9NT) (a ROMPAzine) Mostly mailing comments, but it does show that ROMPA is fairly healthy.

AMON HEN 11 (The Tolkien Society Bulletin) (TS membership is £1.50 to Janet Gibbs, 49 Beresford Road, London N5) Still not back to its standard when John Martin was editor, but improving. The TS appears to have lots of local groups which are active, Innmoots and Smial meetings.

FORTHCOMING SF BOOKS 21 (Joanne Burger, 55 Blue Bonnet Ct, Lake Jackson, TX 77566, USA) (50¢ per issue) Among other things, the 1975 Ballantine Tolkien Calendar is listed as for publication in September. $4.95, Tim Kirk artwork.

STARLING 28 (Hank and Lesleigh Luttrell, 525 W Main, Madison, Wisconsin 53703, USA) (5/$2 or usual) This fmz is its usual fine self. Barry Gillam writes on Disney. Susan Wood Glicksohn writes in the letter column on her clothes. Recommended.

SON OF THE WSFA JOURNAL 148-150 (Don Miller, 12315 Judson Road, Wheaton, MD 20906, USA) (9/$2.00) Frequent and this time full of book and fmz reviews.

WAR BULLETIN 57 (Hartley Patterson, 7 Cambridge Road, Beaconsfield, Bucks, HP9 1HW) (5/35p). Not a sf fanzine, but I'm listing it because Hartley gave me a copy at SFANCON. War games fmz.

TANDSTIKKERZEITUNG 6 (Don Markstein, P0 Box 53112, New Orleans, LU70153, USA) (usual). Nice chatter about roach killing and religious nuts.

DYNATRON 59 (Roy Tackett, 915 Green Valley Road NW, Albuquerque, NM 87107, TJSA) (show of interest). Lots of letters this time, including such illustrious names as Ed Cox, Harry Warner and our very own Peter Roberts.

INSTANT MESSAGE 154 (NESFA, Box G, MIT Branch PO, Cambridge, Mass. 02139, USA) ($5.00/yr). NESFA news, mostly; IM is a very regular fmz.

RUNE 39 (Minnesota SFS, 343 East 19th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55404, USA) Clubzine, and a lot more meaty than most of the genus.

STAR FIRE 3 (Bill Breiding, 2249 Bush St, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA) (usual or 40¢). A wide variety of material. John Rodel describes a night spent in an overgrown cemetery.

THE FORERUNNER 32 (SSFF, 68 Phillip Road, Ryde 2112, NSW, Australia) (SSFF is$2A/yr) The Sydney SF Foundation fanzine.

KARASS 5 (Linda Bushyager, 1614 Evans Av., Prospect Park, PA 19076, USA) (5/$1) A mixture of newszine and personalzine, full of interesting things and chatter.

NEWS FROM BREE 12 (Hartley Patterson, address above) (usual) Not frequent enough. If Hartley gathered momentum by publishing NFB a little more frequently, it could develop into a fine personalzine.

OUTWORLDS 20 (Bill Bowers, P0 Box 148, Wadsworth, OH 44281, USA) ($1.00) A lot of very useful discussion on fanzine publishing in this issue; anyone new to fmz publishing would benefit from reading it, and so would some others, too. Beautiful looking fmz.

MAGNUS 5 (Eric Batard, Rue Kleber, 37500 Chinon, France) (usual) In French. Very fannish for a French fanzine: if you can read French you'll like it. If not, you can read the English language supplement that rides with it.

SF ECHO/MOEBIUS TRIP 20 (Ed Connor, 1805 N Gale, Peoria, IL 61604, USA) (75¢) The now-standard book format. As usual, an excellent letter column. Paul Walker interviews Robert Bloch, and Doug Leingang interviews Donn Brazier.

CERA PLAN ORBIS 4 (Martin Eisele, 7332 Eislingen, Schillerstrasse 20, Germany) (4/16DM) Beautifully produced, but to read it you'll need some German.

LOCUS 161. 163 (The Browns, Box 3938, Sari Francisco, CL 94119, USA) (UK agent, Pete Weston). The long-established 'Newspaper of the SF Field'

+ + + + + +

STAR TREK We finally saw one of the ST cartoon programmes, and were not impressed. A return of the live-people show would be a lot better.

BIRMINGHAM BURGLARY The premises of the Andromeda Book Co. were broken into early in August, and a small amount of cash and four pieces of original artwork were stolen. These were: three paintings by Eddie Jones (including the cover for the 2nd Sphere printing of 'Damnation Alley") and one by George Jones. If you find out anything about where these paintings have gone, I'm sure Rog Peyton would be very glad to hear of it.

THE LITTLE GEM GUIDE must have been very successful: Peter Roberts told us he is thinking of a second edition in the near future, possibly litho.

THANKS To Dave Rowe and Sheryl Birkhead for the Hugo information.

NEWS for Checkpoint is always welcome; I put out an issue whenever I have enough to fill four pages, so those of you who would like to see frequent CHECKPOINTs now know the remedy: send news.