A personal account of the laughter, tears, and fears of producing a fanzine

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Title:	A personal account of the laughter, tears, and fears of producing a fanzine
Creator:	Eamon Rooney
Date(s):	December 1999
Medium:	print
Fandom:	The Professionals
Topic:
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A personal account of the laughter, tears, and fears of producing a fanzine is a 1999 essay by Eamon Rooney.

It was printed in In the Public Interest #14/15.

The topic was Rooney's frustration and bitterness regarding the work and years he and his fellow editor had creating their newsletter.

A related essay is File on Martin Shaw... Closed.

Excerpts

Ending the fanzine was a schizophrenic feeling for me, on one hand I was sad, after all I put together the first cut and paste issue, tatty, amateur, but full of spirit. However I also felt relief and joy at being free from being tied down.

I can honestly say that I have met some genuinely fantastic people during my time producing ITPI, many of you that have written to me, with kind words of thanks and encouragement will always stay with me when my faith in mankind sinks low. Many of you have been more than generous in word and deed, it was a pleasure to produce a fanzine that I hope you were able to enjoy, meeting all you nice, considerate and authentic people was the real benefit I got from producing ITPI. I have had people send videos I have been after, wishing no payment in return, people who produce photos for publication which cost time and money. Acts of extreme kindness, friendship and p generosity. People have sent me money for items and have trusted me to not rip them off while I track them down, members who have written to me and I have forgotten to reply to contact me again with patience and understanding. I have entrusted my phone number to so many of you, yet you never hassle me, I have been honoured to meet some truly lovely individuals, namely you lot.

However, I feels I must also relate the other side of the coin, the ugly face of fandom which quite often I was staring at in bewilderment and fear. I came into this fanzine game with a scant experience of 3 issues of a Sweeney fanzine 'Put yer trousers on!' under my belt

I had faced, then the lack of interest from Thames TV and the writer or the series. A couple of issues into ITPI and a member/subscriber outraged at Granada plus cuts to the re-runs rings 'Right to Reply' on C4 to complain, however this Herbert panics when the reporter offers him a slot on that week's show. So what does he do? He gives her my name and private number I had entrusted to him via the fanzine. So I got a surprise phone call from the C4 programme asking me if I would like to come on to the show to talk about cuts to the episodes. Now I know someone who is deluded by his huge ego to believe he is the voice of the fans and general expert on The Professionals who would have jumped at the chance to appear. However I am not that sad. I was not happy at this intrusion into my privacy and felt let down by this person. Their subscription was rescinded.

I was outraged and angered to discover that certain dubious persons on the Internet were ripping off fans by charging extortionate prices for unauthorised merchandise as well as pretending to be officially licensed. They claimed to be genuine fans, however as soon as GRANADA MEDIA SERVICES tried to track them down, they disappeared. I received nuisance calls from idiots, racist and homophobic articles for the fanzine. I had one lunatic, yest hte official voice of fans ringing me to talk about the gasometer used in "Fall Girl" sad but true! Or the weird fan that turned up at a theatre where Collins was appearing in panto saying she was from the fanzine.

There ore just too many incidents that left me thinking, my god if they're this obsessive and strange to me, then no wonder Collins and Shaw will not speak to "fans."

Thankfully we personally never pestered anyone, which I believe is why we were successful in getting Brian Clemens to endorse and actively involved in the fanzine/society. We are the only officially GRANADA& Brian Clemens endorsed fan based medium that his his active involvement via a set of exclusive interviews and the message to the fans. Despite the negative behaviour of some I am proud of the issues we've produced. These will become sought after collectable memorabilia in their own right.

If any one of you is thinking of producing your own fanzine, here is some advice from an old hand who has been in the game some time.

A list of essentials

1. A sense of humour.

2. The hide of a Rhino.

3. A decent bullshit detector.

4. An answer phone.

5. A sympathetic partner.

6. Some psychiatric work experience.

7. An understanding of fandom jealousy/rivalry.

8. Be prepared to become cynical.

9. Avoid "experts" and spokespersons of the fans.

10. Have other interests.