Fantasy Fictioneer

Zine
Title:	Fantasy Fictioneer
Publisher:
Editor(s):	Sully Roberds
Type:
Date(s):	1939-1940
Medium:	Print
Size:
Fandom:	Science Fiction
Language:	English
External Links:	Hosted by fanac.org
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Fantasy Fictioneer was a four-issue science fiction fanzine printed from 1939-1940. It was created mostly to publicize the Illini Fantasy Fictioneers' plans for Chicon I. Bob Tucker supplied his mimeograph for the printing.

About

Sully Roberds, the only other Bloomington member, was appointed editor of the Fantasy Fictioneer, and together we cranked out four issues of that journal (plus other convention publicity) on my mimeo. Progress Reports, per se, had not yet appeared in fandom, and so the Fictioneer was only another fanzine to the uninformed eye. Each issue presented a progress report from Reinsberg (which read precisely like the similar reports published today), plus the usual fanzine ephemera: fan fiction by Ted Carnell, poetry by Robert Lowndes, a Nycon report by Leslie Perri, controversy by Wollheim, Carnell, Roberds, & others, pun pieces by Ackerman, hotel information and propaganda by all of us, and large slices of infantile humor by Pong.

Bob Tucker: The First Chicon, pg. 4. Tau Ceti Reprints no. 2, May 1965.

Tucker added that a case of antisemitism had nearly split apart the Chicago members of the IFF and jeopardized the convention program booklet. After the fourth issue, Roberds was so fed up that he ended the Fictioneer and refused to attend the con himself.

Volume 1, Number 1

Volume 1, Number 1 covered November-December 1939. The cover was designed by Walter Fleming. It had 10 pages.

Contents

Pg 1 - Front cover

Pg 2 - Table of Contents, committee members and zine policy statement

Pg 3 - Provincial Constitution of the IFF

Pg 5 - First Progress Report by Mark Reinsberg

Pg 6 - The Eastern Situation by Erle Korshak - report on progress made for convention arrangements in New York.

Pg 7 - An Open Letter to a Congressman by Hoy Ping Pong - requesting shipments of oxygen to be sent to Mars.

Pg 8 - Much Ado About... by Sully Roberds - a short piece on fandom and the people who comprise it.

Pg 9 - "The Director's Message" by Bob Tucker

Pg 10 - Advertisements by readers - advertisements for Voice of the Imagi-nation, Furturia Fantasia, Le Zombie and Ad Astra.

Volume 1, Number 2

Volume 1, Number 2 covered January-February 1940. It had 13 pages.

Contents

Pg 1 - Front cover

Pg 2 - Table of Contents and committee members

Pg 2 - "An Article by Bradbury" by Ackerman

Pg 3 - Second Chi-con Progress Report by Mark Reinsberg

Pg 5 - 5000 BBC by Edward J. Carnell - "being a translation from the hieroglyphics upon the West Face of Cleopatra's Needle, compiled during a thick fog".

Pg 8 - Cry in the Wilderness by Dale Hart - sketch "inspired by Doc Lowndes 8th Blank Thot, the one about "gotta match?" (See Le Zombie #6)"

Pg 9 - A Lady Sees the Convention by Leslie Perri - con report from Nycon 1

Pg 9 - Skull-Voice by Dale Wilkinson - poem

Pg 11 - .44 Calibre Science Stories by Hoy Ping Pong and Mark Hop Ching - preview of a (fake) new zine.

Pg 13 - The Burrowers Beneath by Robert Lowndes - poem

Volume 1, Number 3

Volume 1, Number 3 covered March-April 1940. It had 10 pages. Front cover art by Tom Wright.

Contents

Pg 1 - Front cover by Tom Wright.

Pg 2 - Table of Contents and committee members

Pg 2 - Editorial - "Blitzkreig and Beer" by Sully Roberds.

Pg 3 - "To the Attention of Messrs. Moskowitz and Sykora, A Statement of Policy" by Bob Tucker, Sully Roberds, Mark Reinsberg and Erle Korshak - a statement repudiating letters by Moskowitz and Sykora claiming the IFF had refused the help of New Fandom with Chicon in the wake of The Great Exclusion Act.

Pg 5 - Utopia With a Barbed Wire Fence by Bob Tucker

Pg 8 -- Reinberg's Progress Report by Mark Reinsberg

Pg 7 - Confucius Korshak Say by Erle Korshak - suggesting a "Chinese Night" for the convention

Pg 8 - Thoughts From England by Edward J. Carnell - excerpts from a personal letter about the proposed professional zine "New Worlds" that didn't eventuate.

Pg 9 - Filler - Pure Filler by Bob Tucker - "some thoughts to reassure you" about the lack of last-minute convention panic.

Pg 10 - Booster Ads by Bob Tucker - calls for advertising for the upcoming convention program book. Plus a call for membership.

Volume 1, Number 4

Volume 1, Number 3 covered August 1940. It had 11 pages.

Contents

Pg 1 - Front cover - uncredited cartoon

Pg 2 - Convention venue and surrounding hotel options. Plus requests to sign up for the banquet.

Pg 3 - Discussion at the Convention by Donald A. Wollheim - a suggestion for discussion committees to expedite decisions at the Convention.

Pg 4 - Topics for Discussion and Proposed Resolutions by Mark Reinsberg and Bob Tucker - the committee's response to the discussion question raised above.

Pg 5 - Reinberg's Progress Report by Mark Reinsberg - including full convention program.

Pg 10 - Blitzkrieg, Beer and Boredom by Edward J. Carnell - response to Sully Roberds' editorial of the previous issue.