From the Ends of the Galaxy
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | From the Ends of the Galaxy |
| Publisher: | |
| Editor(s): | Tom Chleborad and Trent Rentsch |
| Type: | |
| Date(s): | 1977-78 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS and Science Fiction |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
From the Ends of the Galaxy is a gen Star Trek and Sci-Fi fanzine.
It was edited by Tom Chleborad and Trent Rentsch of Brookings, SD.
Issue 1
From the Ends of the Galaxy 1 was published in July 1977 and contains 58 pages.
The editors wrote:
FTEOTG is a ST/sf/f zine devoted to bringing you, our readers, something new and fresh. We welcome comments. We reserve the right to reprint all material in this issue. Ind. rights belong to the artist/author.The idea for this zine was born in April, 1977. Production began in earnest in June, 1977 and continued thru the second week of July. The editors plan to take a rest before #2 comes out. Issue #2 is expected out something in early fall. Suggestions and contributions are welcome.
The editors wish to thank George Perkins for his help in locating material and enduring the thousands of naive questions asked of him without going insane. Thanks, George.
- Front Cover by Trent Rensch
- Frontispiece by Barbara Pohl
- Editorial by Tom Chleborad (2)
- "Sword From the Past" (Trek fiction) by Trent Rensch (3)
- "Nennform" (Trek fiction) by T. B. Knight (10)
- Omega Glory Puzzle by D.E. Rubin (13)
- "Deathseed" (fiction) Eugene Thurston (16)
- From the Ends of the Galaxy Art by Robert Stapleberg (21)
- "The Executioner" (original science fiction) by T. B. Knight (26)
- Editorial by Trent Rensch (34)
- Stardates, article by George Perkins (35)
- Star Trek Trivia Quiz by Vern Wakeman (42)
- "The Chipmunk Defense" (original fiction) by M. L. Todd (44)
- "Eden Defined" (poetry) by Ingrid Ruth Cross (54)
- Ramblings by the Editors (55)
- The Galactic Interchange (ads) (56)
- Editorial by Tim Moe (57)
- "Bluey" (fiction) by Tom Chleborad (58)
- "Backispiece" (poetry) by Ingrid Ruth Cross
- Backcover by Barbara Pohl
- Includes art by: Scott Chleborad; Duane Hanson; Kathi Lynn Higley; T.B. Knight; Barbara Pohl; Bob Stapleberg; K. Trummel; Rich Woolworth
interior of issue #1
interior of issue #1
Reactions and Reviews: Issue #1
Dear FTEOTG, Tom asked me to "LoC" FTEOTG #1 so here I am . . . Getting "LoC" jaw!
O.K. I wish first to express utter amazement at the fact that this first zine of yours had had such a short gestation period. I mean, I have read 'zines that claim six months to a year of time for conception and birth which haven't been as good or as entertaining as this four month old infant of yours! "You're to be congratulated! And now I wish to make what I hope will be constructive criticism of your "baby....
In "Rumblings by the Editors" (item three) you asked people to tell you if they preferred double space or single space for for the stories. Well, I, for one, prefer single spacing for all stories with a double space between paragraphs. These old, near-sighted eyeballs of mine just can't stand the strain of hopping the space between sentences that double spaceing leaves and also I think single spacing is a neater means of typing than double. And besides being crazy I'm also very neat so I'd appreciate single spacing from now on—and that's an order!!I No, seriously. . . .
I also enjoyed the author intros that preceded each story, I feel that they lend an insight into the person who wrote the story and added to the understanding of that story as well so I hope that what ever else you do you'll retain the intros. As to the stories themselves. . .
I do believe I enjoyed every-one of 'em immensely but my particular favorites were: "Death Seed" by Eugene Thurston, I found it refreshing to read a strictly sci-fi story for a change and especially enjoyed this one.
That's also probably the same reason why I liked "The Executioner" by T.E. Knight. "Executioner" really chilled me to the bone even though I read it at the height of a heatwave that was sweeping my area and felt positively sickened at the mindless violence of the marauders who reminded me horrifyingly of futuristic Hell's Angles [sic]. I was really quite happy when Nicholas went to work as the Executioner, believe me.
"The Chipmunk Defense" by M.L. Todd. . .One word describes this story... Fantastic.' I really enjoyed it and was fit to be tied when I reached the end of part one! I only hope part two is as good!
After these three I would have to say that my next favorites were (are you ready for this Tom?): "Bluey" by Tom Chleborad which I though was absolutely hilarious and cute to boot.
And I also enjoyed "Sword From the Past" by Trent. Rentsch but I felt that his action scenes were just a bit too stilted to make 'em flow as naturally as they should have. The rest of the story was interesting though, and I especially enjoyed the brief exchange between Spock and the crazy Samurai!
So all in all, guy, you've got a great little 'zine on your hands and I hope it continues!
Oh! And by the way, I hope you'll retain the FTEOTG art section too - perhaps even expand it? I though Bob Stapelberg's starships and shuttles were great and I'd like to see more art represented! [1]
Dear JTEOTG, FROM THE ENDS OF THE GALAXY #1 marked the debut of a very good new fanzine. The editors, Tom, Trent, and Tim, did a good job of selecting material, with only a few exceptions (which I'11 get to later).
The cover lacked a bit, and I don't really think it would have caught anybody's attention. Maybe if you'd have switched the front and back covers around. I don't know. It's just my opinion. (Sorry, Trent.)
Most of the artwork, except those on page 20 and 49, were excellant [sic]. I recognized some of the artists names from top ST zines like STN&B. I was really quite surprised to see that Duane Hanson had done the Enterprise drawing on page 49. But, I guess that's okay, because I've seen a few Frank Frazetta paintings I didn't like, too.
I really enjoyed the editorials (especially that of Mr. Woe's) but I didn't really like the fact that they were spared so far apart, but having three editors can cause problems, and I suppose that was the best way to handle it.
Almost all the stories were excellant [sic]. I must commend you all on your choice of stories. "Nennform" had one of those typical endings, where the person wakes up from a dream but it wasn't quite so typical this time. The one story that I didn't really care for was "Bluey." Shame on you, Tom, Tim, and Trent for printing it, and shame on you, Tom, for writing it. [2]
The over-all impression I am left with after reading FROM is a sense of great enthusiasm from the editors. The three editors, Tom Chleborad, Trent Rentsch, and Tim Moe, really worked hard giving in an out-pouring of themselves to come up with FROM.
FROM is your average first try at sine pubbing. There is great promise from these three, but an unfortunate lack of good contributions has had a detrimental effect on the zine.
The editors do seem to have a publishing sense in them, and so art is placed through the zine in the right places, and the sprinkling of articles and stories seems well balanced. One thing I've never seen before is three different editorials scattered in three different places in the zine — it was a new and refreshing approach — different from most lines which tend to group the editorial remarks in one spot.
The three editor's have also introduced another first in fanzines. All the prose contains a short introduction by the author. Unfortunately, the authors screwed it up. Instead of giving a little background information about the piece — why it was written etc. — they apologized for the lack of professionalism in the piece. (Something not expected, I might add — fanzines are just that, fan-zines, written by people first starting to write, usually.) The introduction thing was a good idea though.
The fiction selection is rather large, but the selections are generally dull and uninteresting — except one. "The Chipmunk Defence" written by M.L. Todd is the one story which is worth reading. Part I was in this issue, and the story is to be concluded in #2. Included is both straight science fiction, fantasy and ST fiction.,for the rest of the zine.
There is only one article in FROM 5, on stardates. It was written by myself, and I can't fairly say anything more about it. FROM did have a number of puzzles/quizzes which weren't bad. At least the crossword puzzle was something different than most — Deb Rubin gets credit for that.
I’d say the most outstanding contribution in the whole zine was by Ruth Ingrid Cross. A short poem incorporating the zine title, "from the ends of the galaxy" as a line in the poem, and another poem entitled "Eden Defined", were both just great!
The art in FROM varied from fair to excellent. Most notable artists included! Duane Hanson, Barbara Pohl, and Kathi Higley.
Rating! "6 out of 10." [3]
Issue 2
From the Ends of the Galaxy 2 was published in June 1978 and contains 35 pages.
From the editorial by Tom Chleborad:
Let's get one thing straight. This zine is published by Trent and me, but you have to set the standards. The only way we know what you want to read or see is by your letter.If like something, (like the little EDITORIAL thing above my editorial) write and tell us. If you want to suggest an article—or write an article—write and tell us, we'd like to know.
The reason I sound so vindictive is because we only recieved [sic] four letters of comment, (one of which, I lost) This is a pretty poor response to a brand new fanzine published by three inexperienced editors. If the input is as small for this issue, (done by two inexperienced editors) it will be difficult to continue publication.
You may have noticed that we are a little bit late. One reason is of course, the fact that Tim quit us. This threw a humongous monkey wrentch (no relation to the Trent Rentsrh) into the printing press. It took quite awhile and a lot of reorganization to recover, and to renew lost, enthusiasm. Secondly, jobs, school and play rehersal [sic] cut deeply into our FTEOTG time. So deeply, in fact, there was no FTEOTG time left. After I was "forcibly retired", I had plenty of time but absolutly [sic] zero motivation, so I did absolutly [sic] nothing. In-fact, until last week, Trent and I did nothing but answere [sic] hasty letters and fend off George (Perkins) and Mark (Behrend) and others wondering wether [sic] or not we were still living. Well we most definatly [sic] are, and I hope this proves it.
Notes about the Brookcon '78: It really going to happen, (there sould [sic] be an s after the it) Mark Behrend got us all— the main Brookings sf fans—together to find out if there was enough interest in holding another Brookcon. Lo and behold there was and everyboby [sic] said they would donate money with no protesting (well maybe a little bit, but at the time I didn't have a job). For more info write: Mark Behrend [address redacted].
- Front Cover by Duane Hanson
- Frontispiece b Kathi Lynn Higley
- Editorial: Let's Get One Thing Straight by Tom Chleborad (2)
- "Over the Edge of Forever" (Trek fiction) by Deborah Anderson (3)
- Art of the Galaxy (5)
- "As of Yet Untitled" (original science fiction) by T.B. Knight (11)
- Shakespeare's Planet: a review by Dan Munson (16)
- "The Chipmunk Defense part II" (original science fiction) by M.L. Todd (18)
- From One End to the Other (letters) (24)
- Galactic Interchange (ads) (29)
- Editorial: Stuck in the Back by Trent Rensch (31)
- "The Perfect Model" (original science fiction) by Tom Chleborad (32)
- A Letter of Resignation by Tim Moe (34)
- Backispiece "My Friend" (poetry) by Julie Uitto (inside back cover)
- Back Cover by Duane Hanson
- art by: Scott Chleborad; David Monahan; Duane Hanson; Kathi Lynn Higley; Dan Munson; Tom Chleborad; Trent Rentsch
inside page from issue #2
inside page from issue #2
