Ian Crozier

Fan
Name:	Ian Crozier
Alias(es):	I.J. Crozier
Type:	fanwriter, zine ed, convention organizer
Fandoms:	science fiction
Communities:	Melbourne Science Fiction Club
Other:
URL:	Fancyclopedia 3 (via Wayback Jun 23/23)
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Ian Crozier (seated, left) editing the zine Etherline, among other members of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club

Ian Crozier (1929 - 27 November 2012) was one of the early members of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club in the 1950s and member of Amateur Fantasy Publications of Australia (AFPA) along with Merv Binns, Dick Jenssen, Race Matthews and Lee Harding. Crozier's involvement in Melbourne's science fiction fandom was relatively brief, however his contribution to fan publishing was significant and he was considered the driving force behind Etherline, the MSFC's newsletter, from 1953-1959. His record of 101 issues before the zine folded for a time was an Australian record held for many years.

Fannish History

MSFG and AFPA

Crozier first became part of fandom as a member of Ken Slater's Operation Fantast, where he was given contact details for other sci-fi fans in Melbourne. At the time the Melbourne Science Fiction Group (as it was initially known) was planning to publish fanzines and Crozier joined the AFPA, proving to be what the group needed to become productive:

With the appearance of Ian Crozier AFPA was soon transformed from a casual group of fanzine publishers into a firm group devoted to somewhat different principles--the production of semi-professional magazines to be marketed through various fan outlets throughout Australia and by direct retail sales…

From the beginning, Ian’s influence on the Club could be felt. We were a lethargic bunch with little or no inclination to become organised. Dick, Merv and I deplored this situation but hadn’t the gumption to do anything about it. This commodity was soon supplied by Mr. Crozier. He was smooth and affable: excellent executive and leadership material. Also, he was our senior by a number of years and we were awed by his talent for organisation.

 

In early 1953, while assisting Lee Harding, Dick Jenssen and Merv Binns, Crozier became the editor of the MSFG's newsletter, Etherline, taking over and completely remodelling it from Bob McCubbin, who was finding it too time-consuming. He had also assisted with and contributed to the AFPA's other zines, Perhaps and Bacchanalia, before releasing another, Question Mark. Crozier's business-like approach to fandom was at odds with some members of the AFPA - when Lee Harding brought out another, independent zine, Waste-basket, he was 'charged' with "producing a magazine in direct competition with an AFPA publication" - he blamed Crozier for instigating the resulting Court of Enquiry and testifying against him. The situation was resolved by the development of a publication schedule and a new membership set up of the AFPA, but Harding was ousted from the AFPA and went on to continue his own publications.

Etherline

"Fan At Work" - illustration of Crozier by George Metzger published in Etherline #100 (1958)

By 1956, Etherline had become established as the prominent science fiction fandom news magazine, largely due to Crozier's efforts. Merv Binns recalled to Mumblings in Munchkinland that:

The Club meeting details, book reviews, news about SF books and magazines, letters and reports from authors and fans all over, and more, were included in Etherline. Copies were sent to members and SF fans in other states and in the USA and Britain. Ian corresponded with and included information from such as Bob Bloch and many other fans here and overseas. Etherline was a duplicated work of art, considering the trouble Ian went to, to put a stencil together for me to then run off on the old duplicator. He had to cut and splice stencils and add illustrations and headings, which was a painstaking exercise.

 

Besides the MSFC's reports, Crozier also published news from Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane fandom, the latter two cities being isolated by their lack of their own fanzines. He also reported on social gatherings, including several at his own family's home and he was the source of the early Australian Science Fiction Convention con reports (for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th conventions).It was also at the 4th Convention that he was prevailed upon to act as an impartial Chairman during a particularly stormy Business Meeting. He may have been considered impartial at the time, but his later comments were rather scathing:

The Chairman, P. Burke, asked whether any progress had been made on the motion put forward at last year's Convention, that the two Sydney Groups meet and try to iron out their difficulties. Motion was made and carried that this discussion be held under an impartial chairman, and delegate I. J. Cr ozier was 'bulldozed' into the chair. He made it clear that the position was most unhappy for him.

...

Discussion was heated, and acting chairman Crozier never had much hope of controlling the meeting. I won't go into the gory details here, but finish on the earnest hope that when the two groups meet on Monday April 4th, they conclude once and for all this childish wrangling. After all, it's only a hobby - to most of us, anyway - and should be treated that way.

From where I sat, it looked as if the whole thing is a clash of personalities, and the sooner these personalities are gagged, forced out or resign from fan activities, the better it will be for all concerned.

This type of this was alright when they were immature schoolchildren, but one expects something a bit better from them now. My God, the Labor Party hasn't got anything on Sydney fandom !

 

Telling people to "grow up" was a common theme with Crozier - he'd used the same language in his editorial for the first issue of Etherline in 1953!

Etherline was published fortnightly (aka bi-weekly) for the most part, although the schedule became irregular before Olympicon as Crozier was on the convention committee as publicity officer and was editor of the program book. From issue #81 publication changed to every three weeks, but faltered in mid-1958 as Crozier took on other interests and got engaged. Issue #101 was, despite an editorial promising to return to a regular schedule, his final issue.

Impact on Fandom

Etherline - and by extension, Crozier - were and are credited with being an important part of building Australian sci-fi fandom as well as bringing notice of it to "the rest of the world" (i.e., the U.S.). In his 1954 issue of Scansion (#22), Bill Veney "awarded" Crozier with a fan academy award for his efforts:

Ian Crozier gets his jug for his outstanding contribution to Australian fan publishing . ETHERLINE is without question the outstanding Australian fanzine and has done more to foster a national awareness amongst us then any other fan venture . One condition, Ian. You got to share it with your mates in AFPA.

 

Then in 1973, Merv Binns had this to say when trying to resurrect Etherline:

For a number of reasons I think it is a good time to resurrect old ETHERLINE.For those who have never heard of it before.it was the first fanzine published by the Melbourne Science Fiction Club. It kept members and fans in other states in touch in the 1950s and thanks to the editor Ian Crozier, helped lay the foundations of the present SF Fandom in Australia.

 

Cover of Etherline Issue #85 (fanac.org) Editor Ian Crozier, artist Margaret Duce (Helena Binns) (1957)

In her biographic essay, "Helena on the Fringe of Fandom - The Authentic Story", Helena Binns relates how Crozier welcomed her to the MSFC:

Since I was only 15 and still living in Alexandra (about 140 km from Melbourne), there was little hope of my paying a visit to the Club. But then it turned out that the Club came to me, in the form of Ian Crozier, Editor of the Club’s fanzine Etherline, who I think had relatives or friends in or near Alexandra, and took time out from visiting them to drop in and welcome me to the Melbourne Science Fiction Club.

In the course of our conversation he discovered that I was a budding artist, and asked if I would like to do some drawings for Etherline. My first was published on the cover of Etherline No. 85, sometime in 1957.

...

I told Ian that I liked science fiction but not fantasy – a preference that still holds, with one notable exception. Ian then proceeded to tell me about that exception. He had read the first volume of The Lord of the Rings and said that it was about a war between good and evil. I said that I didn’t really like war stories (though I did understand the concept of the struggle between good and evil, as taught in all major religions, and personified by Gurdjieff as “the struggle of the magicians”, by which he meant wizards, and there certainly were titanic battles of wizards good and evil in The Lord of the Rings.) When I later read (at the still impressionable age of 17) The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, I had that feeling I’d had when I first laid eyes on that old comic strip Buck Rogers book. “This is probably not real, but it should be.”