Mary D. Bloemker
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| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Mary Dolores Bloemker |
| Alias(es): | M.D. Bloemker, Mary Bloemker, MaryB, Vickie F. Newton |
| Type: | fanwriter, zine editor and publisher, fanartist |
| Fandoms: | Shadow Chasers, Doctor Who, Star Trek: TOS, Blake's 7, Questor Tapes, Voyagers!, Space: 1999 |
| Communities: | |
| Other: | The Bloemker Archives |
| URL: | Celebrate Mary D. Bloemker |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Mary D. Bloemker was a fanwriter, fanartist and zine publisher.
Some of her Shadow Chasers fanfiction is found online on www.shadowchasers.org. More of her fannish work can be found at The Bloemker Archives, and a gallery of her art across many fandoms can be found at Mary Bloemker's Art Gallery.[1][2]
She ran The Central Register a listing of Doctor Who zines, clubs, and activities.
Mary also won a Zen Award at one of the early Blake's 7 Scorpio conventions, even though she was never able to attend in person.[3]
She died at age 53 in September 2009.
Her friend, Deb Walsh penned the following memorial post at Online Alpha Yahoo!Groups:
I first met MaryB at August Party (Star Trek con) 1976, where she was running registration for the con. That meeting literally changed my life, and I would never have stuck with fandom if it hadn't been for meeting Mary. She was my best friend for over 30 years. And like everyone else who was close to her, I'm finding the world to be a bit off its axis right now.[4]
MaryB was a lifelong Trek fan, but she loved many shows and films. She was a fannish pioneer in many ways, publishing one of the earliest multi-media zines, The Vaslovik Archives, based on the non-Trek work of Gene Roddenberry. Over the years, Mary published several issues of the zine. She also headed up Main Mission Alpha, a Space: 1999 fan club, for several years. When MaryB discovered Blake's 7 at the 1980 Worldcon, she tracked down videotapes of the series, and promptly set about getting me hooked on the show - because I had the only VCR in the group. As a result, we - a well as our many friends who got sucked into it with us - became members of the underground Blake's 7 movement, helping to create a fandom in the US long before the show ever aired here - and this in the days before the Internet, torrents, cheap long distance, or even Amazon.uk.[4]
MaryB was also an early adopter of the online community. When most people hadn't even used a computer yet, MaryB was active on BBSes. She got me online with GEnie back in the early '90s, but by that time, she'd been online for years, notably on Playnet, a service through whom she met many friends she'd kept through the years. MaryB loved technology - she'd frequently call me asking me to talk her out of buying some new toy. And an hour after we got off the phone, she'd call me back to describe her new toy anyway. She was wonderfully generous - often the old technology she'd just replaced would quickly be boxed up and mailed to another friend who didn't yet have that capability.[4]
MaryB was also a huge Doctor Who fan, and published the zine Faces of Time for several years. She enjoyed time travel stories even without benefit of TARDIS (especially Voyagers!), and later published The Temporal Times.[4]
Mary's greatest fannish love was Shadow Chasers, a small paranormal dramedy from 1985, created by Kenneth Johnson (The Incredible Hulk, V, Bionic Woman, Alien Nation, etc.) and produced by Imagine (Ron Howard and Brian Grazer). Mary's body of work in the fandom was not only prodigious, it was often brilliant and sometimes deeply cathartic. At times, it almost seemed like she was single-handedly carrying the standard for the show, always seeking to interest new fans and keep the fandom going. She maintained the Shadow Chasers homepage up until very recently, and was in the midst of writing another story that sadly she never finished.[4]
Mary was a terrific artist, and often much in demand back in the '80s. She also enjoyed other hobbies, including genealogy, miniature dollhouses, and her embroidery sewing machine. Mary was always inquisitive, loved to learn, and had a great eye for editing - she had an uncanny knack for zeroing in on plot holes and discrepancies, and she was always my favorite editor.[4]
I also had the pleasure of publishing MaryB's work, in Blake's 7 (Avon's 8 stories), Tomorrow People, Space: 1999, and of course Shadow Chasers fandoms. Her amazing ability to come up with entire plot scenarios overnight - literally, some of her best stories came to her in a dream - combined with her excellent narrative style made her an editor's dream as well."[4]
Fanart
Additional fanart can be found at Mary Bloemker's Art Gallery.
cover of Well Met in Space and Time
Back cover art from The Blue Guardian #13
External Links
- Celebrate Mary D. Bloemker, a memorial blog.
References
- ^ a b "Mary Bloemker's Art Gallery – Page 1". Archived from the original on 2013-05-03.
- ^ a b "Mary Bloemker's Art Gallery – Page 2". Archived from the original on 2013-05-03.
- ^ Deb Walsh. "My Life in Fandom - Zines - B7 Complex". Archived from the original on 2019-03-16.
- ^ a b c d e f g Deb Walsh (2009-09-27). "Message: Sad news to share about Mary Bloemker". Online Alpha Yahoo!Groups. Archived from the original on 2013-01-05.