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SH Fandom Before Computers
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | SH Fandom Before Computers |
| Creator: | Flamingo |
| Date(s): | unknown date |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | Starsky & Hutch |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | SH Fandom Before Computers |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
SH Fandom Before Computers is a Starsky & Hutch essay by Flamingo.
Some Topics Discussed
From the Essay
Fandom, as we recognize it today, started in the early ’30’s, before Television, never mind before computers, with Science Fiction fans. Those early fans are often referred to as the First Fandom. Star Trek fandom, starting in the late 60’s, grew out of science fiction fandom, and it was Trek fandom that gave birth to modern media fandoms like Starsky & Hutch. While fan conventions and fanzines had existed since First Fandom, they become better known due to the immense popularity of Star Trek. Fanzines, during the Trek era, went from being cheaply produced mimeographed copies of fan writing to more sophisticated privately published books, with silk-screened original sophisticated art and well-written stories with professional-level editing. Many of those experienced authors and editors left Trek for Starsky & Hutch in the late seventies and eighties, bringing all their skills to bear in this new fandom.
The advent of the computer, which made producing the master copy of a zine much easier than typing clean copy for offset printing or cutting mimeo stencils, and more available (and cheaper) photocopying techniques made it even easier to produce zines, but few computer-generated zines would be as beautiful or sophisticated as some of the early S&H zines. Since many newer fen have never even seen a zine, never mind one of the older mimeo or offset printed zines, a little history can make some of these now obscure terms more relevant to digital-age fen.