Vicki Clark

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Fan
Name: Vicki Clark
Alias(es): Victoria Clark, Victoria H. Clark, Vicky Clark, one of "The Gang of Six"
Type: fan writer and fanzine publisher and fan poet
Fandoms: Star Trek, Beauty and the Beast
Communities:
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URL:
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Vicki Clark was a slash and het fan writer, fan poet and fanzine publisher. She is perhaps best known for her work on Nome an early influential Star Trek fanzine and the Star Trek novel Broken Images. She won a FanQ award for Best Editor in 1980, again for Best Zine in 1989, and Best Letterzine in 1991. In 1983, "Nome" also won her and co-editor Barbara Storey a TrekStar Award for Best Zine. Issues #3-9 of "Nome" won the Surak Awards for Best Fanzine Editing.

Together with Barbara Storey she published Star Trek zines under the name Jumping Dik-Bat Press and then under the name of Artemis Press in the 1990s.

Clark was one of The Gang of Six. See The Gang of Six and "Courts of Honor".

She passed on September 29, 2009.[1]

Courts of Honor

After Syn Ferguson failed to publish the highly anticipated fanzine Courts of Honor, a group of fans calling themselves The Gang of Six and headed by Victoria Clark, took it upon themselves to put out an edition and give copies to those who had paid years earlier (selling Heatwave, one of Syn's S/H stories, to raise money for the project). The five fans (Barbara Storey, Bev Sutherland, Alta Brewer, Edi Bjorklund and Victoria Clark) pooled their resources to do a fairly small print run (probably for lack of money), so the zine was hard to come by. Any excess funds raised by the sales went to repay those who had pre-ordered the zines from Syn Ferguson. The group estimated that they were able to repay 2/3 to 3/4 of the funds. [2]

On Finding Fandom

In 2007, Vicki gave an interview which was published in Legacy.

"After I read “Star Trek Lives” I sent off checks for 30 zines. When I got those 30 zines, most of them had listings/ads for other zines in the back. I saw an ad for Gerry Downes’ “Alternative”, and also the “Obsc'zine”. I found it (K/S) an interesting concept, but I wasn’t really pulled into it until that Townsley convention where I met Toni and Barbara and Nancy. They were really into it. They introduced us to Carol H. and Ellen K., who were planning “Companion” at that time. It was all around me, I was hearing a lot about it, and Barbara really got into it."

On Meeting Other Fans

After attending her first fan convention, Vicki soon found herself at the center of fan efforts to bring Spock to the first Star Trek movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. From there she found herself part of a circle of friends that would go on to publish numerous fanzines. Again from her Legacy interview.

(I first met other fans at) the Townsley convention in 1978, which was held on Washington's Birthday weekend....This was also the convention where there was a lot of upset over the fact that the first movie was pretty much a done deal. It hadn't been made made yet but it was scheduled to be made. Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock was not supposed to be in it and because of that there was a lot of turmoil among fans, a lot of upset, a lot of people feeling that Trek would not be Trek without Mr. Spock.

This was the second Townsley convention that I attended and the first convention where I met a number of fans. Even though I wasn't staying at the hotel I was determined to get to meet more people.

The first day of the convention I met a group from Southern Jersey. One of the outstanding names in that group was Toni who became a good friend of mine. She and her friends put out a zine at that time called “Nexus”. Toni was very friendly, very outgoing. She was a lovely woman, a goodhearted person. Among the group that I met through Toni was a young girl named Terry T. who was from Detroit and another young woman named Barbara S. who was originally Canadian but who was staying in Southern Jersey. She'd emigrated to the U.S. because of her love of Trek and her desire to get more involved in fandom.

I was really impressed with how warm and friendly Toni's group was. Some of the other fans I'd met who were BNFs were not always that friendly. I felt very comfortable with these people and enjoyed the convention a lot.

The endnote address was by two of the people who were BNFs - Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath - who had written the books “Star Trek Lives”. That book was the way I found out about zines and about fandom.

That book was a gift! I lived right in NYC. I could have gone to the other (Star Trek) conventions, but the way the media presented them I thought they were just for kids. I was so aggravated with myself when I found out about the zines and the other aspects of fandom - look at the time I wasted! After I read that book I sent out about 30 checks for various zines.

At the very end of their talk, Sondra and Marsha said that if anyone present was interested in participating in a last ditch effort to try to persuade Paramount to approach Leonard Nimoy to see whether we can still get him back (for the first Star Trek movie) should meet them on the mezzanine after the con was over. Since I lived in NY, I decided I might as well go. I was there, Barbara S. was there. She was the only member of Toni’s group to attend as the rest had to leave to go home since they worked the next day. There was also a young woman named Nancy M.. There were also several BNFs there including Leslie Fish, Bev V. and Nancy K., Leslye L., and probably Jean S. and Juanita S..

We were all talking about how important it would be to make this last ditch effort. I sat back and listened, and so did Barbara and Nancy. Leslie Fish and Leslye Lilker and Sondra and Myrna had all these ideas, and then people started leaving to go home. Sondra kept saying, we need somebody to be in charge of this; we have some good ideas. One of the ideas was an ad in the Hollywood Reporter, which we did. Another was sending telegrams and mailgrams to Paramount.

There were lots of good ideas, and Myrna was writing them down, but Sondra said we need somebody to be in charge. As I sat there and people were leaving, I thought, “if you don't do something nobody will”, but I was very hesitant because I figured I was a nobody. Finally I timorously said, “Well, I live in Manhattan and I can be that person but I am new to fandom. I don’t know anybody; I’m a neophyte.” Sondra glommed on to me because she was so happy someone had volunteered. She said that it didn't matter that you don't know anybody, we'll give you our names and phone numbers. When I left people who didn't know me had given me $10, $20 as donations to the cause and I had a list of everybody’s phone numbers from Leslie Fish on down and a list of all the ideas everyone had come up with for getting Mr. Spock back in Star Trek. As everybody was leaving, Nancy M. and Barbara S. came up to me because they both lived in NY...and they said, maybe we could help you a bit because we live in the same area. And that was the beginning of what would become, in a couple of months, a three way partnership that continued for quite some time and produced “Nome”.

On Selling Zines At Conventions

Many conventions used to split the fanzine dealer's room from the main dealer's room. The fanzine dealer's rooms were often tucked away and hard to find, but fans still managed to find their way to buy zines. [3]

"It was fun at selling [fanzines] at cons. The feeding frenzy! The first time it happened, it was stunning to see money, bills being thrown at us. It was fun getting immediate feedback... We always had a party to introduce the next issue of our zine. Shore Leave was easier (than the Townsley conventions) because the people at Shore Leave were nicer and the hotel people more accommodating..... A first I didn't care about room size, but after I brought out the first two or three issues of “Nome”, premiering them at the Townsley conventions, I started doing room parties for “Nome”....After Townsley stopped dong the conventions, Shore Leave was just beginning, so we switched premiering zines from Townsley to Shore Leave. We wanted a fan dominated convention, and we premiered most of the rest of our zines at Shore Leave from then on. We found that the best thing to do was get a room on the first floor that opened out to the grassy area. That way, there was plenty of room and smokers could go outside, Our parties were open to everyone interested. We always tried to get big rooms with lots of space so everyone could come. We had lots of soda, chips, wine, but no planned activities. People came and talked for hours."

Interviews

Additional Memories

Additional excerpts from Vicki's Legacy interview can be found at:

Zine Involvement

Memorial/Remembrances

  • "I met Vicki in 1979. I’d been in fandom for four years by then; I’d been to conventions; I’d published fanzines. But in many ways I was a complete neo. One of the things I most wanted to do was to meet and get to know some of the East Coast fans who I had been corresponding with. That involved going to east coast Star Trek conventions – starting with a big one in NYC (one of the Townsley conventions, if anyone remembers those). I grew up in a town with three stoplights and no building taller than two stories. The idea of going to *Manhattan* by *myself* was incredibly intimidating. But Vicki made everything so easy – she arranged for two roommates for me to stay with at the hotel, both of whom I’m still in contact with. She introduced me around, she invited me to her room parties. She, and her co-editor, published my first K/S story and some of my other writings. She made me feel welcome to fandom in every way."[4]
  • "Vicki was also an enthusiastic and accomplished cook. Here is a video of her cooking on New Years Eve 1995."[5]

References

  1. ^ In Memoriam, Archived version
  2. ^ From "An Interview with Victoria Clark, published in Legacy (Star Trek: TOS slash anthology).
  3. ^ Vicki writes: "In 1986, that year at Shore Leave, renovations were being done on the Hunt Valley Inn. In order to get to the zine dealers room, everyone had to go through the kitchen area and up a long flight of stairs. We called it climbing the steps to Mt. Seleya. It was a complete mess!"
  4. ^ catalenamara's In Memory of Victoria Clark, long time friend, K/S fan, editor of Nome dated June 17, 2012; WebCite.
  5. ^ Vicki Cooking Vegetarian Arborio Rice (YouTube)
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