Canadian Science-Fiction Fanzines

Visions Vol. I No. 1, Fall 1976. Visions was published eight times yearly by Paranoid Publishing, Edmonton, Alberta. The publisher was Robert L. Thompson, editor David M. Vereschagin, and production was handled by Eugene W. Plawiuk. A serious fanzine devoted to science fiction which alternated with issues featuring comics. Artwork was contributed by John Byrne, David M. Vereschagin, Larry Hashman, and David R. Haugh.



Articles and poetry were provided by David M. Vereschagin, Eugene W. Plawiuk, David Schamber, Dae Cronan, Debra F. Sanders, Mike Mitchell, Mike Davidson, and Bob Thompson.



My own contribution was a cover and one interior illustration in Vol. I No. 3, March/April 1977 along with illustrations by John Byrne (spaceship below), David M. Vereschagin, David R. Haugh, Randy Mohr, and Barry Kent MacKay.

Writers were David M. Vereschagin, Eugene W. Plawiuk, Mike Mitchell, Rook Jones, H. A. Hargreaves, and Robert Anton Wilson. A letters column brought forth a comment from fanzine historian Harry Warner, Jr., of Hagerstown, Maryland, author of All Our Yesterdays (1969) and A Wealth of Fable (1976). Also heard from was Arthur C. Clarke.

Wilson Tucker wrote in 1969 of Harry Warner, Jr. that he "is an indefatigable writer of letters of comment, and the young fan editor who publishes two or three issues without receiving such a letter is apt to fold up his presses and steal away in shame." Harry Warner, Jr., a newspaper man, printed and published the first issue of his own long-running fanzine, Horizons, on October 1939.



David M. Vereschagin also published First Class no. 1 March 1977 in New Sarepta, Alberta. The Martian illustration immediately below appeared in one of the comic book issues of Visions.



The first fanzine published in Canada was Supermundane Stories, for fans of fantasy and the supernatural, published in the late thirties by Nils Helmer Frome (pen name Herkanos) and featuring work from H. P. Lovecraft, Rider Haggard and Clark Ashton Smith. From the same time period came Croutch Magazine Market News, from Larry Croutch of Parry Sound, Ontario. Title changed to Croutch News, then Light, in 1941.

William H. Gander of Transcona, Manitoba, inspired by American Ralph Cummings Dime Novel Round-Up, the 1925 British story paper fanzine Vanity Fair, and the Collector's Miscellany, long published in England by Joseph Parks, issued The Story Paper Collector Vol. I No. 1. For Jan/Mar, 1941 and it ran for 370 issues.

Rocket (1941) was issued by Fred Hurter with help from Beak Taylor. A fanzine had already appeared with that title and Rocket was changed to Censored. Mephisto, for weird fiction enthusiasts came out in fall of 1942 from Alan Child, and Eight Ball was printed up by Beak Taylor. By 1944 the only fanzine being published was Taylor’s Canadian Fandom published in Aurora, Ontario and survived until the late fifties under different editors.

By the fifties Norman G. Browne was publishing Vanations in Vancouver, B.C. and Georgina Clarke was issuing various fanzines from Calgary, Alberta.

Various Canadian science fiction fanzines in no particular order:

Novoid, Saskatoon : C. Hinz,1986

Dapapa, Edmonton : Dada Amateur Press Association. 19 issues last dated 1979

Under the Ozone Hole, Victoria 1992-1996, edited by John Wilson Herbert and Karl Johanson

I’m not boring you am I, Edmonton Editor: Robert Runte, 1983

torus /cthe Kamikaze Editorial Collective, Toronto : Kamikaze Editorial Collective, 1988

BCSFA newsletter Vancouver : BCSFA, 1973-Issued on behalf of BCSFA by Mike Bailey, 1973-1975

Xenium Vol. 1, no. 1 (1973) Toronto : Mike Glicksohn

Amor, Regina : Susan Glicksohn, 1973-1979. Editor: Susan Wood.

Winding numbers, Winnipeg : Editor Randy Reichardt, Vol. 1, no. 1 (fall 1975)

Simulacrum Ontario : Victoria Vayne, No. 1 June 1975 - no. 8 1978

Universe, Winnipeg : STYX, 1974-Editor: Joseph Krolik.

Schmagg, Winnipeg : BeFlatte Publications, No. 1 1977. Editor: Michael S. Hall.

Genre plat, Vancouver : Allyn Cadogan and Bill Gibson, no 1 Spring 1977

Rothnium magazine, Owen Sound, Ont. : Cygolian Press, 1977 Editor: David Hull.

Strange dystrophies, Islington, On. : Bill Brummer, c 1976

Orca, Toronto, Ontario Editor Jennifer K. Bankier, 1976

Dream vendor, Hamilton, Ont. Alan C. Sandercock No. 1 Sept 1976

Laid : the decadent Winnipeg newszine, Winnipeg, Editor: James A. Hall ("also known as Michael Hall") 1977

Calcium light nights, Editor, Phil Paine. 1975

Neology, Edmonton Science Fiction and Comic Arts Society, 1978-1992

The Monthly monthly (later Bimonthly monthly),Edmonton, Gang of Four, 1979-1980.

Typo, 1978, Willowdale, Ontario, Editor: Taral Wayne.

DNQ, Toronto 1978-1984. Editors: Victoria Vayne, Taral Wayne.

The Prydonian, Peterborough, Ontario, editor Dr. John Smith. No. 1 1979

Fewmets, Edmonton, 1980 Editors: Lorna Toolis, Marianne Nielsen.

Contact, Oshawa, Newsletter for the Doctor Who Information Network, No. 1 Sep./Oct. 1980

Carefully sedated, Toronto, Ontario : Alan Rosenthal & Catherine Crockett, 1983

Maple Leaf Rag, Victoria, B.C. , Stop Press, No. 1 (Nov. 1983)-no. 30 (June 1987).

New Canadian Fandom, Edmonton, Published by Beflatte Publications in Association with Negative Entropy Press, c1981-

Tales from Purgatory, Edmonton, R & R Creations, Editors: Randy Smallman and Ron Holmes, 1994, 13 issues

*Please help yourself to the Comments section with any corrections or additions.