Paulbot
28th August 2023, 09:05 AM
On twitter/x today, James Roberts (https://twitter.com/jroberts332/status/1695730796248633848) outlined a new project
I’m thinking about releasing a big new book celebrating the old school Transformers fanzines of the 80s and 90s, to be released in time for the 40th anniversary 🧵
It would be a large format, photo-heavy book, part reference guide, part history (the early 90s End of Days is a critical but under-catalogued period in TF history), containing interviews with a host of zine editors and contributors
In 1990/91, the demise of the Marvel comics and the end of the toyline in the US gave every impression that the franchise was dead, even if the toys continued elsewhere
Fans from 84 were now old enough to make fanzines, and with no new canonical fiction the time was right for the fandom to embrace the DIY ethos and Take Control™️
If this project is to work, I need as broad a sample of TF zines as possible. I have 150ish from the Transmasters days, but there are lots more out there. Zines from the 80s, plus non-UK/US zines, are especially hard to come by, as are general toy and SF zines that featured TFs
This is me putting my toe in the water, trying to gauge interest and to see how much material is out there. So to get to the point: if you own or know of or made or contributed to TF fanzines published in the 20th century, please get in touch by emailing me at tfzines40@gmail.com
If I decide this has legs, I’d find ways to take high quality scans of the material, and to interview zine creators and contributors
Please could you spread this message far and wide so I can determine the amount and the availability of the source material. If any of you post on TF sites and message boards, please fly a flag for this project. Thank you!
We are all on this forum because Griffin created the AusTrans newsletter in the 90s, and if this book goes ahead AusTrans/Ozformer must be included.
Do some of the other folk from those early days who are still posting here have physical copies anymore? Demonac, Dirge, Goktimus?
I've got my copies of the penultimate 5 issues, and print outs of the "email versions" from issue 12, Sep 1997 onwards, and I think a saved copy of the web version of issue 1 when Griffin posted that again as an anniversary celebration.
https://i.imgur.com/orYLPcFl.jpg
I’m thinking about releasing a big new book celebrating the old school Transformers fanzines of the 80s and 90s, to be released in time for the 40th anniversary 🧵
It would be a large format, photo-heavy book, part reference guide, part history (the early 90s End of Days is a critical but under-catalogued period in TF history), containing interviews with a host of zine editors and contributors
In 1990/91, the demise of the Marvel comics and the end of the toyline in the US gave every impression that the franchise was dead, even if the toys continued elsewhere
Fans from 84 were now old enough to make fanzines, and with no new canonical fiction the time was right for the fandom to embrace the DIY ethos and Take Control™️
If this project is to work, I need as broad a sample of TF zines as possible. I have 150ish from the Transmasters days, but there are lots more out there. Zines from the 80s, plus non-UK/US zines, are especially hard to come by, as are general toy and SF zines that featured TFs
This is me putting my toe in the water, trying to gauge interest and to see how much material is out there. So to get to the point: if you own or know of or made or contributed to TF fanzines published in the 20th century, please get in touch by emailing me at tfzines40@gmail.com
If I decide this has legs, I’d find ways to take high quality scans of the material, and to interview zine creators and contributors
Please could you spread this message far and wide so I can determine the amount and the availability of the source material. If any of you post on TF sites and message boards, please fly a flag for this project. Thank you!
We are all on this forum because Griffin created the AusTrans newsletter in the 90s, and if this book goes ahead AusTrans/Ozformer must be included.
Do some of the other folk from those early days who are still posting here have physical copies anymore? Demonac, Dirge, Goktimus?
I've got my copies of the penultimate 5 issues, and print outs of the "email versions" from issue 12, Sep 1997 onwards, and I think a saved copy of the web version of issue 1 when Griffin posted that again as an anniversary celebration.
https://i.imgur.com/orYLPcFl.jpg