ARGENTUS LoCs

Issue One

Illo by Sheryl Birkhead

 Gregory Benford
Jeff Berkwits 
Sheryl Birkhead
Brad W. Foster
E.B. Frohvet
Jukka Halme
Teddy Harvia 
John Hertz
Jerry Kaufman
Erika Maria Lacey
 Dan Kimmel responds
Joseph T. Major
Lloyd Penney 
Milt Stevens 
Jan Stinson 
John Thiel
Sherry Thompson 
Tom Veal (this will open in another window)
Henry L. Welch
Ted White (Ted has also reviewed Argentus at www.efanzines.com)
WAHF 
'Zines in Trade

Editorial insertions in blue italics.  Other contributor comments in red italics.

Dear Steven:

I received my contributor copy of Argentus earlier this week, and I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed it. Though I am admittedly biased -- since I wrote one of the mock reviews -- I found the movie review section to be particularly fun: a great way to look at an "alternate history" of Hollywood SF cinema. I'm looking forward to seeing the con coverage in the next issue!

I also have to say that I was impressed with much of the other material, too. David Truesdale's piece was fascinating, and echoed some of the same thoughts I'd written previously for a Locus Online commentary, with a follow-up piece. One of the big concerns, in my opinion, with SF magazine publishing today is that the editors, for the most part, fail to address key issues concerning layout and content, and simply whine about declining circulations and the problems electronic publishing and the Internet are creating for traditional magazines. Contrary to their claims, however, they're not entirely helpless!! Smart marketing, creative thinking in terms of stories and the look of the publications, etc. all would help to make these periodicals more viable. That may mean -- horrors! -- embracing media SF on some level, but that's not all bad. Occasional Science Fiction Chronicle essayist Paul Riddell has also written some insightful pieces about this matter, if anyone is interested.

I also was pleasantly (though I admit this is perhaps not the best word to use here, but I hope you know what I mean) surprised to see your piece on the World Trade Center attacks, esp. since I received Argentus only about a week after the tragedy. Kudos on your quick and thoughtful article. I don't know if I fully agree or disagree -- it's still too soon after the attack for me to have totally made up my mind what degree of response this act warrants (though I am convinced it needs a serious military response of some sort).

But on to happier insights: Patricia Sayre McCoy's piece was wonderfully uplifting, esp. for folks just starting out in the "biz," while Rich Horton's Millionaire essay serves as a nice companion piece to your Jeopardy magnum opus! All you need now are some SF fans who've been on Wheel of Fortune, The Price Is Right and a few others and you'll have your first Argentus spinoff -- "SF Fans Invade Game Shows!" Mike Resnick's Africa list was interesting -- nicely laid out, too.

All-in-all, a solid debut. Mazel Tov!! And thank you for asking for my contribution early on -- though I am hurt that you didn't threaten to hold your breath until you turned blue for me, as you did for Mike Resnick!  Seriously, I'm happy to be a part of Argentus, and look forward to many future issues.

All the best,

Jeff Berkwits

Dear Steven,

Thanks for sending me Argentus #1, which arrived in my mail this afternoon.

Some fine tuning is required on the visual packaging -- I'd lose the running head, which takes up space and isn't appropriate over article titles anyway, and that large gap at the bottom of page three was awkward -- but the contents appear solid, if not hugely exciting.

I was most interested in David Truesdale's piece, "Thoughts on the State of Short Science Fiction." But the piece belied its title and is apparently only the first of several -- perhaps a column will evolve. But inasmuch as my interest is more in SF magazines than in short SF, I read the piece with interest -- only to feel at the end that David had told me less than I'd hoped.

The comparison of prozine sales and circulation figures is something I used to do more avidly when I was myself editing one (or two) of them. It was always discouraging, because the numbers invariably went down every year. During my years with Amazing and Fantastic we typically sold 25,000 to 30,000 copies on the newsstands. (My publisher was not interested in encouraging subscriptions, so we had only 1,000 or 2,000 subscribers.) That was in the '70s, and those numbers were close to the bottom of viability even then. When Sol Cohen sold the magazines to his silent partner in 1978 it was because they'd been losing money for more than a year and he could no longer afford it. And that's with a rock-bottom budget for editorial and production.

For some reason David does not break out the subscriptions from the overall sales figures for Asimov's and Analog, but we can see that F&SF is now eking out its life with less than 5,000 newsstand sales, and Realms of Fantasy only 10,000. I doubt either Asimov's or Analog is selling that much better on the newsstands.

David does not ask any questions of these figures. Although RoF has much better display potential than F&SF, it sells only 5,000 more copies. Why? Well, David left out some other crucial figures from those Statements of Ownership:  overall copies printed. You take that number, subtract the subs, and that tells you how many copies are going out on the stands, from which you can derive the percentage of copies sold. And that tells the real story, because if F&SF is only shipping 10,000 copies, then they're selling 50% and that's good. But if they're shipping 20,000 copies then they're selling only 25% and that's bad. How many copies must RoF put on the stands to sell its 10,000? (On the other hand, David does not explore the financial gain RoF enjoys with its many pages of paid advertising -- which may well subsidize the unsold newsstand copies.) 

F&SF has been subscription-oriented for many years, going back to before I worked for that magazine (1963-67). F&SF used Publisher's Clearing House to sell at-cost subs, hoping to make money on the renewals. When a significant proportion of your sales are subs, you can sell a higher percentage of your total print run, which in the end determines your profitability. But at-cost sales simply subsidize your print run.

Let's throw in another factor: readership turnover. It was a given in publishing in the middle of the last century that your typical magazine had a readership turnover rate of three years. That is to say, most readers would give up a magazine after reading it for three years. (Fans and long-time readers were an insignificant percentage of any magazine's total readership and Didn't Count.) I doubt this has changed very much, and what it means is that if a magazine does not attract new readers and/or hold onto its overall readership for a longer period, its sales will fall off. This is why subscriptions are at best only a holding action: they don't bring in new readers, and reader attrition may well account for much of F&SF's subscription slippage.

The problem with going to subs is one which has vexed publishers ever since Hugo Gernsback tried it (and failed) with Wonder Stories in 1936. Ray Palmer tried it in the '60s without much greater success. Newsstand exposure is required to find new readers. But newsstand exposure is increasingly problematical -- the whole reason that fiction magazines have withered to almost nothing and with no remaining niche on the stands.

Look at the figures David quotes for F&SF: In 1992 it had 56,000 subscribers. Ten years later it was down to 25,600 subscribers -- a loss of over 50%. And in 1992 the Magazine was selling only 12,900 copies on the newsstands -- which has now shrunk to 4,400, a loss of two-thirds. This is not a good trend.

(Many of my editorial strategies with Amazing and Fantastic were designed to hold onto our readership longer. It was my belief that by more intimately involving the readers in the magazines I could hold onto them longer. Thus I encouraged reader participation both in my editorials -- which often responded at length to a reader's letter -- and the letter columns.)

The collapse of newsstand distribution has been a killer for marginal publications like SF magazines. This is due to several intertwined factors. Once, the neighborhood drugstore or candy store was the primary venue for newsstands outside the downtown sections of large cities. There you could find all the current comics and magazines and a good selection of paperback books. Now these newsstands, where they remain, have shrunk into the arbitrary retail outlets of distributors like ARA (who demand surcharges and kickbacks for placement). They have been replaced by specialty stores (usually catering to the comics and gaming crowd) and large record stores like Tower. They are no longer ubiquitous and no longer suck new young readers in with comic books -- readers who will graduate to pulp magazines in their teens and keep coming back regularly to find and buy what's new.

David did not mention the DNA Publications' little stable of quasi-prozines. I listened at MilPhil as Warren Lapine explained how he made money with tiny printings. His DIY setup may be the wave of the future. He never loses money.
But he operates mostly under the radar of national publishing and distribution. It's a major question whether
he can grow the circulations of his magazines beyond their present point without following the disasters which have
occurred to other small publishers who tried going national via a major distributor. (Typically they go from printing
5,000 or 10,000 copies and selling most of them to printing 75,000 to 100,000 copies and selling maybe 5% -- a crushing
financial blow.)

Distribution remains -- as it has been for 50 years now -- the key. Right now distribution on a national scale (in every supermarket) works only for the mega-magazines, the glossy non-fiction magazines. SF and mystery magazines (the
only remaining fiction magazines) are going more and more to "specialty" distribution into specialized stores -- a fragmentized marketplace. Nearly 50 years ago I suggested (in a fanzine) that prozines should go into the paperback
book format to survive. Despite a variety of anthology series (starting with Ballantine's STAR books), this has
never actually happened, although it may be the most viable way to wide-spread distribuition. That's because no one
has approached an anthology series As A Magazine. No one has invested one of these series with the personality of a
magazine or the continuity of a magazine. 

Well, that's more than I intended to write on that subject. I look forward to #2.

All best,
Ted

David Truesdale responds:

Fascinating stuff from Ted, as usual, and it'll be a great loc to begin a good lettercol for future issues. 

There are several reasons I didn't mention much of the stuff Ted asks about, the primary reason being I had originally set out to answer one and only one question--then got sidetracked immediately into the magazine stats I gave--all in support of the answer to my original question which I'll answer in my next piece. 

But I'll certainly look into the stats Ted wonders about, too (re overall print run vs. newsstand/display sales, etc.). 

It's also nice to know that Ted didn't argue with anything I wrote, only noted that he wished there had been more info. And there would have been if I'd been attempting to pen a more broad-sweeping piece. So I'll answer the question posed at the top of my column, then go on to explore some of what he wants to know, I guess. Okay with you? 

and Jeff Berkwits also responds:

I wanted to drop you a quick line in response to Ted White's closing comments in his recent Argentus LoC. He notes that, in terms of magazines going to the paperback format to survive, "no one has approached an anthology series As A Magazine. No one has invested one of these series with the personality of a magazine or the continuity of a magazine."

That's not entirely accurate. During the late 1960s/early 1970s, Forry Ackerman produced and edited (through Ace) the Perry Rhodan series. Say what you may about the quality of the writing, nearly every edition did contain an editorial, reviews, a letter column and some backup short stories: It was essentially the Perry Rhodan magazine in book format. And, since it lasted well over 100 "issues," I'd say it was quite successful. I agree that it is a format that current magazine publishers would be wise to at least consider.

Just adding my two cents...keep up the great work!

September 26, 2001

Dear Steven:

Many thanks for the first issue of Argentus. As I've done with many .pdf files that aren't too big, I've printed it out, and I've enjoyed it as I would with any other fanzine. Looks good...let's see what's inside.

First of all, and I didn't get a chance to say so online, congratulations on becoming a daddy, and congratulations on the three-book contract with DAW.

I used to pick up Asimov's, Analog and F&SF at my local SF bookstore...until the costs became prohibitive. The base costs were multiplied by the exchange rate and importation costs until each issue was priced around Can$6 to 8, or more. (I still buy Locus, at about close to Can$10 an issue.) As much as I like short fiction, especially in an anthology style, I couldn't justify the expenses. Magazines like Absolute Magnitude, SF Age and MZB's were either more expensive or simply not available, with the limited demand for them meaning the bookstore couldn't justify stocking so many different magazines.  (Unfortunately, magazines about media SF sell much better.) Myself, I can't think of anything more frustrating than gradually not being able to afford the hobby/interest you enjoy so much, and that's the situation I've found myself in over the past few years. We went to the Philadelphia Worldcon by shaving a day off either end; we enjoyed what we saw, but we weren't in town for either the opening or closing ceremonies. ConJosé is out of the question; thank Ghu Torcon will be in town, and even Noreascon 4 is a little questionable at this time.

Just recently, a man from Toronto became a five-time winner on Jeopardy!, making him one of the few Canadians to do that well. I tried out for Jeopardy! some years ago, and if I recall, no one from the tryout succeeded because of the questions...we were issued one of the standard questionnaires, full of questions about American history, geography, government, etc. Sure, Canadians are flooded with American culture, but most of the questions had answers most of us couldn't possibly have known. Afterwards, someone complained that the quiz was far too America-based, and Alex Trebek himself, a Canadian who got his start in broadcasting from the good old CBC, doing game shows and play-by-play of curling, responded, "Hey, what can we do, this is an American game show!" In the intervening years, I think the Jeopardy! contestant search crew has been in Toronto perhaps once more, and that's been it. 

It doesn't get enough publicity around here, but there is a company in Toronto that will recycle your old computers and peripherals. Of course, I can't remember where it is and what it's called. Given how much pressure on us there is to upgrade our computers, no matter how new they may be, such a service could not only provide inexpensive computers to non-profit organizations, but keep a lot of very old equipment out of our landfills.

September 11, 2001...another day that shall live in infamy. The world has largely closed ranks behind the USA after the WTC disaster, and something will and must happen. What will it be...I think Bush used the spectre of a traditional war to bring Americans together and gird them for action. That spectre has also brought even former enemies onside for a potential team effort, and the Taliban in Afghanistan must be quietly soiling themselves. I hope the US won't send its assorted massive firepower against a small country that looks like it's already lost several major battles. The fighting that is already underway is what's needed...tightening of security measures, upgrading of intelligence gathering, increased communications between governments and a heightened awareness of the excesses of terrorism. The unfortunate fallout from all this is the feeling that basic human rights may have to be compromised to some degree to ensure safety (some online are now saying that this Office of Homeland Security means the advent of an American Stasi), and the continent has been pushed into a full-blown recession. Perhaps the terrorists have achieved their goals in some ways. I have faint hopes that these attacks may force the US government to re-examine their Middle East policies, and treat Israel and its Arab neighbours a little more equally, and withdraw Israel's carte blanche to do as it will. Certainly, Israel needs support and protection, but anyone, let alone an Arab, would be frustrated if they were told they were always in the wrong, and a neighbour was always in the right.

Midwest Construction sounds constructive indeed. I remember our online conversations about including Ontario conventions, which are in the old Midwest Zone, because there used to be quite a working relationship between Toronto and Detroit conventions. Few fans now travel between the two cities to go to each other's conventions, and that's a shame. Sometimes, it's the weather, and sometimes, it's money, and for a few, there's such a difference in the actual management of the conventions, fans from one place don't like cons in the other. 

Torontans (?) are more than welcome, as are people from around the continent and even outside.  The focus of Midwest Construction is running local and regional cons.

I'll say RAE, BNC on the rest, and say thank you for a stellar first issue. I'll look forward to the next one.

Yours, Lloyd Penney

September 29, 2001

Dear Steven,

Thanks for the copy of Argentus #1. Overall, a very good first issue.

The decline of the prozines which David Truesdale discusses began back in the fifties. The early fifties saw the start of many SF magazines. In 1952, the decision by American Newspaper Corporation, the distributor for most of the magazines in the United States, to stop distributing pulp magazines led to their demise, even though some of them hung on for another couple years. Then in 1956-57 there was a flurry of new digest SF magazines. At the time, I was buying all or them. However, most of those new prozines had folded by 1960, and the trend has been downward ever since.

Other short fiction magazines were doing just as badly. The most common explanation is that paperback novels and anthologies forced the magazines off the newsstands and out of the market. In the long run, the digest format proved to be an unsuccessful adaptation of the pulp magazine. Tastes had changed, and people preferred buying a paperback novel to a short fiction magazine. The constant expansion of television during the fifties probably also had something to do with it. Television seems to be more of a substitute for short stories rather than novels. However, the total amount of time spent watching television in the United States has been on a continuous decline ever since the fifties, but it hasn’t led to any revival of short fiction magazines.

In recent decades, there may be another factor in the declining circulation of the magazines. Their readership may be dying off. People my age (58) or older started reading SF when most of it was in magazine form. So we continue to read the magazines. Another reason I keep reading the magazines is that I can sort of keep track of the short fiction field, because there isn’t that much of it. With novels, I have no idea what is going on. I read the Hugo nominees and a few other novels that people are talking about. In a practical sense, I don’t need any more science fiction. I already have enough of it in my house to fill all of my reading time for the remainder of my lifetime. Then again, when was I ever practical?

When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to know everything. By the time I was ten, I realized that wasn’t really possible. So I decided I wanted to know everything about science fiction at least. I’m not really sure when it happened, but I eventually realized that wasn’t possible either. Which leaves me murfling about vaguely and writing letters to fanzines.

Tom Whitmore’s comments on his plans for ConJosé come in an interesting position following your comments on the events of September 11 and their repercussions. It doesn’t take much of a futurist to imagine that ConJosé is going to have a smaller attendance than it would have had if these events hadn’t occurred. I imagine this will be true for most of the larger cons. How much of an impact will there be? Recent North American worldcons have been running between 5000 and 6000. (I don’t yet know the figures on Millennium Philcon.) Could ConJosé go down to 4000? Possibly. An attendance of 4000 should be livable with some budget cutting. I think I would guess at 3500 to 4000. (There are an awful lot of fans in California.) If attendance were to go down to 3000 or below, there would be some very definite problems.

It is going to take a number of years for the airline industry to recover to its previous level. Personally, I wasn’t planning on taking another airline flight until Toronto in 2003. Prior to September 11, my enthusiasm for airline travel was just about zero. It is somewhat lower than that now. I always get off a plane feeling like I have been stuffed in an automobile glove compartment for X number of hours. However, the airlines aren’t going to be losing any business from me in the next two years, because there wasn’t going to be any. I don’t know how I am going to feel in 2003, but the idea of driving cross country does seem rather appealing. What the heck, it’s only 2500 miles, and it would be a great chance to see some of the country. 

Yours truly,

Milt Stevens

Dear Steven,

Received the postcard in the mail about your zine and checked it out. Nicely done! Especially enjoyed Patricia Sayre McCoy's recounting of the writing of her first "professionally published" story, and I look forward to what else Dave Truesdale has to say regarding the state of short fiction in SF.

I found myself agreeing with several of Mike Resnick's opinions on the African films he considered the best ones, particularly "Zulu," "Born Free," "White Mischief," "Shaka Zulu," "The Wind and the Lion," and "Lawrence of Arabia." 

I'm not much for war movies, but "Zulu" was a wonderful character study, of the British soldiers as individuals and the Zulu warriors as a people. My favorite scene in "Zulu" has always been what I call the honor song that the Zulus sing to the British survivors before they leave the battlefield for the last time.

"Lawrence of Arabia" is just plain stunning. I've always admired Peter O'Toole's acting chops (and sighed over the clunkers he's done just to keep some money coming in), and simply enjoy watching Omar Sharif (some men are just scenic, that's all there is to it, and he's one of them, besides being a not-so-bad actor). Lawrence's ability to blend into the Arabic lifestyle as much as he did reminds me of the maverick characters in several of C.J. Cherryh's novels, particularly Sten Duncan in the Faded Sun novels. It's an ability that special-operations soldiers and undercover cops also have in common, and I've met several of the two latter types in my life. 

Much enjoyed Erik V. Olson's "The Five Throated Voice of Ghu" for the memories it brought back of my own visit to the Kennedy Space Center, and seeing the lunar landings on TV when I was a child. Sensawunda lives at the K!

Dan Kimmel's entry for the "Films Unmade" feature was so realistic that I wanted to go see it right away! Cronenburg would be an excellent choice for director. Though I haven't seen a lot of Adam Sandler's work, I've heard others speak well of him, so his casting isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility. And if Paul Verhoeven ever tries to make a film of Stars, I hope the ghost of Alfred Bester rises up to haunt him for the rest of his life. I'm not a Heinlein devotee, but I think that "Troopers" would have been better served by a director who wasn't trying to recreate WW2.

Hope the wait for the next ish won't be too long. We need more quality stuff like this!

Hi, Steve!

I just finished reading the first issue of Argentus. Very nice! I was impressed not only by the quality of the zine, but also by the sheer number of pros and pro-wanna-bees (as it were) who contributed to this first issue. What a way to begin pubbing! I have to ask (being new to the field) Is this your first zine? It doesn't read like it. What fannish experience do you have to have cultivated such 'connections'? (Yeah, I'm jealous.)

Officially, Argentus is my first 'zine.  I did do much of the work on the Chicon Program Participants' Book for Chicon 2000, but after I put together the first part it was more or less taken out of my hands and finished by publications.  I consider that to have been a dry run for Argentus, which was conceived earlier in 2000.  Fannish experience is simply being around and planning cons (mostly programming), which in and of itself only goes back a handful of years.

I'll try to favor you with a few comments, and additional bits of praise. To begin with, in "The Mine" you indicated that your wife was present. I understand that Elaine gave birth to Melanie Shira, back on August 26th. Congratulations to all!

If David A. Truesdale is reading this, I want to thank him for his study "Thoughts on the State of Short Science Fiction" (pt.1). I also want to ask where the sf serial "Weird Tales" stands in his classification of science fiction magazines. I'm particularly interested in hearing his answer to this, with respect to the SFWA's point of view. Would a short story published by Weird Tales count towards SFWA's guidelines for admittance to the association?

In any case, I'm quite anxious to read the continuation of the article. Thanks for the research and writing, and for the pubbing.

Patricia Sayre McCoy wrote that, "I had heard of MZB's terrible rejection letters, but this one was encouraging" I once submitted a story to her Sword and Sorceress series. Her response read (in its entirety, I think), "I haven't the hell of a clue what you're saying."

My favorite was simply "I don't see the point."

To Michael A. Andaluz, author of "Dumpster Diving and Conspiracy Theory", I send only a warning: This was funny but a great way to get arrested. Try putting out computer parts now, so labeled, and you might not enjoy the results. ;)

Tom Whitmore, I'm trying to learn the way to ConJosé. I'm preregistered at this point, and hope that I actually make it to the con. If I do, it will be only my third WorldCon, and the one furthest from my home. Is there a Concom mailing list which is open to the public? I was on MilPhil's Brain Trust list for the year prior to the con, and contributed a thought or two once or twice. I've also been on a similar list used by New York's I-Con. I find the conversations on lists like this fascinating, though I wouldn't say that I have much to offer in the way of advice. The most I've ever done is set up dealers' rooms and art shows, and help out at registration. 

Good luck on having no one complaint when the time comes. Should that happen, I believe you can take it as read that you're in a parallel universe. (And probably a nicer one, unless the capital is Stepford.)

Erik, all I'll say is that I've yet to get to the Kennedy Space Center, but your description helped me envision it a bit in my mind's eye. I particularly loved the section where you described the second by second countdown. Just reading it made my adrenaline gush! Thanks! (And, yes, again, I'm very jealous!)

You're jealous!  I arrived for the con the next day, having missed one of the few launches to actually go off on schedule.

Oh, and I'm glad you finally got around to explaining why it was Tom's fault and gave the name of the convention you were attending. I was about to throttle you.

I'm going to combine my comments about Mike Resnick's "The Best African Movies" with my comments about the "Mock Section: Films Unmade" 

To begin with I liked the listing partially because it agrees rather closely with the one inside my own head. In addition there were a couple of movies listed of which I'd never heard, "Kitchen Toto" and "Trader Horn" for example. I'll have to see if I can find them. Thanks for the Info! In the Northern African section, I applaud your inclusion of "The Wind and the Lion". When it was in theatres, I think I went to see it about four times. I used to hum the music and envision the Raisuli sweeping past the kneeling boy to snatch up his rifle. For me, one of the great visual moments in film.

There's one movie you didn't list, nor do I blame you. It doesn't belong in the exalted company of the others on those pages! But this brings me to "Films Unmade." Believe it or not, someday I would dearly love to see a remake of "Hatari!", without the racism and with more attention to the battle to save endangered species. I believe a sensitive, well-acted and directed remake would have the capacity to climb into your best African movies of all time. If I could finance one (non-Sf/fantasy) movie fully, that would be it. I'm not going to suggest who I would want in what part, the name of the director, etc. Aside from the -essential- caveats I listed above, I would only ask that the score be retained, though re-recorded of course. 

One last comment, as I draw this to a close. If I were to suggest an SF/fantasy movie to add to "Films Unmade", it would involve bringing Ken Grimwood's Replay to the screen. Swiftly: director and screenwriter - M Night Shyamalan, actors: Anthony Hopkins as 'Jeff Winston', John Malkovich as his best friend (as an adult), and Annette Bening as his 'first' wife. Cinematographer - the one who did "Traffic" (sorry, name unknown). The only flaw? Any attempt whatsoever to depict the movie that changed the world.

Thanks for the read, Steven! When's that number two coming out?

SherryT

With luck, issue two will come out in 2002 (Ag2 in '02!).

Thanks for the firstish of Argentus.  It has the look of a labor of love about it.

If you would like some doodlings (cover?), please let me know, but I need to have a better feel for your “goals” first.  Thish has the flavor of a semi-prozine and seems to have a definite sercon bent.  Of course, I have absolutely no idea if you have mapped out intentions or just let the good stuff roll.

I could be mistaken (and often am), but I believe at least several of the books-to-film entries actually have film options on them—aha, could you be the harbinger of films to come?

As purely personal taster—I find the line and title across each page to be a bit distracting and expected it to announce a new article each time I saw it—perhaps somewhat smaller, if you wish to keep it—or perhaps only a partial page and/or maybe at the bottom of the page?  Again—just personal taste and I do realize this is your first sortie into fanpubbing.  I have never actually been an editor in the regular sense—but I have published several one-shot zines and an apazine loong time ago now—so I am not truly qualified to make (ahem) editorial comments.  I firmly adhere to the dictum of pub your ish—so you make Argentus what you want it to be and ignore all the rest of us out here!

The title line will not be appearing in future issues of Argentus.

Congrats on jumping into the deep end of the pool—have a ghreat swim!

Thanks for thish and just let me know, so I may be able to help in any way I can.

‘bye

Sheryl Birkhead

Dear Mr. Silver:

Thank you for Argentus #1.  I assume you considered using grey (in lieu of silver) paper for the cover.  It most reminded me of Otherworlds, or possibly The Mentor from Australia in the sense of being a compilation of pieces, worthy enough in themselves, without much to tie them into a unified whole.  It is not clear whether you intend a letter column in future.

My intention is to post LoCs on the website as well as printing some, if not all, in future issues of Argentus.

Concerning your editorial (p.15):  There is a dictum in military thought that generals/admirals are always preparing to fight the last war--see the enormous waste of effort in the 1930's-early 1940's building battleships.  On the other hand, there is another, unwritten rule which says that the military officer who, in a crisis, does something--anything--even if it turns out to have been the wrong thing--is less culpable than one who sits on his hands and dithers.  Also, "Engage the enemy" is almost always a lawful order.

I identified, in a nostalgic sense, with Patricia Sayre McCoy's article.  Not entirely the account of one's First Sale.  However, I had a similar instance in having picked a minor detail out of a published book and written that story.  It was, as it happened, one of the early Witch World books.  Although the story was never published, I gave Andre Norton a copy of it at the 1992 Worldcon and she later said she enjoyed it, so I cannot count it entirely a wasted effort.

On past performance, ConJosé will turn out pretty much like any other Worldcon, no matter what Tom Whitmore does ot doesn't do.  The process has acquired a degree of momentum, such that the committee can't majorly mess up even if they try, and even if they do, a lot of people will have a good time anyway.  (New Orleans springs to mind, though New Orleans has an unfair advantage--you really have to work at it, not to have a good time in New Orleans.)

I just couldn't make much at all out of the article by Michael Andaluz.

The mock film reviews seem like a good idea that didn't quite come off.

Sincerely,

E.B. Frohvet

P.S.  I enclose my current issue in trade.  FYI, I have a few copies of my preceding issues #'s 20, 21, and 22.  I also have a few copies of my one-shot We're All African Anyway which is a compilation of my eight article series on black characters in science fiction.  If you or any one you know might be interested in that sort of thing.

Dear Steven,

And welcome to the wonderful world of fanac.  Expect a less cherry welcome from the Seattle-Falls Church-Las Vegas triangle, where they will deliver a scorching KTF review, complaining that “They Don’t Do It No More Like They Did In the Good Old Days of the Sixties,” then go back to complaining that there is no new blood.  Don’t say you weren’t warned.

I once read a friend’s old copies of the old old Science Fiction Review, from the late sixties (talking about the G.O.D.o.t.S.) and one of the things Geis had there was a statistical listing of the decline in circulation of the prozines.  So this is a long, on-going process, it dates back to well before “the late 1970s.”

As Geis pointed out in another context, what happened to the littler markets was that they were replaced by television.  And in turn, without feeder markets, the main markets are slowly declining, as the venues for working up the writer’s writing skills have vanished and you see that there is a profound impetus for the market to shrink.

Now there are many many smaller markets, still.  Read Tangent and see.  But the problem with those small-press magazines is that they pay poorly, if at all, are poorly distributed, infrequent and irregular, and then to die unexpectedly.

Of course, David Truesdale, who wrote the article about magazines and markets, has more than a passing knowledge of Tangent, and the editor of Argentus has, on occasion, published reviews in Tangent.

After those glory days on “Jeopardy!,” I suppose something like “I Wanted to Be a Millionaire” was inevitable.  The problem is you have to be cute.  On the other hand, my former boss did tell me I would be his lifeline if he ever went on that show.

The shuttle may be small and slow, but there have been six or seven launches a year for the past ten years.  This is only undesirable because we were originally promised a launch every two weeks.  Nobody considered what would be required to be up in order to need a launch every two weeks.

For further information on the movie “Zulu” and its background, see www.rorkesdrift.com.  One of the more appealing pictures on the site is that of Sir Stanley Baker, producer and star of the movie, at the grave of Colonel J.R.M. Chard, V.C., the person he played in the movie.

Be careful which version of “King Solomon’s Mines” you get.  While the 1950 version is one thing, the 1985 version, with Richard Chamberlain, is quite the other.  A friend went to see it but was warned off by the ticket-seller.  That says something.

The Internet Movie Database includes the fascinating fact that the first release of “Trader Horn” included a prologue with Horn and Cecil B. DeMille discussing how authentic the movie was.  This has been deleted.

“Mountains of the Moon,” of course, can be considered the shared-world prequel to Philip José Farmer’s "Riverworld"
 series.

“Shaka Zulu” is available on DVD.  The full thing—9 hours.

 Joseph T. Major

Dear Steven-

I agree with Mike Resnick that "Zulu" is one of the best war movies ever made.  The tactical genius of the officer in charge came from his different perspective of the conflict because he was an engineer.

When you mentioned April 19 with September 11 and December 7 as a day of infamy, I had to think.  The Oklahoma City bombing I think will become a mere footnote because it was an example of domestic violence which made America seem dysfunctional.  We saw the enemy and he was us.

Best Wishes,

Teddy

Steven,

Thanks for Argentus 1. I find it somewhat amazing at the broad spectrum of articles you managed to put together. I have never been good at eliciting articles from others and it doesn't fit my personality much to troll after them very actively. I wish you the best of luck in keeping up the quality and quantity in future issues.

I am intrigued by the concept of Midwest Construction, but my attendance will depend on other scheduling that I may not know for sometime. One semi-related issue that I stew on periodically is whether the Midwest could support like 
the roving Deep South Con.

Henry L. Welch

The idea of a roving Midwestern regional (akin to Deep South, Westercon, etc.) is intriguing.  Perhaps something Midwest Fannish Conventions, Inc., the parent organization for Midwest Construction, can consider at some point in the future.  Do you want to host the first one?

Hello Steven

It sounds like Argentus was a Real Soon Now project for a while. I find that my non-APA zines always turn out that way; oh, it'll be out RSN! A note before I continue: I found the running headers on all of the pages rather distracting. I was never able to figure out whether I was on the same page as before or not; it led me rather astray.

Short fiction magazine sales going down -- perhaps because people have lower attention spans? I know that amongst the people I know if you give them the choice between an anthology (or collection) of excellent short stories or a huge doorstopper fantasy, most often they'll choose the latter. They don't like short stories because they're "too short". If they mean in the sense that they're not padded out with descriptions that ultimately makes everything more boring, they have a point. But ... I, for one, like them short.

Somehow this doesn't translate over to the net, though. I find that although they don't like short stories in books, they're quite willing to sit down in front of a computer and them. Maybe because folks don't see that they're getting their money's worth from short stories and they are from a novel? Regardless, both books and magazines cost a fortune in Australia (mass market paperbacks about AU$18 and the magazines somewhere around the AU$12-18 range).

McCoy's piece on her road to getting published was very cute. When I sold my first (and only, and very forgettable) story I was very much the same in jumping about in joy. Though it only took a month to see the results of the sale, rather than the time it did her.

If only becoming a millionaire was as easy as getting oneself on a television show. Winning money/prizes shows are so incredibly popular, although I never could see why. I don't mind the trivia sort of games when playing them with people -- though not often, as everyone else finds them boring. Funnily enough, they're the ones who like to watch the shows ... maybe that's significant. 

I wonder if Andaluz's rubbish got picked up by the city works. Recently our wheelie bin got stolen (probably by youthful pranksters to use in some setting-afire scheme) and we had to call to get a new one -- which arrived within the day, quite thankfully. Only once did the rubbish trucks *not* pick up our stuff, and a phone call to the local government had them come by the next day to do it.

The movies Resnick mention sound interesting, though I've never seen any of them in their entirety; parts of "The Gods Must Be Crazy II" and "The African Queen," but mostly just seeing a few minutes here and there while walking past the television to get something to drink. I thought that "White Hunter, Black Heart" was an Australian movie about a police officer and something about Aboriginal Australians? Perhaps I am getting my titles confused.

Firstly in the mock movies section, for "Blood Music" ... Adam Sandler is *wrong*. It'd be just wrong to see him in any film, especially one based on a novel by Greg Bear. Personally I don't find the fascination with him of understanding.  The rest were fairly intriguing in that car-crash sort of way.

I liked the illos. Lovely work, and of a sufficiently high resolution that printing them out would probably result in a nice finish. Not that I'd print the zine out because of not having a printer. But if I did. Anyhow, it was a good issue and an enjoyable read.

cheers

Erika

Dear Steven

Thanks for the postcard notification - I downloaded and printed out Argentus One. I found much of the contents interesting. I particularly enjoyed the rundown on the current magazines by David Truesdale and Mike Resnick's guide to movies about Africa, many of which I haven't seen. 

Among the things that I thought were not as interesting as they could have been, was Tom Whitmore on the Worldcon - I wish that he could have found more original or penetrating or revealing things to say about ConJosé and his relationship with it. 

Rich Horton was entertaining on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" (others have written on "Jeopardy," did you know?), but what I retained from his article was his mention of watching a softball game in which the ball was twelve inches across, but "bound in something like cloth, more like the 16 inch balls generally used in Chicago."  I imagine a softball in my hand from games played here in Seattle, and I can't picture it being a foot or more across. My grip will fit nicely around a four-to-five inch ball. Could Rich have meant a soccer ball? 

My reminiscences of Jeopardy appeared in three issues of File 770 last year and can also be found on-line.  The 12 or 16-inches of a softball refer to the circumference, not the diameter.  Using everyone's favorite equation to calculate circumference, it becomes apparent that these balls would have diameters of about 4 and 4.5 inches.

So let me know when the next issue comes out. 

Jerry Kaufman

In response to some comments I should mention the reason for my choices:

1.) My dream has been to see David Cronenberg direct this movie [Blood Music] although I have no idea if he ever would or whom (if anyone) holds the movie rights. However I have interviewed him a few times, and back around the time of "Dead Ringers" (1988) suggested to him that it's a project he might take on. (I assured him I had no financial interest and was not related to Greg Bear.) I don't recall his expressing an opinion on the book and I don't even know if he had read it that point, but what I remembered was his response that I was not the first person to suggest it to him. So apparently I'm not alone in believing it to be an ideal marriage of novel and filmmaker.

2.) I had to laugh at the person who said Adam Sandler would be "wrong" for my imaginary film version. This was a deliberate choice on my part precisely because I share the reader's antipathy for this overrated and undertalented performer. The joke was that this was going to be his bid to be taken seriously, just as Jim Carrey took a chance on "The Truman Show" (which I referenced in the review). Since I have actually had to endure all of Sandler's films (my favorite moment is the one in which Bob Barker beats the living daylights out of him) this was my bid to exorcise this particular demon.

Dan Kimmel

SS:

Very good first issue! Particularly like Resnick on African films, & quite agree--I'd seen 80% of his list.

I was most taken with the movie reviews of Blood Music etc. I'd like to see a Heinlein done right for once; maybe Stranger? I'm going through the throes of Fox turning my novel Eater into a 4 hr miniseries and the pain may someday equal the gain, but now overmasses it...

Gregory Benford

Greetings Steven ~

Thanks so much for including me our your mail list for this first issue of Argentus.  Lots of good reading in here, and in the hopes I can maintain my corner of the mail list, along with what will most likely be a totally inadequate loc here, I'll enclose four brand new 21st century fillos that I hope you might be able to use in a future issue.

I find it fascinating that, after gaining so much attention by your own report of your game-show activities, in the first issue of your own fanzine yet another fan passes on their game-show adventures.  Is this a theme to see in future issues?  I notice Comedy Central just started up a new one, "Beat the Geek," that opens up all sorts of possibilities for fannish participation.

I also loved Erik Olson's footnote-heavy article.  I've never had so much fun jumping around a page to follow the flow of an article before.

The fake movie reviews were also great, and interesting to see so much negative reviewing!  But I guess it's more fun to visualize what Hollywood is likely to do, then to simply write "Hollywood finally got it right in this perfect adaptation of my favorite SF novel."  And geez, I wonder why everyone is picking on this Verhoeven guy?  Oh, yeah, now I remember!

Keep on pubbing, please!

stay happy ~

Brad W. Foster

Dear Steven,

Thanks for Argentus.

As it happens I just picked up Lester del Rey's World of Science Fiction (1979), which in the course of discussion ponders the boom and bust of s-f magazines a few decades ago.  "To put this in perspective," as David Truesdale says in his article for you on a like topic today, I offer my point of view as a customer.  I like good writing.  Campbell and Boucher, our two greatest, did so much because they brought people to write well.  How we credit or blame everything else!

I've written a lot about s-f conventions.  Dean Gahlon of Minneapolis says, "Con committees don't just re-invent the wheel, they re-invent the square wheel."  Tom Whitmore, current bearer of the Worldcon torch, has said perhaps even more wisely, "Concoms think too much about how a thing is made, and not enough about how it will be used."  I see cons as a kind of artform.  I love them."

Your fan,

John Hertz

Dear Steven;

Issue one of a fanzine.  And with familiar names on the cover.  I see it's by a convention program planner and anthologist.  It's always interesting to compare a man's anthologies to his fanzine, and I'll look for those titles on the stand.  If I don't find them, perhaps the SF Book Club will pick up one of them.

Don't look too soon.  It now looks like none of them will be published until at least the first quarter of 2003.

David Truesdale's article reminds me of having a conversation with someone on a topic neither person has quite been intending to discuss, with the further discrepancy that the matter of interest to me is how few magazines there are, which doesn't look good for the field, whereas the writer is interested in whether science fiction can be sold.  It's a businessman's viewpoint.  I like to see the field visible myself, not absorbed into another culture.

Erik Olson's article was first-class.  He has an interesting and still-timely topic and the right approach to it.  I read this with a good deal of enjoyment, and hope he continues to write for you and that I continue to receive Argentus.

I also like your mock reviews feature.  "The Stars My Destination" is a good choice for it; its author [Bob Blackwood] seemed to visualize it as becoming a movie, judging by the way he opened the story, but although there have been a few films like Bester's books, there never has been a film specifically made fro one, although back when they had one of The Demolished Man in the making with José Ferrer to star in it.  As I understand it, it collapsed because Ferrer decided he didn't want the role.

Dear Steven

Thank you again for sending me the Argentus!

I see that the magazine is also available as a pdf-file. I'd be more than happy to print the (hopefully!) several Argentusies-to-come with my own printer, so if possible please keep me on the notify-list!

My copy looked a bit battered, apparently curious mailperson(s) were forced to check what kind of subversiveness was coming to NJ from Illinois. And then the top-most staple just dropped. Well, these things happen. I nailed a new, big staple instead. 

Liked the cover, thou the missing tips of the right wing were a bit off. All in all you had nice if very little illos there. I guess that was more the matter of availability than editorial policy? 

My favourite piece in the zine was the Mock section. Very nice reviews, well done and very real. I'd like to see several of those, if not all of them. I have one question though: Do all American SF-fans think that Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers" was a bad film? Or just a bad adaptation? I tried to read the original novel, but after 30 pages of jumping and dull dialogue, I had to quit. Maybe I'll check that one out later, who knows. The film however, is certainly one of the best SF-films ever made. As a satirical take on fascism and specisism, it's stunning. I have discussed about the movie with several American SF-fans and only one agreed with me that the film is a parody, albeit a serious commentary on the side too. 

We're having a smallish discussion on one of the Finnish SF-boards about short stories. Very few seem to be reading new short stories and thus, SF/F-magazines. In Finland, where we have no commercial SF/F-magazines, the current (and very different) semiprozine-market is as follows: the biggest one (Portti - The Gateway) is mainly a short story -magazine, whereas the rest publish a story or two per ish. If that. The publishing houses haven't translated a short story collection almost at all of late - last year there was a single Japanese SF-collection translated. But I digress.

I second Mike Resnick's notion regarding "Zulu." It truly is a great movie, not only as a war or Africa -genre one, but as a film per se. I'm somewhat less enthusiastic about "Lawrence of Arabia," but my wife - the PhD in spe on British History - considers it as one of the All Time Best. 

I have now seen quiz-shows several times in four countries (USA, Finland, Sweden and England) and I must say that on the basic level, American shows tend to be the easiest of the lot. Unless the questions are about "Gilligan's Island" or baseball or other specifically "Americana"-matters, then I readily submit and display my ignorance. 

I think that I should do pretty well in most of the quiz-shows. My biggest reason for not doing a game show (or even trying to get into one) is the possibility of a total and utter failure and thus a huge embarrasment. We Finns have this deeply-rooted fear of embarrassing ourselves. I couldn't possibly face my family or friends after a shamefully dismal performance where I wouldn't be able to name three of the seven Dwarfs or the capital of Lichtenstein (Jörö, Unelias and Ujo, and Vaduz) on the first round. I have talked about this with several friends of mine and they tend to share the notion. Even the most outgoing-ones have qualms about public humiliation. Strange and certainly very silly. I guess I'll continue to be a couchpotato-genius. 

About the lay-out: one learns best by trial-and-error so I suppose that in time you will find the legendary "Your Style", that'll raise Awe and Praise! Argentus is a solid, clear looking fanzine with the best content already in: the Writing!  Rest will follow. After 80+ odd issues of different little fanzines, perzines and the odd bigger fish in the barrel I still wistfully remember the early times when people were enthusiastic and productive, if not all that brilliant; but ready to Do things instead of lazily sitting on their bums and occasionally delivering a dazzling piece of geniusness which'll barely fill a page...

I liked Argentusand would very much like to hear from you again! I'm afraid I have no idea of any cons or any other remembrances of the year ‘73, since I was barely learning to drop the iron from ironing board to my head (thank you dad for your lightning reflexes!), but if the sudden Inspiration takes over instead of mere perspiration, I'd love to contribute. 

Ta! And all the best,

Jukka Halme

WAHF:

Paghat the Ratgirl, Joyce Scrivener, Mike Scott (who helpfully pointed out that I misspelled Plokta on the Argentus links page).

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