As I mentioned a while back, I have been given a couple of program slots at Worldcon. One of them is rather interesting, but it may not happen, depending on whether or not the Denvention 3 folks can get the necessary equipment and people together.
I was asked if I knew anyone who was competent with the use of a mimeo duplicator, because D3 wanted to do a demonstration of how fanzines used to be made in the “good old days” before blogging and efanzines.com. Having published a mimeo magazine for ten years, I figured that I was competent to help with this and volunteered. But I am by no means good at everything to do with mimeo. In particular I cannot draw on a stencil to save my life. (Well, I cannot draw to save my life, but I’m not even safe tracing on a stencil.) So I was really hoping to find someone who is good at that sort of thing to help out. Even if you are only good at making pictures with typing, it would help.
Furthermore, D3 tells me that they are not having much luck getting hold of the equipment. So if anyone knows where we can get hold of a mimeo duplicator and the necessary bits and pieces to actually make a fanzine (typewriter, ink, paper, corflu) within reasonable transport distance of Denver we’d all be very grateful. Thank you!
Will the smell be reporduced?
You can’t do a real demo without the smell.
Of course if all you want is to sniff corflu we do have the make the usual warnings about addiction, risk to health and all that.
Smmmmmmeeeeeeehhhhhhhhh
Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh
Health risk? If Widner and Speer endorse corflu-sniffing, everyone will be doing it!
I have been thinking about your quest for stencil artists and I am alarmed to say that everyone I knew who (1) could do it and (2) I might have talked into it is dead.
Does Lee Gold ever turn up at LASFS these days? I know that A&E used to have some good stencil art. It being an APA, all sorts of people may have contributed, but she might know where to find some of them (not in graveyards).
Stencil artists still among us include Ross Chamberlain (who did a 4-color cover for Idea, complete with shading plates and cross-hatching that aligned perfectly with the differently-colored outlines of the figures. He’s brilliant. Also at least two of this year’s FanArtist Hugo nominees: Steve Stiles and Taral. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brad Foster has the skills. I bet Ken Fletcher and Reed Waller would do fine if handed the tools. Ted White is among the fanzine editors with excellent stencilling skills — often art was produced by the fanzine editor tracing it from the original onto the stencil.
Alas, I don’t think any of these folks will be in Denver. Frankly, though, any artist could have an interesting time experimenting with the medium. Pull together some stylii, ask Ross Chamberlain to write up some tips about techniques that work (and which ones to avoid), and turn any of the artists present loose. We had a hand-stenciling demo at the Toronto Corflu and even the non-artists like me were able to produce some interesting things.
I don’t know of anyone in the Denver area with the equipment. Jeff Schalles has a good bunch of it in Minnesota, including boxes of stencils, electro-stencils and more. That’s a long way to ship, though. It’d make a great demo, though, especially with a slip-sheeter hooked up to the mimeograph.
I have a bit of Fibertone paper in the basement, and can probably find some stylii. At the very least, I can bring along some mimeographed examples of hand-stenciled art. The best small professional project I ever had was showing a bunch of the art guys at Fallon ad agency examples of the techniques possible, then running a bunch of mimeo and ditto pages of an ad campaign for Citi. They’d searched in 3 states to find someone with mimeo skills and equipment. 🙂
Thanks Geri, that was fabulous. I’m afraid I don’t know any of the people you mention except Taral by more than just name recognition, but hopefully the D3 programming folks will be onto this.
Can we assume that you’d like to help with the demo if we can get the equipment together?
Cheryl, yes, I’d enjoy helping with the demo if it comes together and the timing fits in with my other commitments there. The D3 folks are welcome to be in touch for contact info if they want it to get in touch with Ross, Jeff, or any of the other folks I mentioned.
this is a bit after the fact, but maybe some people are still paying attention. photos from denvention 3 are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/17410521@N08/sets/72157606843589488/ .
I only stumbled on this thread searching for “fibertone paper” and recognized Cheryl’s name. I assume Geri is the one in the purple velvet?
Yes, that’s us. Glenn told me the photos were up, but didn’t provide a link, and I haven’t had time to hunt it down.