Now I've started rummaging around among my old books and stuff, I can't stop. I have here, for instance, a copy of the Wark Annual for 1979. It's another Ro Pardoe production, and - like all her publications - chock full of goodies. It's actually famous (or notorious) for the article partially reproduced above, entitled 'Duck, You Suckers!', in which Joseph Nicholas delivered a devastating broadside against the amateurish standards of fantasy fanzines. Anyone who thinks the Good Old Days meant higher standards of critical insight, or even basic literacy, might care to think again. Most of what Nicholas said then is still applicable. The only difference is that, instead of photocopied 'zines, the chosen medium of half-baked twaddle is the blog (ahem). I must try harder...
Oh, and the cracking illustration of Medusa (or so I assume it to be) was the work of Dave Carson.
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