Potrzebie
Friday, September 06, 2013
From Dick Lupoff's early 1960s Xero, here is Lin Carter's delightful updating of Gilbert & Sullivan. I chose to illustrate this with a Gilbert cartoon. He used "Bab" as his cartoon signature. Thanks to Robert Lichtman for the scan.
Labels: bab, gilbert, lin carter, lupoff, xero
¶ 4:03 PM 0 comments
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Early Ebert
Last week saw the publication of Roger Ebert's memoir, Life Itself, not to be confused with Elaine Dundy's memoir, Life Itself! (2001).
In the book, Ebert recalls his long ago interest in science fiction fanzines and writes, "I have always been convinced that the culture of fanzines contributed crucially to the formative culture of the early Web and generated models for websites and blogs. The very tone of the discourse is similar, and like fanzines, the Web took new word coinages, turned them into acronyms, and ran with them."
Here are some of Ebert's fanzine contributions, the poems "Contention" and "My Last Annish", both from Dick Lupoff's Xero (1960-63), which won a Hugo Award in 1963.
"Contention" is illustrated by Sylvia White, then the wife of writer-editor Ted White. For Xero's articles on comic books, Sylvia skillfully transferred comic book artwork to mimeograph stencils. As art director of Xero, I described to Larry Ivie how I wanted a drawing of Ted White standing next to his mimeo machine. Larry quickly did a pencil sketch which I later inked and then transferred to mimeo stencil. (Several people are currently trying to locate Larry Ivie. Does anyone know his whereabouts? His last known address was in Millbrae, California. Someone who went to his house recently reported it was empty.)
Metropolitan Mimeo was the name of Ted's shop on West 10th Street, where he produced fanzines along with occasional jobs from Greenwich Village locals during the early 1960s.
The copy of "My Last Annish" here is courtesy of Trap Door editor Robert Lichtman, who writes, "Roger seems to have had a lot of poetry published in various fanzines over the years, especially in Yandro (but also more appearances in Xero). He was a book reviewer for my first fanzine, Psi-Psi, from 1959 to 1961. His first nostalgia essay about his childhood Princess Theater appeared there, too. He published two issues of a dittoed fanzine, Stymie, circa 1959-60. I have the second issue--most contributions are by him." Ebert mentions both Stymie and Yandro in Life Itself.
To read Lichtman's Trap Door, go here.
Larry Ivie also did science fiction illustrations. Here's one illustrating Fred Saberhagen's "The Long Way Home" in Galaxy Science Fiction (June 1961).
Last week saw the publication of Roger Ebert's memoir, Life Itself, not to be confused with Elaine Dundy's memoir, Life Itself! (2001).
In the book, Ebert recalls his long ago interest in science fiction fanzines and writes, "I have always been convinced that the culture of fanzines contributed crucially to the formative culture of the early Web and generated models for websites and blogs. The very tone of the discourse is similar, and like fanzines, the Web took new word coinages, turned them into acronyms, and ran with them."
Here are some of Ebert's fanzine contributions, the poems "Contention" and "My Last Annish", both from Dick Lupoff's Xero (1960-63), which won a Hugo Award in 1963.
Metropolitan Mimeo was the name of Ted's shop on West 10th Street, where he produced fanzines along with occasional jobs from Greenwich Village locals during the early 1960s.
The copy of "My Last Annish" here is courtesy of Trap Door editor Robert Lichtman, who writes, "Roger seems to have had a lot of poetry published in various fanzines over the years, especially in Yandro (but also more appearances in Xero). He was a book reviewer for my first fanzine, Psi-Psi, from 1959 to 1961. His first nostalgia essay about his childhood Princess Theater appeared there, too. He published two issues of a dittoed fanzine, Stymie, circa 1959-60. I have the second issue--most contributions are by him." Ebert mentions both Stymie and Yandro in Life Itself.
To read Lichtman's Trap Door, go here.
Larry Ivie also did science fiction illustrations. Here's one illustrating Fred Saberhagen's "The Long Way Home" in Galaxy Science Fiction (June 1961).
Labels: dick lupoff, larry ivie, robert lichtman, roger ebert, sylvia white, tachyon, xero
¶ 9:07 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Xero 9
At last a color scan of the cover art I did for Xero 9, previously seen here in black and white. Click to enlarge. The cover is posted here to as a correction and clarification, since it was reprinted in The Best of Xero (Tachyon, 2004) with a caption crediting another artist. It was created by dripping rubber cement on an illustration board, letting it dry, covering it with India ink, pulling up the rubber cement, drawing in the white areas (with a bit of Wally Wood influence evident) and smoothing on some Zip-a-tone. Then it was printed on red dayglo paper. Apparently I had some notion of integrating the Xero logo with the art.
At last a color scan of the cover art I did for Xero 9, previously seen here in black and white. Click to enlarge. The cover is posted here to as a correction and clarification, since it was reprinted in The Best of Xero (Tachyon, 2004) with a caption crediting another artist. It was created by dripping rubber cement on an illustration board, letting it dry, covering it with India ink, pulling up the rubber cement, drawing in the white areas (with a bit of Wally Wood influence evident) and smoothing on some Zip-a-tone. Then it was printed on red dayglo paper. Apparently I had some notion of integrating the Xero logo with the art.
Labels: dayglo, dick lupoff, tachyon, wood, xero
¶ 5:02 PM 0 comments
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Xero Gravity
In 1960 I met Dick and Pat Lupoff and soon found myself working closely with them as the art director of their publication Xero. Dick calls Xero a "journal of popular culture" in this July 13, 2004 panel discussion on KUSP radio (88.9 in Santa Cruz, California). The other panelists are Jeremy Lassen (Night Shade Books), author Kage Baker (In the Garden of Iden), Pat Lupoff (children's book buyer for Cody's Books), Marty Halpern (Golden Gryphon), Jacob Weisman (Tachyon Publications) and moderator Rick Kleffel (The Agony Column).
Dick gave Xero a unique format, inspired by the Ace Doubles. One side of Xero targeted the science fiction community, both fans and professionals. Flip it over, and the other side was devoted to vintage comic books. It was a pioneering effort since almost no serious studies of comic books existed at that time. Xero went on to win a Hugo Award in 1963, and its articles on comics were later collected in the book All in Color for a Dime (Ace, 1970).
Above is a cover I did for Xero 9. I'm posting it here to clarify, since it was recently reprinted in The Best of Xero (Tachyon, 2004) with the caption crediting another artist. This was created by dripping rubber cement on a board, letting it dry, covering with India ink, pulling up the rubber cement and then drawing in the white areas. It was printed on red dayglo paper.
In 1960 I met Dick and Pat Lupoff and soon found myself working closely with them as the art director of their publication Xero. Dick calls Xero a "journal of popular culture" in this July 13, 2004 panel discussion on KUSP radio (88.9 in Santa Cruz, California). The other panelists are Jeremy Lassen (Night Shade Books), author Kage Baker (In the Garden of Iden), Pat Lupoff (children's book buyer for Cody's Books), Marty Halpern (Golden Gryphon), Jacob Weisman (Tachyon Publications) and moderator Rick Kleffel (The Agony Column).Dick gave Xero a unique format, inspired by the Ace Doubles. One side of Xero targeted the science fiction community, both fans and professionals. Flip it over, and the other side was devoted to vintage comic books. It was a pioneering effort since almost no serious studies of comic books existed at that time. Xero went on to win a Hugo Award in 1963, and its articles on comics were later collected in the book All in Color for a Dime (Ace, 1970).
Above is a cover I did for Xero 9. I'm posting it here to clarify, since it was recently reprinted in The Best of Xero (Tachyon, 2004) with the caption crediting another artist. This was created by dripping rubber cement on a board, letting it dry, covering with India ink, pulling up the rubber cement and then drawing in the white areas. It was printed on red dayglo paper.
Labels: ace, dick lupoff, jacob weisman, kage baker, pat lupoff, santa cruz, xero
¶ 9:52 AM 1 comments
