crudzine n.

Well, seems this guy Clements wants to advertise some sort of crudzine called Fandom Speaks, but hasn't provided any copy for the ad.

Greetings, oh brethren. Under the aegis of the most pious editor of this journal, we herewith inaugurate a section devoted to the study and lore of the Holy Writs (known to the faithful as the prozines), the Apocryphal Writings and Commentary (known to the initiate variously as the fanzines, the crud[-]zines, and the death-trap of fen), and the sacred field of sciencefiction and fantasy in general.

So... darned if we’re going to rear up on our hind legs and slam the crudzines. Even if they are loaded with material so trite, naive or just plain bad as to make your flesh crawl. For some young ’un may just have found out what stf and fandom are all about and be burning to spread the Word, and far, far be it from us to discourage him in any way! He’ll do it better, later on.

The zine of an editor is always dear to his heart. In most cases he puts forth his supreme effort into his magazine. Sometimes, because of lack of experience and knowledge of the type of reproduction he is using, the typical novice or neo-faned editor winds up with what is cruelly termed, a ‘crudzine.’ I say ‘cruelly termed’, because no matter how bad the actual zine is physically, it is the thought and work put into it that counts, not so much what it looks like.

From the strictly limited viewpoint of the archivist, each and every fanzine, including the veriest crudzine, and every apazine, should have somewhere in each issue a colophon.

Today in the mail I got a fanzine that was as bad a crudzine as any I’ve seen since the great days of Thurban I and Looking Backward. It was ineptly typed, crudely written, badly reproduced, with execrable artwork shakily stenciled, book reviews that were often just plot summaries and a story of which I had only to read three random lines to know there was no need to read more. But: the editor, the contributors, the lettercol hacks were at least talking about the right subjects for once.

Few fans today, weaned on the stories of the Great Fanzines of the Legendary Past, are aware that those halcyon days boasted not only the best of fanzines but also the worst of fanzines. Crudzines published in the fifties may indeed be unrivalled by any of the abominations turned out by inexperienced neofans since.

The revolution that is desktop publishing makes an attractive fanzine within the reach of even the clumsiest fan. No more struggling with torn mimeo stencils, no more agonizing work to justify a column of type. Now even the worst writing can look attractive, and our standards for what is a crud[-]zine change forever. Meanwhile, Australia’s last manufacturer of mimeograph paper is rumored to be ending production. Spirit duplicator paper is already extinct in America. And technology marches on.

Just as zinedom is plagued by people who put out a four-page crudzine and expect it to be fair trade for a 64-page monthly, so it is that mail art is infested by people who do a quick scribble on a postcard and expect a full-colour catalogue.