Well, here at last is the bumper issue we promised. (If it doesn't bump to your satisfaction we guarantee to refund your subscription on receipt of a dollar to cover postage, packing, and our confusion.) The delay was due to the lever of our printing press leaving us as we were finishing No. 3, and to the nice summer, which allowed us to catch up on our cloudwatching during a short spell of gafia. ('Gafia', for the benefit of those miserable wretches who don't read 'Spacewarp', is a rapphrase for the occupational disease of fan editors, Getting Away From It All.) Silver linings were supplied by Messrs. Palmer and Wollheim, who bought SWORDSMEN OF VARNIS (from SLANT 3) for OTHER WORLDS, and STILL SMALL VOICE (SLANT 2) for the AVON FANTASY READER. S of V saw republication in OW Sept., 1950. I should say here that another reprint from this magazine, 'Atomic Error', [SLANT 3 & OW July) first appeared in F. J. Ackerman's own SHANGRI-LA. We would have mentioned this at the time if we had known; and also that Evans' 'Revenge' was previously published by the redoubtable PEON.
The cover of this issue was produced by a means probably never used in publishing before. (And don't say you can understand why!) I don't know what to call it but it's mighty like a ruse. The multicoloured ink comes from the same firm that makes the striped paint. And by the way you won't be troubled any more by our over-inking woodcuts. We are now overinking linocuts. Seriously, let us know what you think of the changeover, won't you? All the large illos in this issue are lino except the one on p.11.
The first story is a reject from XXXX (Who is this guy Palmer anyway?) XXXXXXX commented: 'I am returning your yarn because of the flying saucer angle. Flying saucers do not appear to be too popular as an s-f theme right now. As this seems to be the case, I am forced to go very easy on the subject.' Ah well, we shall just have to risk losing a few thousand readers.
Next, an unusual little story by Ted Tubb, and then the too-logical mind of Geoffrey [Corn-of-the] Cobbe continues to have trouble with his heroes.
We were tempted to call Cedric Walker's story 'The Lost Lead'. You'll see why when you read it; and also perhaps why Cedric is one of the up-and-coming British authors. After S3 went out we had a nice letter from Ted Carnell. editor of NEW WORLDS, in which he said: 'I am prompted to write and say how much I enjoy reading the fiction in your magazine ... I must congratulate your regular fan writers on the good quality material and ideas they produce, and I'm hoping that some of them will attempt writing stories from 4,000 words and upwards and submit them to myself.' We passed this invitation on to all our authors, and soon a longish story by Cedric was accepted for NEW WORLDS: curiously enough, it's the sequel to a yarn called 'The Guinea Pig,' bought almost simultaneously for the shortly-to-be-revived MARVEL. (And placed, as were the reprints from SLANT, by Forrest J. Ackerman.) I haven't seen the sequel but I remember that the first story was very good, though unfortunately too long for SLANT. It will probably be in the new MARVEL's first issue, so look out for it.
Ken Bulmer's story this time is in the E. E. Smith tradition: quite a change from his last, which many thought reminiscent of UNKNOWN. No comments from fellow purists please about James' chessboard being the wrong way round. Us non-combattants are naturally seeing it SIDEWAYS. (Oh happy afterthought.)
Last, but only because that's when it arrived, is Clive Jackson's first serious story, THE ENEMY. I hope you won't be too tired after working your way as far as page 27 to give this story the attention it deserves. I'm not going to prophesy that it will follow Clive's previous stories into the prozines, but I do think you will find it memorable.
Noticing the success of Boggs, Laney, etc. in keeping SPACEWARP such a stimulating fanzine, we have decided to flatter Rapp in the sincerest way possible. So, taking cover behind our editorial neutrality, we innocent bystanders present SLANT's first independent columnist.
We had hoped to run another column, by that interesting personality known variously as John Edmiston and John Blyler, who I noticed in AMAZING characteristically described his MAKHZAN as a 'dirty old beat-up kind of an issue, absolutely no good and not worth a cent of anybody's money.' It seems that Phillips had lost his copy, but he'll never find it from that description. The one I got was quite fascinating, though so small that you would need a geiger counter to find it among a heap of ordinary fanzines. (Thought: who wants to count geigers anyway?) I doubt if there has been a next issue. One of its main features was to have been a report on the sex life of the adult hamster, which would have been of considerable interest if only because there was only one hamster for observation. But I understand that the wretched creature has 'worn himself to a frazzle'; and apparently frazzles have no sex life worth talking about. This news will be a great disappointment to all fans and particularly to those of us who happen to be hamsters: to soften the blow I am happy to be able to quote a few words by the Dr. Kinsey of the hamster world on a less delicate if less wildly exciting subject;
'... this gentleman Geoffrey Cobbe does the kind of thing I like to read. I was extremely happy when the Swordsman did what he did. Many times have I wished to see certain stories brought to their abrupt and logicalend right at the most thrilling part of the climax ... there were times when I became so disgusted with the stupidity of hero John Carter in not recognizing his own son for chapter after chapter that I wished for the son to goose him with one of his own damned swords and have an end to it all ... a very intelligently written letter by G. C. Banks. No believer in Shaverism could possibly write one as intelligently. If there is anything I dislike it is cheap pornography. Give me the classical pornography every time. However I like to 'insult the intelligence' of every 'serious-minded lover' of anything. Anyone who can seriously-minded love anything, except people, deserves to have his/her intelligence 'insulted' ... I challenge Mr. Banks to show that intelligence is something that can be insulted. Like many other fans, I too have read PART OF 'Science and Sanity.'
And with that we begin and end the comments on our last issue. Even if we had space for more, I guess most people have forgotten all about it by now. So I'll just mention that the most-liked stories seem to have been: 1. Swordsmen of Varnis, by 'Geoffrey Cobbe' (Clive Jackson). 2. Last Wish by Ken Bulmer. 3. Strictly Legal by Cedric Walker.
We hope to make better time with No. 5. In fact we have part of it in print already, a clever little yarn by Peter Ridley held over from this issue only because the stapler couldn't cope with 4 extra pages, and his story was the only one which just filled that many.
One last word. Unless you have been a fan editor yourself you will never realise how much they depend on readers' comments.: fanzines can exist without profits, but comment is their breath of life. So won't you please write and say what you think of this issue, even if it's only to grade the stories as you liked or disliked them? SLAINTE!
Data entry by Judy Bemis
Updated June 23, 2001. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.