In April virtual GROGMEET, the online version of our annual meet-up, will be in full swing on the 12th and 13th. Patreons are currently signing up, remaining places will be made generally available next week.
To celebrate the event and the release of GROGZINE 19 we will be having a celebration of 80s fanzines here on the blog and the You Tube channel. I’ll be browsing through the collection of Doc ‘Con’ Cowie to unearth homemade GOLD.
The third edition of GROGZINE features a new and exclusive cover created by Russ Nicolson: I’m looking forward to revealing the spectacular, extremely dramatic and detailed image when the zine is released.
Added to the GROGSHOP, with permission from Russ, you can get merchandise featuring the covers from the first two issues. Keep your eyes peeled for offer codes. All proceeds from the ‘mark up’ on Redbubble’s costs will go to Russ, so it’s a great way of showing your appreciation to a treasured old-school artist.
Be a hit on the Summer Convention scene with ‘zine tee!
Looking forward to it! On the subject of artwork, I wondered if you might be interested in commissioning a piece from Dave Carson for a future issue of the Grogzine. I loved his work for Dagon and I think he’s still going strong. At least I know he sells signed prints on eBay from time to time.
Hmm, that was me Andy C posting above, somehow I’m signed in as Anonymus.
As I’ve said before, you can’t beat a bit of Dave Carson – the tentacle-drawing laureate.
Looking forward to this. Just patreon-ed-ed to get it.
Been steadily working my way through the pod. I think I’m a coupke of years older than you guys, but crossed over a bit. Was definitely at the Northern Games thing at UMIST–pretty sure I blagged my beloved Mum to pay as I was ‘thinking’ about going to UMIST (odd as I was intending to study history, but never mind)–and the same Dragonmeets and Games Days,
I was on the edge of the Dragonlords crew–closer to Mike Lewis than the others (though I have a memory of being in a Jerry Cornelius PBM that Marc Gascoigne GM’d), and got to stand with them behind the fanzine table at Games Day and Dragonmeet, helping to ‘sell’. Obviously this was the highlight of my life. They were all devastatingly handsome and intelligent (especially Marc).
I think my putative plans for a fanzine were mentioned a few times in DL, but when it eventually happened, it had mutated into a punk/electronica one. It was a pity I was too busy/distracted/lazy to do the rpg mag–I found my grognrd file of the artwork a friend had done for it recently and it was bloody good. The writing not so much.
Part of that crew (and my intro to it) was Paul Mason who did Imazine, which had some great stuff in it. We met through being Brit writers on Alarums and Excursions, which I suppose was the first rpg fanzine, and is certainly the longest running. I still remember buying my first copy of that (#60) at GW in Hammersmith, and dosing myself in the detailed accounts of massive american campaigns. Loads of gossip about Gygax’s contributions to the early issues and attitude even then.
Imazine was increasingly about narrative structure and moving away from rules, i have a vague memory of running a very late night game at a Warwick Uni convention ( where, for some reason, I had to pretend to be someone else under instruction frim Paul) that was very influenced by our debates. I suppose, for me, it made a change from Chivalry and Sorcery, which was my game of choice 🙂