"DISCO SOLDIER SQUASHED MY LEMUR"
The tale of a fanzine...
I’d been producing my own fanzines for nearly three years by the autumn of 1995, but never to my satisfaction. There was always something wrong with each issue and when I scrapped my original title, `Top` that Spring and replaced it with an attempt at an artier zine entitled `Shades of Blue`, it was even worse!! So I started again. The title `Faze` was a revelation - a few years later I noticed it was someone’s graffiti tag; if you were taking the train into London from the North, you’d still see it emblazoned on several walls along the last couple of miles before hitting Euston. However, I did think of it first! More than that though, it derives from the word fanzine - FAnZinE
Issue 1 was published in October 1995 and immediately hit a crisis; for some reason all my classified ads either didn’t arrive or were late so it was nearly the end of the year before many people bought it. Advertising was my least favourite aspect of zine work. One; it’s expensive, two; it’s marginalized and three; you try describing 40 odd pages accurately in 25 words! Anyway, I was quite pleased with the issue once it was done; the cover was primitive but a move away from the arty style ones I’d been doing. Faze` was intended as a Doctor Who zine first and foremost, but there would also be a healthy dose of other series. I was a big fan at the time of Babylon 5 and coverage of that was to continue in the new zine. Much more embarrassingly, it was Star Trek- Voyager that I chose as the centrepiece feature. I was buying the season 1 videos and hoping that the show would really break out and take the Trek universe into dynamic new places, but it never happened. So, the episode guide that starts in this issue was not repeated for future seasons.
A regular feature of the zine would be a humour/skit section, variously called `Vworp Vworp` or `Gallifrey Gazelle`. This was the fun part and I would scribble manic bits and pieces on paper whenever they came into my head. Other times, increasingly drunken suggestions in the pub formed the basis of a spoof story. Once, I found a piece of paper with the words `Sausage Village` written on it- to this day I have no idea what all that would have been about! Boldly, I had 100 copies of issue 1 done and sold nearly all of them over the next 6 months. A flying start. Anyone who’s done a zine will tell you issue 2 is often harder than no.1. You’re trying to alter the things you didn’t like about the debut, but often you over compensate. Issue 3 usually sets the course. My issue 2 focussed on Tom Baker after 20 years and had more old `Top` things like Martin Wiggins’ excellent `Romans` feature in it. In fact it was a bit of a Wiggins issue, as I also wrote a piece on Dazed and Confused, one of my favourite films and Wiley Wiggins was the improbable name of its star. Talk Talk were the subject of the musical feature and there were a couple of articles about Malcolm Hulke’s contribution to Doctor Who.
In January 1996, I was preparing the third issue. `Faze` had arrived and
established itself and I knew that, with a push, it could become even better.
Little did I realise just what a push it would get. The announcement that there
was to be a Doctor Who Telemovie with Paul McGann completely
changed the next issue. Ever since I started editing zines in 1992, I had hoped
for new Doctor Who to cover. Now, here it was! I started a
diary for the ish, detailing the news and odd rumours as they happened. The
rest of the issue wasn’t bad either – a history of the DWAS after 20 years, an
interview with Andrew Davies (provided by Stephen O'Brien), an enthusiastic
feature on Lois and Clark, a series I’d switched too after
realising how crap Voyager was turning out and an article all
about `Caves of Androzani`. The `team` was expanding too; Colin Brockhurst,
whose `Circus` zine is recognised as one of the 90s’ best was a semi regular
contributor, as were Tim Worthington, Martin Pollard and artist Martin
O’Gorman. This and issue 4 were the only early ones to totally sell out,
largely helped by the explosion of interest in the telemovie.
At a convention in
April 1996 I was re-acquainted with Neil Hutchings, former CT editor with whom
I’d worked on the DWAS exec in the 80s and he agreed to help too; he would
later provide some stunning covers, removing the last weak link in the
production – my cover for #4 consisted of a photo of McGann in costume glued
onto a photo of the Totters Lane yard from `Unearthly Child`. Great idea, but
if Neil had been around in time to do it properly, it would have looked much
better. But the headline `the magic is back` reflected that, like a lot of
fans, my enthusiasm had been rekindled a thousand fold. I am very proud of that
issue, done on the hoof and out before most of the professional magazines had
got their reviews ready, beating CT too!
For the next issue, I opted for a main theme; that of the
Graham Williams era, which I dubbed `Doctor Who’s New Wave` for the
cover, which Martin did some excellent original artwork for. There’s always
plenty to say about this period of the show but there was something about the
issue that didn’t really work for me. The fact I had to use people's submitted
material as typed meant there was a myriad of fonts that looked untidy. I
suppose though it did feel Graham Williamsy!
Much better, I felt, was issue 8. The central theme was the companions and
this inspired Neil and I to spend a silly afternoon constructing a Companions
game, a spoof on those old Annual games, for the centre pages. I also went to
town on the Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet film, which I
thought was awesome and even went back to junior school inspiration to create a
genuine (i.e. not computer generated) collage, which I felt, reflected the
maverick spirit of that movie.
Mid 1997 was probably the zine’s highpoint creatively. There were so
many articles being sent in, I could pick and choose plus I had lots of ideas
about areas of Doctor Who`, which had not been properly explored by
other publications. The centrepiece of issue 9 was a feature about the 1985/6
cancellation crisis. Like many articles in the zines, I wrote this under a
pseudonym. The reason was simply that it didn’t seem right to me to have my
name all over the place. So, for those who don’t know Rick Marshall, Peter
Oscroft, Paul Spencer and Leo Potts were all me! My piece tracing the
development of the crisis is my favourite of the `factual` things I wrote and
was backed by both Keith Topping and Tim Worthington examining particular
aspects of the crisis. I've since updated that article and used it again. The
issue was packed; Martin Pollard wrote about `OK Computer`, Greg Bartlem
offered a behind the scenes look at a convention he’d hosted, there were a trio
of articles covering the end of Lois and Clark`, a 10th anniversary Star
Trek-Next Generation` retro feature plus fiction, The Pixies and lots more.
Wow, I’d forgotten how good that issue was.
Sales were still high at this point and issues frequently ran over the
40 pages supposed limit, but I didn’t mind. From issue 10 on, Neil took over
designing the covers; which were brilliant. That issue was the first
totally Doctor Who issue, simply because there was so much
writing on the show available at that time. The main features were on the McCoy
era, Tom Baker’s autobiography and Doctor Who comic strips.
The latter feature was partly in response to DWM editor Gary Gillatt who had
asked me why the zine never mentioned the comic strip they did. This format was
never exactly my cup of tea but reading a whole batch of their recent strips
gave me an appreciation of the form. While this issue was in preparation, Paul
Cornell’s book `Licence Denied` was published which helped keep zines in the
limelight (even if the book proved rather selective and didn’t mention
`Faze`!).
1998 dawned and issue 11 took an unexpected detour after I saw, in quick succession James Cameron’s film Titanic and a stage version of Macbeth starring Pete Postlethwaite. Coverage of this plus articles on the future of books with the advent of Internet publishing plus a startling cover from Neil gave the issue a different atmosphere. The masthead logo changed to reflect this; the old `Mexican` one that Neil had knocked up randomly one day was replaced by the word Faze emerging in fog designed by Colin Brockhurst. My favourite issue of the year was no twelvewhich gave what I felt was some much needed attention to Third Rock From The Sun and the wonderful Supergrass plus 2 articles on `The Green Death` and some reminiscences about the Blackpool gathering, a fan thing that you really had to be at to appreciate, but I tried to paint a picture. One of the features that became regular this year was `Pat & Co`, a spoof on the second Doctor and his companions derived from yet another night in the pub – and a realisation that this bunch of characters was very silly indeed. The premise was that the second Doctor was always trying to get rid of his companions. Yes, Zamie. The other regular spoof was The UNIT Family which took the oft repeated idea that the early 70s regulars were like a family literally and had them all sharing a house together.
Onwards with issue 13 complete with a more austere cover done by me and stuff on Doomwatch, Dawson’s Creek and the band James. Variety was always the key to the zine! A couple of notable things about this ish were David Rolinson’s article on the series Common As Muck which was edited by Dave from his original epic piece. I was sorry to have to dilute it but there simply wasn’t room. I meanwhile wrote a very enthusiastic review of Invasion: Earth and became possibly the only person ever to do so! The thirty fifth anniversary of the show was the perfect excuse for another all Doctor Who issue, fronted by a stunning cover that Neil did after I gave him a very badly drawn idea of what I wanted. I hoped that the issue would capture the nature of the series so there were articles reminiscing about Saturday nights, Doctor’s debut stories, three on the lauded Hinchcliffe era plus looking at the show in the context of when it was broadcast. In particular, Matthew Kilburn and Tim W excelled themselves this issue. There was plenty of time for silliness too, with a mock encyclopaedia and skits from significant scenes in the series’ history.
Issue 15 included the first of two Tomorrow People features, more on Third Rock from the Sun, an Ice Warriors section (yes, OK, this may have been vaguely familiar!). Dave R did a great article explaining why Doctor Who was outdated – and this was a good thing and there was a look at Doctor Who websites. Don't forget websites were considered terrifically exciting and new in those days. Neil came up with a fun back cover after I gave him three photos – of a Monoid, a Mandrell and the Nucleus of the Swarm – and asked him to produce something silly. Well, they are silly monsters. By now it was early 1999 and issue 16 which turned out rather well, with Daniel O’Mahony returning to complete his epic look at the now concluded Babylon 5. A newcomer to the zine was Richard Farrell who specialised in brilliant caricatures and added another dimension to things while the issue’s cover caused quite a stir as Neil and I reached new levels of surreal silliness by having Melkur riding a giant toy duck. No, it doesn’t mean anything!
Issue 17 had a `cleaner` look too and introduced Buffy The Vampire Slayer` -one of the first zines over here to mention it - as well as a variety of articles on Red Dwarf`, Freewheelers and Tim W’s excellent look at `Tomb of The Cybermen`. We even tried a serious cover with one of Buffy’s monsters enlarged and slightly distorted; it still looks great. Issue 18 was dominated by a look back at Doctor Who fanzines (which was, in retrospect, rather too specialised) and the feedback on the Star Wars- The Phantom Menace`. Another debut, this time from Oliver Wake.
In October 1999, Faze had a website called, rather unsurprisingly, Faze
Online. I had broached the idea of a site back in the summer and Bob Stanley
offered to take it on. I’m not sure if there’s a connection but sales started
to tail off at this point although the main factor was `Dreamwatch` going `high
street` and dropping its classified ads, which had been my main advertising
source. For a publication that once trumpeted how it had been made by fans for
fans, it was a snub to the editors’ origins but, more importantly to me, a bit
of a problem. The end of the decade proved to be a chance for all and sundry to
conjure up millennial features but apart from the cover (which managed to
feature lots of things not in the issue!) I confined this to a section at the
back.
Into 2000 a year which saw sales falling despite what I felt were some
of the best articles we ever did. I was also consciously moving away from the `amateur
magazine` stance to try and get back to more fanzinesque values. No 20 is a
particular favourite as we got away from the usual stuff to cover the likes
of Gormenghast, Arctic Boosh, Harsh Realm, Tim Burton
and Gangsters. The twenty first issue was more spiky than usual with lots of
opinionated pieces and more Buffy reviews too while #22 was an
attempt to focus on what we then called new Doctor Who, be it the
books, audios etc plus pieces on Harry Potter- then just a book- Kiss and Chris
Morris, most unlikely bedfellows. It is clear now that I was spreading the net
far too wide and the average reader would find they didn’t know or like about
half the things in each issue. Personal problems also meant a few errors crept
into the issue, while it was becoming more difficult to write humorous pieces
and harder to think of new ways of looking at Doctor Who.
Thus, issue 23 was very nearly the last one. With a sombre cover
reflecting my favourite Doctor Who period and some
disappointing articles (nobody’s fault- everyone’s time seemed short). It was
the first time I’d had trouble filling all the pages. Late 2000 and early 2001
found me toying with the idea of doing a second zine, for all the non
telefantasy stuff and it very nearly happened. Variously called `Paper Bag` or
`Graffiti` some of the stuff intended for it ended up in what became issue 24.
Tim W’s Napster feature, my Almost Famous and Richard
Linklater features would all have been the core of the other zine but putting
them together with new Buffy and Angel reviews
and a central Doctor Who section, which I had trouble getting
decent contributions for did not really coalesce as a good issue of `Faze`.
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