Science Fiction Fanzine Culture and Fan News Networks in Degler! and SF Weekly, 1967

1967. Porter, Andrew, Degler! and SF Weekly archive, 1967, documents late-1960s science fiction fandom as a fast-moving print culture built from newsletters, convention reports, awards coverage, market intelligence, personality news, and debate over the relationship between fans and professional writers. The archive belongs to the cultural sphere of mimeographed fan publishing, where weekly amateur journalism functioned as a social record, news service, and argumentative space for a genre community increasingly connected to publishers, conventions, awards, and professional authorship. Bibliographic references identify Degler! and SF Weekly as titles edited by Andy Porter, published from 1964 into the early 1970s, and note the publication as an early attempt at a weekly science fiction news magazine; surviving issues are also marked "formerly DEGLER!" and identify Porter as editor and publisher.
Degler! / SF Weekly. New York: Andrew Porter, 1967. Twenty-seven issues, from Degler! No. 155, January 6, 1967, through SF Weekly No. 195, August 7, 1967. Most issues are two pages, mimeographed recto and verso on one 8½ x 11 inch sheet, with some issues including additional stapled pages. The archive traces the title transition at issue No. 181, as the publication moved from Degler! toward SF Weekly and a more explicitly news-oriented engagement with professional science fiction culture. Contents include announcements of Hugo and Nebula finalists, convention coverage of Philcon, NYCon 3, Westercon, and Midwestcon, reports on sales, deaths, book deals, fan controversies, professional organizing, and publishing gossip. The February 17 issue includes "Voting Comparison Report: Vandalism of the Hugo," with breakdowns of 1964 to 1966 Hugo voting and the conclusion that "Although SF is increasingly accepted, the fans' average age has not changed much in ten years." The March 10 issue uses the headline "Silverberg for President!" for Robert Silverberg's growing visibility in fan circles, while the March 12 issue reports the Nebula Awards, listing Flowers for Algernon and Babel-17 as joint Best Novel winners and naming Samuel R. Delany, then a young Black gay writer, prominently.
The run is especially valuable for its week-by-week evidence of fan tone and infrastructure. Porter moves between insider humor, grievance, institutional critique, and literary news, as when the May 26 issue states, "I am not ashamed of being a science fiction fan, nor of having published a fanzine. I am ashamed of publishing Degler!" The June 19 "Midwestcon Issue" summarizes industry conversations and late-night fan culture with the line, "These 3:15 a.m. room parties celebrating diluted innovation in civilian life, left me wondering whether the whole field had passed me by." The July 31 issue comments on writer-fan tensions with "SF writers still behind fan coup of Ultimate Organization," documenting anxiety over the professionalization and governance of the field. Age toning and minor edge wear to several issues; No. 188 with loss at upper corner and left margin; otherwise clean and complete with supple paper, very good overall. Dense 1967 science fiction fanzine archive preserving the weekly communications through which fans tracked awards, conventions, publishing news, professional writers, and emerging voices including Samuel R. Delany and Daniel Keyes.