Comlink/Issues 31-40

<splist
 parent=Comlink
 showparent=no
 sort=asc
 sortby=title
 liststyle=bar
 showpath=notparent
 kidsonly=no
 debug=0
/>
==Issue 31==
Comlink 31 was published in August 1987 and contains 20 pages. The cover is "Space Ghost and Friend" by Bob Miller. 
* the editor investigated the purchase of a home copier machine: while the Canon PC-20 hardware was reasonably priced, the cartridge's cost was such it would make each page ten cents, twice what she was already paying at a copy shop
* there is a long article by Bob Miller called "Thirty Years of Hanna-Barbera: My Youth in Cartoonia"
* there is a long article by Pat Munson-Siter called "Japanese Animation 101"
* a fan writes of the Adam But Not Hoss rule in American television: every show has at least one character that absolutely, positively will not be killed off, and that British television doesn't follow this rule
* a fan writes: "I wonder what would happen if the science officer for the new show was a male, GAY Deltan?"
* a fan writes at great length about the troubles at Boskone regarding alcohol and underage fans, about WorldCon perhaps limiting membership and attendance and about how hotels tend to treat conventions badly in terms of not upholding their end of agreements regarding space and services
* a fan survey, The COMLINK Annual Readership Survey, was included in this issue, the results were published in issue #33
==Issue 32==
Comlink 32 was published in October 1987 and contains 20 pages. The cover is of Spock by Michael Goodwin.
* WAHF is started and in this issue it = 5
* this issue contains a 2-page fan survey called "Fantasy Film Survey." It was put out by On the Mark and the editor said the results would appear in Starlog and that "Lucasfilm will also see the results."
* a fan in the military says "the whole reason I extended my tour a year was so that I'd be in the area for [WorldCon] 'Conspiracy."
* the editor talks of a survey that she'd issued about Star Trek: TNG She said she got 36 replies, five of them saying she/he didn't think ST:TNG was a good idea.
* the editor likes ST:TNG a lot and has these comments: Wesley Crusher "should be canned in season two unless they come up with a damned good reason why he has to stick around" and "Tasha Yar is becoming the Saavik the movies really wanted but got Robin Curtis instead" and "Captain Picard doesn't seem to have a Gallic accent but I love him anyway" and "Councellor [sic] Deanna Troi is an interesting character and I'd like to see more of her, though she does walk around as though she soaked her contacts in ice water and can't close her eyes" and "My favorite character so far is Data who has so much possibility that I find myself watching him most of the time."
* there is a review of "Strangers from the Sky," a pro novel
* a fan would like to say: 
* a fan explains: 
* a fan is disappointed on the racial and gender makeup of ST:TNG and makes a rare less-than-positive statement about the Great Bird of the Galaxy: 
* a fan has read: 
* a fan is unhappy with Superman's fashion sense: 
* a fan writes that if: 
==Issue 33==
Comlink 33 was published in December 1987 and contains 20 pages.
* WAHF = 1
* the editor writes that she is planning a regular publishing schedule: March, June, September, and December
* Maggie Nowakowska has announced that, as of December 31, 1987, the SW Fanzine Lending Library has closed. The editor notes "[Maggie] thanks everyone who participated and says to check the various fan publications for news on the library's new scholastic home."
* a long-time fan has "finally forced myself to sit in front of a computer and write a LoC of my own, Funny, when I look back on all the long letters I used to write everyday or so, I realize how lax I've gotten."
* a fan remembers a cartoon on television called "Winky Dink and You. "For this show, you needed a plastic sheet that went over the televisions screen. Then when Winky got in trouble, you drew an escape route for him, like a ladder or a bridge."
* fans are starting to watch Beauty and the Beast and are impressed
* a fan writes: "One of the magazines I bought when I was trying to find out about Doctor Who had quite a bit about B7, including the fact that everyone gets slaughtered in the last act, just like Hamlet."
* a fan comments on ST:TNG: "In the three episodes I've seen so far, the Klingon in the cast hasn't had anything to do. And pesky Wesley has done entirely too much. Starfleet security still hasn't figured out a way to keep one demented person from taking over the engine room."
* a fan sums up the three Star Wars movies: the first one was a lot of super fun but had no soul, the second one made her really care about the characters, and the third one "was a big cop out. Lucas went overboard in giving the audience sensory thrills, but he no longer gave a damn about whether or not the characters remained true to themselves."
* there is a long essay by Carol Mularski called "In Defense of Wes." In it, she says fans should give Wesley Crusher a break and don't discriminate against him because of his age
 
* The editor announces that "1987 Annual Readership Survey" is over and publishes some of the results. The survey was included in issue #31. Ninety-four were sent out and 47 were returned including 4 readers who shared their copies: "This a 50% return, not bad in the real world, but down considerably from the 58% return for the 1984 survey." The Questions:
**gender: male: 15%, female: 83% [no change from 1984 survey]
**age: under 17: 0%, 18-24: 4.3%, 25-34: 55.3%, 35-44: 34%, 45-54: 6.4%, 55+: 0% [the editor notes that as per the 1984 survey, Comliink's readers are getting older]
**marital status: single: 57.4%, married: 42.6%, divorced/sep/widowed: 0% [the editor notes that 34% were married in the 1984 survey]
** if you are married, is your spouse a fan: yes: 25.5%, no: 17%
** do you have kids: yes: 25.5%, no: 72.3%: if yes, are your kids fans: yes: 14.9%, no: 8.5%
**education: high school: 4.3%, tech school: 4.3%, some college: 23.4%, some grad school: 12.8%, BS/BA: 31.9%, MA: 21.3%, MD/JD/LDD: 0%, PhD: 2.1%
**employment status: full-time 63.8%, part-time: 6.4%, student: 12.8%, homemaker: 12.8%, self-employed: 17%, unemployed: 2.1%, retired: 0%
**hours spent on fanac per week: 0-7: 38.3%, 8-15: 25,5%, 16-23: 19%, 24-31: 15%, 32-39: 2%
** do you consider yourself an acti-fan, passifan: 31.8, In-Between: 8.5% ["some of the folks who who called themselves passifans put in more than 15 hours a week on their fanac."]
** do you consider yourself: (multiple answers) editor: 40.4%, publisher: 30%, artist: 21.3%, writer: 44.7%, LoCer: 51%, reader: 25.5%, con goer: 8.5%, audience/consumer: 6.5%, collector or zine buyer: 4.3%, apa member, neofan, and dealer: 2% each
** where do you find out about zines: direct mail: 27.7%, word of mouth: 36.2% Datazine and Communications Console: 55.5%, other zines: 72.3%, flyers: 44.7%, ads: 15%, conventions: 55.3%, ["While in 1987, other zines was still the primary method of finding out about other publications, all the other methods were much more effective in 1987 than in 1984. Were you buying more zines in 1984?"]
**what aspect of fandom got you into active fandom: convention: 40.5, a Star Trek pro book: 16.7%, Star Wars: 16.7, fanzines: 14.2%, Star Trek: 7.1, comics/local fanac/Doctor Who/friend: all 2%
* the editor writes that she will miss Kay Johnson, who recently passed away: 
* a librarian disagrees that the zines "owned" by First Terran Enclave, and now apparently homeless, should be put in a library that allows them to be borrowed through interlibrary loan: 
==Issue 34==
Comlink 34 was published in March 1988 and contains 20 pages. The cover is "Roy and Claudia" by Pat Munson-Siter.
* the editor decides to NOT institute the regular publishing schedule she had planned in the last issue
* the editor now requires that letters be shorter and states a page limit of four double-spaced pates of 10 or 12 pitch
* there is a long, long article by Patricia Munson-Siter called "Japanese Animation 102"
* there is review by Chuck Meagher of the movie "Licensed to Kill"
* there is review by Debbie Gilbert of the pro book, "Final Frontier." She titles the review: "My Father, Myself: Jim Kirk Finds His Roots"
* there is much fannish discussion of Wesley Crusher, children of officers living on the Big E, and of other ST:TNG characters
* a fan writes of Beauty and the Beast and how much she enjoys it: "It's a fine example of how fantasy can be presented without condescension or a veneer of 'this is really just kid's stuff, folks.'... BB has convinced me that quality is still possible."
* a fan speculates that Data is a "safe love interest as s/he can't make babies... Data is a safe sex toy, perfect for the young woman, or young man, to experiment on."
* a fan tries a color photocopier for the first time: "It's miraculous! This machine was made for media fen. The mind boggles at the potential..."
* a fan was at ChattaCon (Jan. 15-18, 1988, Chattanooga, Tenn.) and was at the ST:TNG panel called "Was it Worth the Wait?" "Almost everyone disliked Wesley, not because he's a kid, but because he makes the adults look incompetent. It was joked that the panel should have been called, 'Wesley Crusher: Threat or Menace?'"
* a fan is worried that when a zine is donated to a library, that it will just be "filed away or sold at the next book fair"
* WAHF = 5
* a fan agrees that interlibrary loan would be bad for the ORIGINALS of the zines: 
* Maggie Nowakowska writes an LoC, her first to Comlink in "a couple of years." She says: 
==Issue 35==
Comlink 35 was published in June 1988 and contains 20 pages. The cover is "Starman" by Linda A. Howell. 
* this issue has the questionnaire for the 1988 "Annual Readership Survey" - there were 100 of them distributed
* there is a long article by Deborah C. Leis called "Beating the Odds? The Campaign to Resurrect Starman;" it talks about all the fan efforts and Spotlight Starman, the grassroots group
* there is discussion of Geordi LaForge's blindness and whether there would be disabilities in the future
* there is a pro book review for "The Vulcan Academy Murders" by Debbie Gilbert called "Lorrah Misses the Mark on the Second Try"
* a fan reports on general statistics on population from "The Statistical Abstract of the United States" and compares them, in a very lengthy fashion, to the stats from the last fan survey in Comlink
* WAHF= 0
* there is much fannish discussion of ST: TNG 
* the editor is loving the new technology: 
* another fan writes: 
* a fan writes: 
* a fan disagrees that the reason there is a lack of young fen is because they are illiterate, a topic that fans in the letterzine had been discussing:
==Issue 36==
Comlink 36 was published in August 1988 and contains 20 pages. The cover is "Outlaws and Rebels" by Theresa Buffaloe.
* a number of fans have backed off of criticizing Wesley Crusher and are now focusing their complaints on William Riker
* the editor says she has only gotten a only 30 fan surveys back, a 30% return. "Come on, folks, we can do better than that -- I usually get close to 50% back!"
* it contains an article by Theresa D. Buffaloe called "What Do You Mean I've Done a Zine!? A Personal View and Intro to Blake's 7 Fandom" in which she talks about the fandom and her experiences in publishing Shadow
* a review by Debbie Gilbert of the first ST: TNG Tie-in novel "Ghost Ship"
* two different fans say they dislike the pro novels because "nothing permanent ever happens to the regulars. No matter, by the end of the book, every thing's back to normal," and "Even before you open the book, you know that whatever happens, the status quo will be reestablished by the end of the story."
* a fan is bothered by ST:TNG: "For a man who has said they chose syndication so they could do things the networks wouldn't let them Roddenberry sure has been awfully conservative."
* a fan tells the fan that wrote the letter in the previous issue about young fans and their reading material that: 
==Issue 37==
Comlink 37 was published in October 1988 and contains 20 pages. The cover is "Day-O" by Phillip N. Tortorici.
* the editor writes a con report for NolaCon, which she pronounced, among other things, "disorganized" and "a mess." --she had a table with Devra Langsam where they sold zines together "If we could have gotten one dollar for each person who asked if we'd be selling a Beauty and the Beast zine, I'd be rich!" Another fan described the con as "fun, but then I didn't have to deal with the con committee. I heard some very disparaging things about them, like they had a collective IQ of 12."
* this issue has two book reviews by Debbie Gilbert for the pro books, "Time for Yesterday" and "Death Tolls"
* the results of the 1988 "Readership and Star Trek: The Next Generation Survey" are published. The latter part of the survey rates the TNG episodes. There were 114 forms distributed, and 56 were completed, giving a 48%. The editor writes: "This is really piss-poor. I was expecting to get over 50% a I figured that most of you were chomping at the bit to get your two cents in about TNG." The questions:
** gender: male 21.4%, female 78.6%
**age: under 17: 1.8%, 18-24 7.1%, 25-34 53.6, 45-54 32.1%, 54-64 1.8% ,65 and over 0%
** marital status: single: 44.6%, married 50%, divorced and seperated: 3.6%, widowed: 1.8%
** how many hours do you spend on fanac: 0-7: 30.4%, 8-15: 26.8 %, 16-23: 25%, 24-31: 10.7, 32-40: 3.6%, 40+: 3.6%
**are you a Star Trek universe fan: yes: 94.6, no: 5.4%
**when did you become a ST fan: original series: 69.9%, re-runs: 23.2%, animation: 0%, movies: 1.8%, ST:TNG: 1.8%
* a fan writes of the successful U.F.O. con, Uforia which was held in England on June 18, 1988. It had many guest stars, 474 attendees, turned away over 200 registrations two weeks before the con and at the door, raised money (almost 2,500 pounds) for the Great Ormand Street Hospital for Sick Children, and that they are planning a second con for September 8-10, 1989 in Manchester, England
* there is an update about the fan campaign to save Starman
* the editor of Full Circle says the issues are all now free: "Just drop me a line."
* Randall Landers writes about fanzines and the rip-offs he's been seeing: 
* the editor of Comlink responds to Randall Lander's letter: 
==Issue 38==
Comlink 38 was published in December 1988 and contains 20 pages. The cover is "No Need to Shout!" by Bob Miller.
Some big topics of conversation: Star Trek: TNG characters and characterizations, dislike of Will Riker and Dr. Crusher, wishing Picard would "loosen up," why do fans like "Japanimation" so much, the topic of the Prime Directive, much background about an actress named "Texas Guinan," 
* the editor is pissed off and frustrated at the number of talk shows and infomercials that run on television, taking up valuable real estate that good shows could be using
* this issue has a full-page flyer for Eridani #1, the first flyer published in the letterzine
* the editor apologizes for not knowing another fan's name at a breakfast at NolaCon: "I hope that Noreason's name badges are larger so that I don't have to stick my nose in someone's breast to see who the hell they are!"
* a fan writes about an earlier letter by another fan: "I was glad to see Shirley Maiewski's letter. Often I wonder what the original ST Big Name Fans think of ST:TNG. It does my heart good to see that the First Lady of Star Trek Fandom likes the new show. Despite its faults, so do I, Shirley!"
* a fan hates that female characters have to be young and cute: "What would Magnum P.I. do if the damsel-in-distress was 40 years old and 220 pounds?" 
* a fan's comment: "So Whoppi Goldberg is going to be the humanoid alien bar hostess of the Enterprise lounge and she's going to be named Guinan? As in Texas Guinan, the speakeasy hostess entertainer of the 1920s? Come on, you STAR TREK: NEXT GENERATION writers, think up a name that hasn't been recycled!" Another fan's comment: "I wonder how much of the real Guinan will be a part of the nature of that outspoken actress who plays the fictional futuristic character? To say the least, I find the whole thing pretty intriguing. One would assume that Whoopi did do a little, ah, re search on her character's "background" (who says that Gene Roddenberry doesn't have a sense of humor?)"
* a fan wrote: "I, too, get tired of all the women being overgrown girls and all the men being macho studs. Your idea of an older woman as security chief parallels mine, only I go a step further and envision her as a "motherly" type who never raises a hand against anyone. You do as she says or you go to your cabin until you've learned some manners. Roseanne Barr would be perfect for the part. So would Marsha Warfield or Diana Rigg."
* from a fan: "I must disagree with you about FRIDAY — she's a "strong female character" only if you define strength of character as the ability to "take it like a man". Not one of her responses in any of the book's many tight situations is true to the way a woman would have dealt with it. PODKAYNE OF MARS was a more convincing portrait of a young woman, but only be cause Poddy was immature."
* a fan writes: '"Born Again Fan? Yes, I'm a born again fan. I used to dwell in the darkness of reality. I was a pawn of the mundane world, but saw the light. Say hallelujah! I believe, sisters and brothers. I believe a starship can travel faster than the speed of light. I believe a man can fly. I believe E.T. will phone home. Say amen!"
* from Lori Chapek: 
* this issue contains a long essay by Randall Landers called Censorship and the Ethics of Editors. It is a companion piece to an article in an earlier issue by Joan Marie Verba; in it, Landers asks: 
* a fan writes: 
==Issue 39==
Comlink 39 was published in March/April 1989 and contains 20 pages. The cover is of Kerr Avon by Theresa D. Buffaloe. 
* this issue contains a review by Christopher Tucker of "The Dragon of the Valkyr," a comics series
* a fan says she is a fan of The Professionals "not so much for the show itself but for the fandom."
* this issue contains much discussion about Thunderbirds and other Gerry Anderson works as well as other British television series
* a fan asks: 
* a fan writes about The Prisoner: 
* Joan Marie Verba comments on the essay about censorship that was written in the last issue (which in turn commented on her earlier essay): An excerpt: 
* the editor of 'Comlink' says that she sometimes edits the letters she prints: 
* representing a different model than today's internet journaling/blogging/tweeting, one fan writes: 
* a fan envisions the future (right after he described getting a disk drive for his Commodore 64 that could read and write MS-DOS MFM format on 3.5 disks): 
* the editor speculates about the future of printed media: 
==Reactions and Reviews: Issue 39==
==Issue 40==
Comlink 40 was published in July 1989 and contains 20 pages. The cover is of Riker by M.A. Smith.
* a fan writes a long letter stating his discontent with zine publishing and ST fandom: 
* a fan grouses about the Good Old Days and the line of distinction between media fans and 'his' fandom: 
* this same fan steps up to educate current fans about how things were done in his day: 
==References==
Category:Multimedia Zines