Modern Book Collecting discussion

I started collecting these for the Joe Lansdale stories they printed. Other authors such as Stephen King were also printed in these magazines.

Interesting.
I have quite a few "Heavy Metal" magazines form the 1980's. They are not as unique as these but I purchased them for the stories and art work. I loved that magazine as a young man.

Joe, the very nice thing about collecting these magazines is that you can have personal contact though eBay with Mr.Schweitzer.

Mr. Schweitzer will gladly sign his contributions to each issue. I know he isn't highly collectible but it makes for a truly unique personal item.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/darrellschwei...

Kevin wrote: "
I do know they recently revived this magazine, so new issues should be made available shortly."

Good to hear! I have a few old issues around somewhere, I bought them from the original publisher on ebay at least 15 years ago. And no, not a fanzine. It was considered to be a professional (ie. paying) market for short fiction.

To clarify and be 100% accurate Mr. Schweitzer has offered his professional insight to this publication

For those interested, this is a direct quote from Mr. Schweitzer. So, here it is in a nutshell.

Dear Kevin, Definitions like "fanzine" can be pretty fluid, but I would say no. WEIRDBOOK was not a magazine put out by fans for and about themselves. It was aimed at a more general reader, presenting fiction on its own merit. Furthermore, it paid for material from the start. Paul Ganley described it as a "literary vitamin pill," trying to fill the gap left by the then defunct WEIRD TALES. WEIRDBOOK was (and is, since it is being revived) what we today call a small press magazine, that is, put out by an individual or independent press. In the parlance of the '80s or '90s it was a "semi-pro" magazine, meaning that it did not have newstand distribution, but paid something approximating a minimal professional rate for its material. When you consider that this magazine published Stephen King, Brian Lumley, and Tanith Lee, you can't classify it as entirely "amateur," for all the editor never made a living at it, or even a profit. (His secret of success was to budget carefully and keep the losses under control.)

I'm waiting for Paul Ganley to comment. (He was the editor of the magazine.)

I hope this information is useful to all.

This is what Paul Ganley states about Weidbook.

I was not a professional in the field, but a lot of the writers were, so I called it "semi-pro." You could say it started out as a fanzine and developed into a more professional zine. I published a fanzine back in the early 1950's... that was truly a fanzine, although some of the writers developed into pros (such as Harlan Ellison and Brian McNaughton). Technically this was a business — even more so when I started publishing limited edition books —, but in reality it has been a hobby.
Paul


- wpaulganley

That's some straight forward, educational info on these mags. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

Yes, very interesting and thank you.

This is interesting. I haven't looked at this until now (don't know why). I do not collect periodicals, but this is very interesting, and the magazines are quite unique.

Hi Casey,

Paul Ganley and Darrell Schweitzer are two of the nicest guys in the business. They are very accessible and willing to answer any question you may have. Darrell Schweitzer is also an author of quite a few books.

I have #17 signed by Schweitzer on the way.

Here's my copy of #18 signed by Schweitzer. I'll post #17 when it arrives.

I promised to upload Volume 17 sometime ago, better late than never. Here it is:

Kev, you know these are now back in print, right?

Yes Joe, I knew they were working on relaunching the magazine for quite a while. Thanks for the heads up.

My newest edition of Weirdbook has arrived, signed by Mr. Schweitzer.

Weirdbook 20

Excellent! These are very cool old issues. It's nice to get the stories signed by the authors. Will you try to get as many authors to sign these copies as possible? I would love to have some of my old Heavy Metal issues signed.

Joe, I haven't considered having all the contributors sign these mags. It's an interesting idea, although some of the contributors have passed-on over the years :-(