The Best of Xero

[I should state at the outset that I did not read evry word of this book.] Xero was a fanzine, a home-made magazine dedicated to the hobbies/literary passions of its editors -- in this case, science fiction, comic books, etc. This was true alternative press stuff, if you like, and the book should be purchased by many colleges and universities with library collections supportive of the history of same. The book appropriately suggests a pre-Internet kind of reader-writer engagement was going on. I'm reminded also of the "underground" press phenomenon that was to emerge a few years later. (Xero dates to 196-62.) For members of the small "communities" of often widely-separated science fiction and comics fans, fanzines arrived in mailboxes as letters from one's own country (of the imagination). Of course a lot of what went on was just chat. I found plenty in this book that was still of interest -- in fact, one piece of information that was very useful for an article I've just submitted. The publishers have wisely included a generous helping of letters of comments (LOCs) published in the lively pages of this classic early-Sixties fanzine. It would be good to see similar anthologies drawing on (say) the pages of Tolkien-related fanzines from years prior to and close to the first wave of mass popularity circa 1966.