Cultus Dispatches: Revelations from Marquette's Fanzine Dataset
Before there was Usenet, Yahoo! Groups, LiveJournal, Tumblr, and Discord, there were fanzines, fan-produced publications that contained articles, stories, and artwork. The Tolkien fandom was no exception, but these early fan cultures have remained tantalizingly out-of-reach, and for all but a few of us who were there for this epoch of fandom history, largely mysterious.
Researchers at Marquette University have taken a large step forward to remedy this, compiling a large dataset of items contained in the fanzines in the university's special collection. This month's Cultus Dispatches, the SWG's monthly fandom history column, take a look at what the dataset reveals of early fandom history and cultures. What materials did fanzines contain? How were they influenced by the publication of The Silmarillion? What character groups were most popular?
These questions and more are answered in Fandom before the Time of the Trees: Revelations from Marquette's Fanzine Dataset.
Posted on (updated ) by SWG Moderators
