by Anna Hepworth
In the SwanCon XV envelope (again, marked as 1/2, with no second envelope obvious), there are two items, being an A5 Progress Report 3, and an A4 Program Book.
The former is a (presumed) photocopied, saddle-stapled, 20 total pages booklet containing such gems as “Crystal balls and other unlikely prosthetics III”, “First up against the wall when the revolution comes” and an editorial by Jeremy Byrne* entitled “Potentially dangerous visions”.
The latter has (among other things) a slightly heavy (but not card) cover, a comprehensive contents page including art credits**, an interview with Grant Stone, and a short story by Terry Dowling – “The Gully”. According to Dowling’s publication listing, this was originally published in “MJ” in the spring of 1985. Assisted by Google, I was able to determine that this learned publication is none other than Men’s Journal Quarterly, an Australian magazine started in 1984. Potentially more accessibly, the story was also reprinted in An Intimate Knowledge of the Night (Aphelion, 1995) and Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear (Cemetery Dance Publications, March 2006).
* Lack of middle initial is as written. While this may be no surprise to many, I for one have it firmly fixed in my mind that Jeremy’s publications will have a middle initial.
** Hint: art credits not only make your artists happy at the time, they make historians happy too. Even amateur historians.
Issue 1 of Eidolon reports on Swancon XV.