In the 80s I was too poor to buy loads of zines, so I got free copies by contributing drawings. This meant I got a few issues of many zines, some good, some bad. I went for RPG and gaming zines, personal and letter zines. Most are A5, but some shifted up to A4. 'Hardware' refers to RPG stuff like modules, spells, weapons, scenarios etc. All zines contain zine reviews (incest) and letter columns (bile). Here are some of the zines I have;

Superhero UK Issues 2 (A4 mimeo), 4, 7, 10- 16. SUK was originally edited by Simon Burley. I liked SUK, but I didn't get on too well with the later editor, Jonathan Clark, or the other contributors. I felt that it was too much for its contributors, less for its readers.To be fair though, the last few issues carried some articles of mine and I got 2 covers as well! I was terribly proud of getting my covers printed on fanzines, and so hurt when rejected! I'll put a page up about SUK in detail. Articles and modules, mainly Golden Heroes (created by Burley) and Champions. A good feature was a card insert with characters from the module drawn so you could cut them out to make pawns. Simon Burley is back on the net.

It's Clobberin Time! Issue 3 A Superhero RPG zine, by Andrew de Salis, Steve Weekes. Home typed, adequate amateur attempt. Not bad, but not great.

imazine ISSN 0267-5595 Issues 9-13 (A5) 14-18 (A4) (pronounced i'm-a-zine) . The quality end of the market, editor Paul Mason and the contributors were generally working in and around Games Workshop and TSR UK, so it's all serious stuff, even the humour was serious. imazine is currently being published again from Paul's dojo. The articles are well written, production is high quality, but a lot of the letters & stuff seemed to be by insiders for insiders. There were scenarios for Cthulhu, reviews and interesting, serious discussions on gaming. By grown-ups, for grown-ups. You can find imazine in The British Library. Paul did kindly use my illos, but chose the oddest stuff. Strange boy.

Ivory Tower Issues 1-7 & 8(A4 laminated!) Made by Geoff Dean, Yasser & Akram el Gabry, early issues are hand written, not typed. An excellent, stylish, original zine concentrating on producing modules and 'hardware' articles and a good comic strip. It featured Golden Heroes, Runequest, Traveller and more. I really liked Ivory Tower, lots of hard work produced an excellent zine. Issue 6 doubled with Sound & Fury 5 produced by James Wallis, now working at Hogshead Publishing (Warhammer 40K).

The Fiery Cross Issues 4-9 produced by Tom Stacey. A well made zine covering RPGs, films and stuff in general. He kindly used my art and articles. Tom was a good writer and the design is clear, with good comic strips too. It did cover the usual RPG stuff, religion, tribes etc, but it was well done.

Dead Elf Issues 4-6 by Andrew Fisher. A popular editor in zinedom, Andrew made this a nice RPG hardware zine, including his ideas for an Asterix RPG! Collecting Roman's helmets gained experience points. He also did electronics and made ionisers. His main artist was Ralph Horley, who seemed to edge me out all over the place. Andrew's dad was a printer I think, and Andrew went on to produce...

Isozine an excellent personal zine, using many clever printing techniques, washes, patterns, multiple layers, cut out models. I have Issues 3 (A5), 4 5 & 6 (4 5 6 are mimeographed A4), 7 and 8 (A5). Where is Andrew Fisher now?

Red Shift Jez Keen was a fine zine maker, with a strong emphasis on design. RS was more of a personal zine, he wrote stories, discussion and about his life. Red Shift was one of his many works,a one-off I think.

Next Stop Jupiter Issues 2 - 5 plus Isore & Spreadsheet & Closer Jez Keen produced zines like some people produced things prolifically. NSJ was a gaming, personal zine. Usual stuff. Spreadsheet was a zine review with letters, dozens of zines; Isore is the same. Jez kindly used my art and even asked for stuff especially. What a decent chap. Closer was a zine to follow Red Shift, and probably a one-off too.

Love In The Garden Yes another Jez Keen product, Issue 1 although a one-off I suspect, A4 quality effort, with all pages done landscape. I did various illos for a story and frontpiece.

Halo Of Flies Issue 1 received compliments of Tony Keen (brother to Jez). Music, comics, stories (with one by Jez), and a strip. Good but lacking Jez's fine touch.

Iron Orchid Issues 1-3 and 5-8, by Nick Edwards. My pics and an article appeared in 8. General stuff including pbms, Nick had a satirical attitude to zinedom and didn't waste too much time on design, being a better writer.

drunk & disorderly Issues 28-32. A long running zine by Pete Lindsay, that is to say, an APA zine Pete published. APA is amateur press thingy. You sent in your few pages, it was put with others, published. Lots of small zines in wildly different styles and subjects. Another APA was...

Hyperactive Issues 1-5 published by Nick Edwards, another top zine editor and Craig Hilton. Nick did a lot of work for other people and zinedom in general and this is one such effort. A good start for wannabes like me, my febrile attempts as a zine editor spawned Tragsnart! as a subzine here and elsewhere. I got very kind letters from people for my stuff, including one from...

Trout In the Milk editor Pete Strover, another name in zinedom. Trout was a personal chat zine of very high production quality. Lovely print techniques and real care in design, Pete sent me Issues 2-4 gratis, even though I never contributed. I wish I had. Like many zines, it is back-to-back with Soft Construction by Ray Dekker.

Daughter's Of Dool Issues 3-6 by Bob Jackson with excellent art by Phil Croker. No 4 kindly included the third Tragsnart! as a sub-zine. Bob put out a good zine and used my good stuff too. Usual rpg and personal articles. No 6 is a slim volume mainly being the story of Bob's suicide attempt (he lived). Tragically, I think it was Bob who 'lost' my finest work, a set of cards I saw in a dream. That's scousers for you.

Green Goblin 4 & 5?, by John Breakwell. Popular in the letters columns of other zines, I liked John too, but his zine was awfully made. Nil for effort. Typical hobby stuff.

Skullcrusher Issues 1-3. A hardware zine by Richard Langrish and chums. My earlier stuff appears in 3. A very hardware zine, monsters, scenarios all that stuff. I really liked it. I got the impression it was produced by youngsters, but it had a naive charm, free of the pretentions of most zines.

Flying North Issues 3-5, by Geoff Swift with others. I was sent these gratis since they knew Jez Keen. A personal zine, with music, stories and things. Way over produced, not well done and too, too much darlings. I should complain.

Lokasenna Issue 22, by Brian Dolton. A long running zine, containing Diplomacy pbms, and stuff. Loads of type, a few decorations. Which makes it quite nice, no attempts at layout means no mistakes, plain, simple, direct.

Drune Kroll Issues 2 & 3. Folded after I got bits into no. 3, a hardware zine by Justin Horrell and Iain Bowen with all the usual stuff. Freezed out by Ralph Horsley again, grrrr, it included his zine Convert Or Die.

Balrog Banter Issues 3-9 (including 7.5) by Paul Evans and others. A hardware zine of poor design but walloping enthuisiasm. A good thick read with loads of stuff, including a supplement each issue for the scenario. They made this stuff to be used rather than to fill a zine and they used lots of pics from me, so I liked them. Balrog Banter was often mocked in zinedom, as the worst example of a zine, but it was a solid work and good luck to them. People who wrote to me admitted they saw my stuff in it, so it got around.

Demon's Drawl Issues 12-15, by Jeremy Nuttall and others, such as Dave Robinson and Nick Edwards. A well made hardware zine, presenting a lot of material about their campaign world Galadra. They used a few illos of mine, but then Nuttall became a born again christian and Demon's Drawl split into...

Telegraph Road Issues 16-21 by Nuttall, by now a complete wanker.

Theatre Of Pain was Dave Robinson's next zine, covering Crowley and metal. Can't lay my hands on them at the moment.

Orc's Revenge Issues 4 & 5. We are into clone territory here. By Gavin Cameron, it is one of a long line of similar type hardware zines, clones of Balrog Banter. Typing, pictures, but little thought to design or layout. Page upon page of the same. My pics in 5.

Tempestuous Orifice 7 by Chris Davies, clone but ok.

Fantasy Tome 1 byAndrew Thompson, ditto.

The Journal Of The Senseless Carnage Society 9 by Simon Hartley, ditto but awful.

Prisoners Of War 4, by Wallace Nicoll & Doug Rowling. Clone but ok with pbms.

Doomed Dwarves Journal 5, by Gavin White. Typical zine clone.

Cerebetron 2 by Alex Bardy, who fancied himself as a hobby name. SF zine.

Amulet 1, by Richard Henderson with Alex Bardy. How did my pics get in here?

Runestone 8 by Bill Lucas and Nick Edwards. Typical hardware zine clone.

Wolvesbane 2 by Jon French. That scraping noise is the bottom of the barrel.

Dragonlore 6, by Alexander Hildyard. An apparently childish zine, but possibly the authors were very young. Strictly hardware.

Thunderwind 1 (started with issue no.0) by Paul Dawson and John Dalziel. Absolute shite.

Bone Of Contention Issues 2 3 5 6 by Stephen Rawlinson & Fergus Selby. Nope, this is worse. But somehow, tragically, my pictures appear in no. 5. I burn with shame.

Brick In The Face 9, by Fergus Selby. You see, I met them at a gamesday, gave them some pics, and then the zine turns out to be an abortion. But vanity, vanity I can't throw it away.