Science Fiction Five-Yearly Cover
SSFY Cover

Science Fiction Five-Yearly is a fanzine produced by the legendary Lee Hoffman, faithfully "Once every lustrum." Others have helped out in recent years, most notably Geri Sullivan, who with Jeff Schalles is one of the remaining few who pursue color mimeography as an art form. I used to be among those who could do fair work with a mimeo stencil, shading plates and stylii -- I messed up the color work on the lettering in this one, but it was supposed to be a take-off and tribute to the wonderful Where's Waldo phenomenon, with a SF/fannish twist. Frankly, I didn't have what it takes to do the real crowd scene, but I populated it with some familiar figures* -- some of them only to fans -- and set it on an Escherian walkabout. Included, my version of Heinlein's Waldo, just to confuse matters.
* Some are copyrighted characters, appearing here only as a loving tribute; no commercial use has been made of them in any fashion in this appearance. From Mad's Alfred E. Neuman in foreground, clockwise: D.J. Hammer, Beetle Bailey, Q. Werty, Fred Flintstone, Bob Hope, me, Kilroy (symbol), Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz, the two Waldos (Heinlein's ascending, his extensions unlikely), Dagwood Bumstead, Floyd Scrilch, the Invisible Man, LeeH (as self-imaged), Bart Simpson, Howdy Doody, the Road Runner, Hagar the Horrible, Shoe (more accurately, I think, Cosmo "The Perfessor" Fishhawk from the Shoe strip), Betty Boop (in pool), Garfield, ALF, and Kermit. And what may be a tentacle of Yog Sothoth, but that's uncertain. Esther Blodgett was the "real" name of Vickie Lester, Mrs. Norman Maine, in the Judy Garland/James Mason version of A Song is Born. On the wall below is a representation of the Shield of Umor. In the background above is a tribute to Will Eisner's "The Spirit" (he now and then used a structural version of the title to lead one of the stories). .
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