Sherlockian Periodicals: The Baker Street Chronicle

  

The Baker Street Chronicle 

Duration: July 1981 to July 1985, twenty-three issues, four years
Frequency: Bimonthly
Editor: Pattie Brunner
Club Affiliation: See below

Sometimes things happen in the Sherlockian world in reaction to other things in the Sherlockian world. Clubs splinter off from other clubs. Articles are written in reaction to other articles. And in some cases, journals come out of dissatifaction from other journals. Such was the case of The Baker Street Chronicle, originally called John Clayton's Underground Newspaper, its first issue announcing that it was being published in reaction to the silence of The Morning Post, the newsletter of St. Louis's Noble Bachelors. Of course, this sort of rambunctiousness caused all sorts of friction in St. Louis, but it also produced a really fun little journal that appeared more often than most. With art by Jeff Huddlestone (a great Sherlockian artist of the day) and articles by regulars like Kelvin Jones and Brad Keefauver, The Baker Street Chronicle was a fun journal that made attempts at graphic design few would attempt with a typewriter, border tape, and paste. If I'm going to get sentimental about any Sherlockian period, its going to be the early 1980s, so I'm not the most objective where this one is concerned -- a great, fun journal of its time!

Sherlockian Periodicals: The Air-Gun

  

The Air-Gun

Duration: January 1985 to May 1991, seventeen issues, six years
Frequency: Monthly
Editor:Wally Conger
Club Affiliation: The Blind German Mechanics of Monrovia, CA

Here's a slim little number that was especially fun. Irreverent, arcane, with a touch of anarchy, yet as perfectly written and edited as one would hope from someone who made his living in the writing trade. Wally wrote about all the current Sherlockian bits like many another newsletter of the day, but he did it in a way that's still fascinating to read, even now. The Air-Gun featured articles some of the usual prolific writers of the day, but it was mostly the editor's baby and he did make it interesting. The ongoing series, "Sherlock's Secret War," spotlighted the very strange secret's behind the Canon, involving Holmes and the Illuminati, Holmes and things Lovecraftian, Holmes and all sorts of Things with a capital T. Wally also had a habit of pulling interesting quotes from his correspondence -- stuff that would get you tut-tutted on any internet chat for bashing Brett or the BSI in these non-1980s times. (But in reading these old issues one gets reminded that our current Sherlockian gripes have been with us a lot longer than anyone thinks about.)

There's the Sherlockian mainstream, and then there are those bits of the hobby that are the wild frontiers of the borderlands and beyond, which is where  The Air-Gun set up shop during its run.

Sherlockian Periodicals: Afghanistanzas

Twenty-first issue

 Afghanistanzas

Duration: October 31, 1976 to Summer 1986, fifty-six issues, eleven years
Frequency: Monthly
Editor:George Scheetz (1976, un-named), Mike Clark (1976-1980), Doug Highsmith (1980-1982), Jack Nordheden (1983-1985) 
Club Affiliation: The Double-Barrelled Tiger Cubs of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois 

I'll admit it: I'm probably a little prejudiced when it comes to this particular newsletter. It was the first one to which I ever subscribed. Maybe that's why it's one of my favorites, or maybe it was the enthusiastic mix of articles, news, pastiches, humor, movie stuff . . . basically, anything and everything about Sherlock Holmes and his legacy. 

The Double-Barrelled Tiger Cubs were (and are? I'm never sure.) a college-based group at the University of Illinois. Their membership turned over constantly as students enrolled at and graduated from the university, and they were (are?) consistently one of the youngest Sherlockian groups, and that youthful energy was always present in Afghanistanzas. Whether it was Doug Highsmith's Hornblower Holmes parodies, or the pastiches written by Toby Sherman (yes, that's Toby the dog), Julie Maynard's cover art, the comprehensive Christmas gift guides, or John Wyman's movie stills with word balloons added, Afghanistanzas showed off that energy with every monthly issue.

The Passing of a Paper Generation

 I had seen the signs. I knew things were changing. But now that I've seen it confirmed, I feel like I've lost an old friend.

The mass market paperback is dead.

Cheap, lightweight, and so common we thought they'd be around forever, the just under 4.25" by 7" standard paperback on cheap paper is going the way of all things historical. Sure, trade paperbacks will still exist, twice the size and mostly on better paper, but damn . . . I cut my teeth on the mass market paperback. My Sherlockian teeth.

Every Sherlock Holmes pastiche stocked by my junior college bookstore -- Farmer, Wellman, Boyer, Mitchelson & Utechin, and, of course, Meyer -- were gobbled up like M&Ms in my early days as a Sherlockian. 

Paperbacks were where I met Solar Pons and Vincent Starrett, and I can remember the exact location where I found each, a Walden Books and a Walgreens, in two different local malls.

The reasons for the demise of the mass market paperback are many, all of them eating away at the sales numbers that made them mass market.  Reading books on screens for one, but also that larger cultural shift we've seen since the internet started giving us near-unlimited options for entertainment: We're not all reading the same things any more. More writers are being published than ever before. A simple trip to Barnes & Noble can be a mind-boggling experience at the array of choices. Where Nicholas Meyer's Sherlockian pastichery was plentiful in the days of paperback bestsellers, his latest was just one among many Sherlockian works in today's trip to Barnes and Noble.

Books still exist, yes, and so do readers. And when you reach a certain age, for better or worse, you get to watch as previous eras slip through your fingers and fade. Moments of grief are natural. But then we turn back to the current world as it exists right now and get on with enjoying the people and things that are still with us, and plan for the days ahead.

But for today . . . alas, poor paperbacks. I knew them, Horatio . . .