Cosmic Cuts
(For other cosmic things, see Cosmic.)
Cosmic Cuts was the clubzine of the Cosmos Club (CSC), a UK fan group based in Teddington, west London, in the 1940s.
An earlier incarnation of the group, the Paint Research Station Science Fiction Library (PRSSFL), had published a newsletter called Memo Sheet. At the beginning of 1943 the club reformed as the CSC. They published one further issue of Memo Sheet, v1#12, in April and then relaunched the newsletter as Cosmic Cuts from May with its first issue numbered v2#1. The first editor was E. Frank Parker with Gordon Holbrow becoming editor from v2#2 (June 1943). Dennis Tucker took over from v4#3 (August 1945) until the title ceased[1].
John Aiken wrote in the Whitcon booklet that it was:
... in those early and impoverished days, run off very sub rosa in the fire-watches of the night on the Research Station's rotary duplicator, a machine with a malignant and perverted sense of humour and a fondness for a kind of puree of paper and ink. Both of those traits left permanent wounds on the outlook of the editorial staff, working as they were amongst air raids and (far worse) under the shadow of detection. Gordon Holbrow eventually succeeded Parker as editor of Cosmic Cuts and infused it with high highly individual wit; when less energetic interests claimed him, Dennis Tucker stepped into the breach and was still at work when the club finally disintegrated round him.
V3#5 explained that:
Supplies of paper and stencils became shorter and shorter as 1944 drew to an end so that we were faced with a problem of keeping CC going with a very small quota of paper. It was decided that the alternate Club numbers would have to be cut to one sheet so that enough copies of the rest of the issues could be printed to send to America. We were loath to cut down on the US editions because it is the only return we make for all the magazines that are sent from across the Atlantic. Therefore this number and every alternate one will be cut to 2 pages and will contain only Club news.
V5#5 is the last known issue per the British Fanzine Bibliography and it seems to be the last as, per Aiken again::
Tucker's issue of Cosmic Cuts towards the end of that year [1946] was the last dying flicker of club activity, describing meetings which had sunk to the level of pub-crawls and theatre-parties, pleasant enough but demanding no individual effort.
| Issue | Date | Pages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| V2#1 | May 1943 | 8 | edited by E. Frank Parker |
| V2#2 | June 1943 | 2 | subtitled 'The Cosmos Club Memo Sheet'; now edited by Gordon Holbrow |
| V2#3 | August 1943 | 4 | |
| V2#4 | October 1943 | 4 | |
| V2#5 | December 1943 | 16 | in FWD 32; includes Convention Extra #1 |
| V2#6 | February 1944 | 6 | includes Convention Extra #2 |
| V2#7 | April 1944 | 14 | subtitled 'Convention Special'; includes Convention Extra #3 |
| V3#1 | June 1944 | 4 | |
| V3#2 | August 1944 | 10 | |
| V3#3 | October 1944 | 4 | |
| V3#4 | December 1944 | 14 | |
| V3#5 | February 1945 | 2 | subtitled 'Austerity Issue' |
| V3#6 | April 1945 | 10 | |
| V4#1 | June 1945 | 2 | subtitled '2nd Austerity Issue' |
| V4#2 | June 1945 | 2 | titled 'CC Extra' |
| V4#3 | August 1945 | 8 | first edited by Dennis Tucker; misnumbered 4.4 |
| V4#4 | August 1946 | 2 | |
| V4#5 | December 1945 | 4 | |
| V4#6 | February 1946 | 14 | misnumbered 4.5 |
| V5#1 | April 1946 | 14 | |
| V5#2 | June 1946 | 10 | |
| V5#3 | August 1946 | 10 | |
| V5#4 | October 1946 | 12 | |
| V5#5 | December 1946 | 6 |
- ↑ This and much other information here from the First Fandom Experience Archive (firstfandomexperience.org).
- Cosmic Cuts online at fanac.org.
| Publication | 1943—1946 |
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