The Avengers International Fan Forum

As a kid, after I got into Doctor Who, I was quickly able to find out about Doctor Who Magazine, which I was able to find here in the US. Over the years I've found other magazines devoted to favorite tv shows, like the infamous Wrapped In Plastic (devoted to David Lynch's great Twin Peaks) and the Gerry Anderson Fanderson publication.

So here is a question: was there ever an official Avengers magazine? What about an Avengers fanzine? And if so, are any of them worth tracking down?

There was never really an "official" Avengers magazine, aside from the odd one-off like the TNA Souvenir Special or "Meet the Avengers" during the Gale era. Loads of fanzines, though, most notably Dave Rogers' On Target/Stay Tuned, which are worth tracking down. There's a thread about people's favourites here:

http://avengersfanforum.s2.bizhat.com/v ... rsfanforum

A good list of all the various fanzines is on Dead Duck:

http://deadduck.theavengers.tv/fanzineindex.htm

thanks for that speedy response! I knew they had to be around somewhere!

Borgus Weems wrote:thanks for that speedy response! I knew they had to be around somewhere!

My pleasure! A lot of my thoughts on the best fanzines to get are in the other thread, but I'll just rehash that for general interest On Target/Stay Tuned are the best, and also the easiest to find floating around ebay. If you're keen on TNA, the Patrick Macnee Fan Network ones are good as well, and With Umbrella, Charm and Bowler is a bit of fun.

Timeless A-Peel wrote:

Borgus Weems wrote:thanks for that speedy response! I knew they had to be around somewhere!

My pleasure! A lot of my thoughts on the best fanzines to get are in the other thread, but I'll just rehash that for general interest On Target/Stay Tuned are the best, and also the easiest to find floating around ebay. If you're keen on TNA, the Patrick Macnee Fan Network ones are good as well, and With Umbrella, Charm and Bowler is a bit of fun.

I've never seen the With umbrella charm and bowler newspapers. How many photos did each issue have? Did they contain any interesting Avengers info? Thanks. Rich.

cyberrich wrote:

Timeless A-Peel wrote:

Borgus Weems wrote:thanks for that speedy response! I knew they had to be around somewhere!

My pleasure! A lot of my thoughts on the best fanzines to get are in the other thread, but I'll just rehash that for general interest On Target/Stay Tuned are the best, and also the easiest to find floating around ebay. If you're keen on TNA, the Patrick Macnee Fan Network ones are good as well, and With Umbrella, Charm and Bowler is a bit of fun.

I've never seen the With umbrella charm and bowler newspapers. How many photos did each issue have? Did they contain any interesting Avengers info? Thanks. Rich.

There are a few photos per issue, usually quite big because the newspaper format allowed for it. They have quite a few features--some character profiles, some fanfiction, features on the merchandise. There was a very good interview with Sydney Newman which made for good reading, given that it was from the eighties and they were able to ask him what he thought of the show's development after his tenure (he was scathing about TNA), and why he never asked for a creator's credit. I enjoyed them.

Thanks for that. I'll add these to my collection when I manage to locate them. I think there's eleven aren't there? I bet the Pat Macnee newsletter series is very rare these days, so I'll be lucky! I've got every issue of On Target/Stay tuned, so I'm always looking for new stuff. There were 3 issues of Bizarre which came out around 1990, a very shortlived Avengers fanzine. Anyone got these Rich.

cyberrich wrote:Thanks for that. I'll add these to my collection when I manage to locate them. I think there's eleven aren't there? I bet the Pat Macnee newsletter series is very rare these days, so I'll be lucky! I've got every issue of On Target/Stay tuned, so I'm always looking for new stuff. There were 3 issues of Bizarre which came out around 1990, a very shortlived Avengers fanzine. Anyone got these Rich.

What Patrick Macnee newsletter? What was it like? what kinds of things did he have to chat about?

cyberrich wrote:Thanks for that. I'll add these to my collection when I manage to locate them. I think there's eleven aren't there? I bet the Pat Macnee newsletter series is very rare these days, so I'll be lucky! I've got every issue of On Target/Stay tuned, so I'm always looking for new stuff. There were 3 issues of Bizarre which came out around 1990, a very shortlived Avengers fanzine. Anyone got these Rich.

There were 10 issues of WUCB, but the first two weren't in newspaper format, and I've been unable to locate them. The fanzine eventually evolved into "Top Secret", which covered series beyond The Avengers. I have a couple of issues of Bizarre as well. Dead Duck lists the contents of those (and a host of other fanzines):

http://deadduck.theavengers.tv/fanzineindex.htm

anti-clockwise wrote:What Patrick Macnee newsletter? What was it like? what kinds of things did he have to chat about?

It was called "The Avengers/ Patrick Macnee Fan Network Newsletter", but it was fan-produced, not sent out by/affiliated with Patrick in any way (other than as an honourary president, as the editors wrote to him and asked if he'd accept the title. Gareth and Joanna were given the same status). It is indeed very rare, and I only have a few issues. It was published from 1978-1980, so it's very TNA-centric, as the show was "new" at the time. There's a lot of hoping against hope that the CBS deal was going to go through, and that season 3 of TNA would see the light of day. It hurts even worse when you're reading it knowing how it turned out!