Niekas fanzine online

Fanac is a great resource. I have Niekas #1 as well in my collection, and also haven’t yet seen #47-48

Interesting! You should scan #1 and offer them the images. In one of the later issues (maybe 46, I've been ploughing through) Meškys noted his son was uploading issues to a site, now in archive.org but not live. Unfortunately #1 and the mysterious last issues were not there, either. He also mentioned that he had arranged at that time to donate his fanzines to the FANAC people, who were to drive up (FL to NH) to pick them up. One wonders if that ever happened. I can't imagine that he didn't have #1.

Yesterday, I copied all the images of 2-21, combined them into a big pdf file, then deleted the images, without first realizing that Adobe Acrobat had somehow not collected all the files. So, last night was repeat time. Cautiously, I am creating individual issue pdfs, with correct pagination, and running OCR as I type.

I've written to a couple of people, including one of the authors of articles through nearly the whole history of Niekas. I think the latter may be able to answer the question about the final issues. I shall share!

By the way, Urulókë, could you look in your Niekas 1 and see if Ed Meskys explicitly states that the title 'Niekas' is the Lithuanian word for 'nothing' and post the page reference, if it is noted? I expect it's in there somewhere. The earliest explicit definintion of the title as Lithuanian in origin is in Niekas 7, p. 42.

oxonianus wrote:

By the way, Urulókë, could you look in your Niekas 1 and see if Ed Meskys explicitly states that the title 'Niekas' is the Lithuanian word for 'nothing' and post the page reference, if it is noted? I expect it's in there somewhere. The earliest explicit definition of the title as Lithuanian in origin is in Niekas 7, p. 42.

Sure.

Cover: (Picture of two strange characters) First: "Niekas? What's Niekas?". Second: "Oh, it's nothing."
Page 2: "After I did the lettering for the cover I had to think of something to fill up the rest of the page. Well, the caption came easily enuf (sic) but I needed people/critters to say the words. And since I can't draw it had to be something simple and the Atom-like characters came to mind. I was bothered a bit about 'stealing' his style but then I remembered that RiP Schultz used similar creatures so I figured it was safe for me to do likewise."

Urulókë, I've been doing some digging through the later Niekas issues, and it appears that issues 47 and 48 were never published. The period from 1992 onward was plagued with production issues, with plans changing and issues never being published. Number 44 was near finalized in 1992, but not published until 1994. In 43C (1992; not 1991 as on fanac.org), Meškys mentions a plan for a Tolkien issue for 45, edited by Anne Braude, but never published, and an archived plan mentions a second Tolkien issue 49 that was likewise never published. An archived page of sometime in 1992 in conjunction with 43C indicates the issues planned in 1992 were:
43B: 50-word Short Stories 2 [according to 43C; never published]
44: On Kipling [published as 44; subject unstated in 43C]
45: Tolkien 1 [according to 43C]
46: Sports in Fantasy [archived plan; published as 46]
47: Arthur 2 [according to 43C and archived plan; never published]
48: On Arthur Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Inferno, and Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery' [archived plan; never published]
49: Dark Fantasy [according to 43C; published as 45] or Tolkien 2 [according to archived plan]

The published issues from 44, more clearly, were:
44: On Kipling
45: Dark Fantasy
46: Strange Sports Stories

So, aside from Niekas 1, all issues of Niekas that were ever published are available on fanac.org

Excellent! Thank you so much!

oxonianus wrote:

So, aside from Niekas 1, all issues of Niekas that were ever published are available on fanac.org

I think you are likely correct, but I would like to note in passing that there is a whole family of "Niekas Publications" that were printed as paperback "books" and were not always given issue numbers. None of these are in fanac's scanned collection. (Update, my memory failed me ad three of the below did have issue numbers)

I have in my personal collection:

• Fifty Extremely SF* Stories, 1982
  
• A Silverlock Companion, 1988
  
• Obsessions, 1990. (#41a)
  
• The Illustrated Bradbury, 1990 (#41b)
  
• After All These Years... Sam Moskowitz on His Science Fiction Career, 1991 (#43a)
  

The last has a listing of "Other Niekas Publications" at the end, which includes the above, but also mentions

• Attack of the Fifty Extremely SF* Stories
  
• Andre Norton: Fables and Futures (Update: released as issue #40)
  
• The Once and Future Arthur (Update - originally released as #38, but #43c mentions working on a second edition, which I do not think ever got published)
  

Given the detailed printing information given I think Attack could have been published, but I haven't come across a copy.

My memory was hazy for that prior post - I have made significant updates to it to correct.

That clarifies things nicely! Niekas 43B was planned to be a 'second volume of 50-word short stories', intended for 1991; the published first volume of the 50-word short stories must be the 1982 volume you note; it doesn't seem to be an Niekas issue number. 'Andre Norton: Fables & Futures' was Niekas 40, also described at the bottom of the table of contents as 'A Niekas Publications Book' and 'Niekas Publications paperback edition/August 1989', so that was was certainly published. The Bradbury you have is also Niekas 41B. The Moskowitz was also Niekas 43A, 1991. 'The Once and Future Arthur' was number 38. The rest don't appear to have been Niekas numbers. Interesting stuff!