GUNK'L'DUNK e-mail newsletter for fans of _Tales_of_the_Beanworld_ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Issue 06 18 January, 1992 Gunk'l'dunk is here to provide a forum for fans of Larry Marder's _Tales of the Beanworld_ (TOTB), and to promote wider readership of this unique comic. This newsletter is sent out whenever I have enough material/submissions to make it worthwhile. Compiled by Jeremy York, jeremy@stat.washington.edu Submissions, and comments on content and/or format gladly accepted! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INFORMATION AND ADMINISTRIVIA If you're new to Gunk'l'dunk, and need to know more, have I sent you my generic info/intro file? If not, drop me a line... Companion file this issue : an edited summary of TOTB discussion on the GEnie network from the last year! Hello, geniepeople! This issue is a little later than I would have liked, because I sent off a dozen job applications earlier this month. My thesis should be done by the end of the year, possibly by the end of the summer...With this in mind, I have a question for you : would anyone out there like to take over editing Gunk'l'dunk sometime this year? As my thesis work gets more intense, and I go on job interviews, the intervals between the newsletters could get pretty sporadic (sound familiar?). Potential editors should have a commitment to the book, ability to manipulate and edit large files, knowledge of how to get mail to internet, bitnet, fidonet, how to post on usenet etc, and, most importantly, an e-mail address that will be stable for a good period of time. Don't worry folks, I'm not going to abandon you if nobody fills my shoes this spring; but the level of service may deteriorate. And, wherever I wind up working, I will be doing all that's necessary to get an internet account and get plugged in again. By the way, anyone know of job openings for statisticians? :-) Back issues of the newsletter are always available on request . Does anyone have access to/suggestions for an anonymous ftp archive? #00 - written by me, just a sketch of what Gunk'l'dunk would look like #01 - news of the second trade paperback, character descriptions, a detailed list of sources for backissues, various discussions. supplement to #01 - Tim Tjark's Beanworld index, with plot synopses and cover descriptions for each issue through #16 or #17 #02 - mostly discussion by the readers, including the identity of the three lil' Mr.'s in TOTB #19 #03 - a quick summary of a conversation with Larry, speculation about the origin of Mr. Spook, the Fantastic Four reference in #19 #04 - discussion of the Four Realities, jeremy gushes about Total Eclipse and some back-issues #05 - various discussion, and results from my Goofy Survey sources - a slightly revised version of the backissues source list from Gunk'l'dunk #01 WANTED : More ASCII art! I'd try, but I'm no Beanish. Somebody out there's gotta have some time to waste... WANTED : More subscribers! Feel free to advertise this newsletter through any means, and give my e-mail address out. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTIONS From: STU_GLMCELHA@vax2.acs.jmu.edu (Lord Drizzan) Hi there! My name's Greg McElhatton, and I'm a very new convert to the gifts of Gran'ma'pa. Hoka Hoka Hey! My first contact with Beanworld was on the GEnie computer network, where three or four people discussed in depth the workings of the Bean. (I'm DRIZZAN there, if you want to GEmail me) As much as I liked listening to them talk about it and slowly putting together a good picture of the Beanworld, I still wanted to read the issues from the start, but never saw any early ones around. One day, I was at a friend's house in the middle of an AD&D campaign, and we stopped for a 5 minute break. I wandered over to his bookshelf where he kept his prestige format books, and lo and behold . . . he had the limited edition BEANWORLD VOLUME ONE. I read like I had never read in those five minutes, let me tell you. And by the time we started playing again, I had come to a decision--I was GOING to find those issues of Beanworld and read them in depth. The next day, I was reading my Comic Buyer's Guide when what should I see . . . but Eclipse's 25% off sale! So, the next thing I knew, I had ordered the first TPB. At this point, I'm waiting (forever, it seems) for the second TPB to come out, and then I'm going to hunt down what issues I can locally, and then order the rest from either the Beanworld Press or Eclipse . . . Hoka Hoka Hey! *****gunk'l'dunk***** From: William Sherman Newcomer blurb: I'm working on a PhD in Mathematics at UCLA. I'm 25, and read several other comics: Cerebus, Love & Rockets, Cages, Sandman, Metropol, Krazy Kat, Yummy Fur (for example). Music: Cocteau Twins, Cole Porter, Art of Noise, XTC, Penguin Cafe Orchestra etc. Writers: James Joyce (I'm in a _Finnegans_Wake_ discussion group here at UCLA), Graham Swift, John Crowley. I got into _Beanworld_ when a friend recommended it. Wild 'n' waxy wahoolazuma to all. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BEAN NEWS Same as it ever was. Last I heard, issue #20 is expected out in February; the second trade paperback (collecting 5-7, plus the "Proffy the Snoopy Anthropologist" backup from #'s 3 and 5) is due out anytime. When I talked to Larry in late November 91, the trade paperback was just going off to the printers; he said these things can take 10 days or 10 weeks depending on whether the printer is overbooked. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TALES FROM THE MARDERWORLD I haven't heard from Larry in over a month now, so I'm not sure quite what's going on. I hope nothing's wrong...Anyway, I won't release the interview until I get his corrections/additions or his permission to send it out as is. Sorry, folks, I'm itchin to send it out, I'm just sitting on a big ol' ant hill and a'squirmin, but I told him I'd wait... *****gunk'l'dunk***** Dave Sim [creator of Cerebus, a fave of Larry and many others] will be appearing in Chicago as part of the Cerebus World Tour '92, and he and Larry will be auctioning off a Cerebus/Beanworld jam piece as part of the appearance. Proceeds will go to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Here are the details for Dave Sim's appearances; I would guess that Larry will show up for at least some of this... Dave Sim, creator of Cerebus, will be at : Hyatt Regency, Woodfield Road, Schaumburg, April 26 Store appearances : Moondog's, Mount Prospect, April 24 Moondog's, Lincoln Park, April 25 If you'll recall, Moondog's is the Chicago area comic chain that Larry's been doing advertising/marketing for lately as his day job. If you're not in Chicago but would be interested in buying a collectable like this, why not send Larry a bid in the mail? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MISCELLANEOUS DISCUSSION *****gunk'l'dunk***** People didn't have much to say this month; too busy with the holidays? Anyway, since #20 is on the horizon, I'm sure there'll be plenty to talk about when it appears. I'll send mail to all the first I hear of it being on the shelves... From: William Sherman I noticed in the summaries of the the contents of previous issues of Gunk'l'dunk that there has been discussion of the Fantastic Four reference in a recent issue. Just wondering: did anybody observe that the line "The bean stripped bare of its homeworld, even" is a reference to "The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even", a glass sculpture by Marcel Duchamp? Duchamp is one of Marder's favorite artists, according to the TOTB letter-column. *****gunk'l'dunk***** From: Jeremy York Hey, thanks for that Duchamp reference. That middle section of 19 is entirely built around references like that; whenever Larry gets that dad-burn interview back to me, you'll all get to see what he has to say. Basically, the inspiration constellation is exactly that - a representation of Larry's major inspirations. Heyoka falls through them, in the opposite order that they came to be in Larry's life (of course!) The bottom left is Amerindian myth/art; the middle left is Duchamp; the upper left is R. Crumb; and the upper right is the fantastic four (the stony-faced Thing, the human torch, the rubber man and the invisible woman), representing Jack Kirby. He explains all that in the interview, and says that although he felt it was pretty self-indulgent, it was something he'd been playing with and looking forward to for a long time -- and it will be important for the story someday (unlike, for example, the lil' Misters, who were just a one-shot thing). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End, Gunk'l'dunk #06