166

I got a message from Derek McCulloch today. Back in the 1980s when I was reading comics (I still read comics, but I used to buy them regularly, not just borrow randomly selected graphic novels and collections from the library) Derek organized an APA, an amateur publication association, which used to be a somewhat common phenomenon. They may still exist but the internet has certainly put a crimp in them. How they worked was that a small membership (I think about 2 dozen people) living all over North America would write something every two months, make enough photocopies for each of the other members, and mail their copies to a central spot. The person receiving them would then collate them and mail the package to everyone so that everyone would receive everyone else's article. Everyone would also have to send money for postage. Sometimes it was very clever, although most of the time we were out to prove how smart a 18 year old REALLY is. One thing that came out of this was the union of Derek and paul Stockton and the formation of Strawberry Jam Comics. Derek is still writing comics, and I'm still typing aimless banter.