Steven—

I’ve found that most of the coolest historical zines were from the UK in the first place, so I’m surprised you’re not already familiar with them, but here are some that have stuck with me as particularly good quality content (in no particular order):

- Imagine
- The Beholder
- Tortured Souls
- The Spectre
- Lords of Chaos

I’m sure other folks with more familiarity will chime in too!  

For a non-comprehensive listing of titles, see the Tome at https://tomeoftreasures.com/tot_fanzine ... e_home.htm

The zines tradition has continued to flourish in the OSR-era as well, so if you’d like modern recommendations, let us know that too!

Allan.

PS - Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a Pete Frame style family tree for zines?

red_bus wrote in UK Fanzines:. Since one of my areas of interest is the late 70s/early 80s UK growth I reckon I would look at Trollcrusher, but not really sure where else to start. I know also that Brett (here) is the Main Zine Dude. Also also are there Diplomacy/D&D zine crossovers worth seeking out as well?

The Dippy zines seem hit or miss to me, but some definitely have great D&D content (El Conquistador, Europa). Lenard Lakofka contributed (like EGG) to many, and he also had his own, which I summarized (based on what I know) at From Kuroth's Quill - grodog's AD&D blog: An Index of the D&D Works of Lenard "Leomund's Tiny Hut" Lakofka

Brett’s site is at Ariel Archives Online and I’ll let him or other zines experts provide some better guidance on starting points ;)

Allan.

A few thoughts to add to what has already been posted.

The early zines for me in the UK back in the late 70's that help illustrate how the game progressed were Underground Oracle and Trollcrusher. Both of these I think were formative in creating a template for those that followed, and some contributors to Trollcrusher later launched their own zines. Hartley Patterson's News from Bree was also influential. After that, I'd put The Beholder (which did go through multiple reprints, it proved so popular), Demonsblood and Illusionist's Vision. I dropped out of the hobby in about '81, so my own experience doesn't extend to those that followed like Tortured Souls and Imagine.

And if you're not just looking at fanzines, the articles and letter columns in the early White Dwarfs are good sources.

You might also find Joe Nuttall's blog of interest. He chronicled early D&D scenarios, including many that were first published in UK fanzines, and traces how they developed over time. The blog can be a little difficult to navigate but this link runs a search on his blog for that content: explorebeneathandbeyond.blogspot.com/se ... +scenarios

Also RPGgeek has many fanzines in its database, most with content listings and date of publication. For example, here's the one for The Beholder: https://rpggeek.com/rpgperiodical/2462/the-beholder

Have fun! It was a rich period in the history of D&D.