IFW News (Summer 1973)

[increment]

Title:IFW News, circa July 1973
Type: Wargaming Club zine
Copyright: n/a
Place of Publication: n/a
Printer: John Bobek
Cover Price: n/a
Mass: ??
Dimensions: Height 27.9cm, Width 21.6cm, Depth nil
Format: Single sheet, double sided.

Inky's inklings:

First page is so badly duplicated that a scan is fruitless. The second page is reproduced above. Through some painstaking reconstruction, I do have a complete text for the first page. The salient portion follows:

"This newsletter will attempt to explain what has happened and what will happen to the IFW. I apologize for the inordinate delays and take responsibility for them.

"The International Wargamer, it would appear, is finished. The Lake Geneva Convention was a financial bomb which directed IFW funds away from the IW. Add to this the loss of income due to interminable delay, and the story is we are broke. Issue number 65 is the last we have produced.

"Now, we still have a membership list of over 800 wargamers, a goodly number of wargaming articles, a number of them of fine quality, and a collection of unpublished artwork by the IW’s staff. In addition, we’re certain most of our staff would be willing to work for another ‘zine.

"IF ANYONE KNOWS OF A WARGAMING ‘ZINE INTERESTED IN ACQUIRING THE REMAINS OF THE IW, IN RETURN FOR FULFILLING OUR SUBSCRIPTION OBGLIATION, PLEASE ADVISE THEM TO CONTACT ME, John P. Bobek, 3919 W. 68th St., Chicago, IL 50629. I will sign over the IW remains to the most promising offer."

According to Don Lowry in Panzerfaust #60 (Sep 1973), this dittographed sheet accompanied International Wargamer v5n9, the final issue - I found this sheet with a copy of v5n9 as well. Internal evidence within v5n9, especially advertisements for the Chicago International Game Show, suggests that v5n9 was intended to appear before the end of June 1973, although in all likelihood it was delayed substantially.

The charge that GenCon bankrupt the IFW is an interesting one, and refers to GenCon V in 1972. This event was by all accounts a disappointment, in part because of its remote and inconvenient venue, but mostly because Gygax absolved himself of all responsibility for it. However, the IFW had certainly entered dire straits long before this period, and to blame GenCon for the inability to produce copies of the International Wargamer for almost a year is deeply suspect.

The number 800 is also a bit dubious. All indications I've seen suggest that the maximum circulation of the International Wargamer was around 550. Perhaps the number Bobek quotes here factors in the total membership over time without regard to attrition.

Although Lowry offered to pick up the subscription base of the IW, this responsibility would instead devolve to the Diplomacy zine El Conquistador, which had close ties to Lakofka.