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What
was The Gundie Weekly Journal?
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The final issue of The Gundie Weekly
Journal, published Fall 1995.
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It
started on a photocopier, after being hand-typed
on a manual typewriter. Sounds like the Stone
Age, doesn’t it? In fact it was just twenty
years ago (and the manual typewriter was replaced
by an electric fairly quickly).
In 1984 I was making commercials at WSPD in Toledo.
I had creative friends. At least one was a very
gifted writer. When I asked, “Are you writing
these days?” his answer was, “I have
nothing to write for.” Aha! I thought, like
Pat Paulsen used to say, “Sure, why not?”
I’ll cajole several friends of mine to send
me odd little bits of writing, I’ll even
get a friend of mine who can draw to attempt comics,
and I’ll type them all up, copy them, and
send them around to about 25 of our group. As
for the name, friends seem to naturally call me
Gundie. I had named my high school English notebook
The Gundie Weekly Journal simply because I liked
the rhythm of the name The Akron Beacon Journal,
as it was known then. The photocopied new ‘zine
was a monthly, but, well, accuracy didn’t
concern me. This was a purely creative forum.
I didn’t give out ideas, I expected to just
receive finished pieces. The first issues were
about 4 pages.
A dozen years later, the then quarterly “circulation”
was around 250, with a readership higher than
that. Several copies were passed around offices.
(I am a freelance voice actor, and I sent it around
to some of my potential employers.) The issues
were now 50 pages long, with 15 or so contributors
each. They included professional writers, a Ph.D.
candidate, poets, essayists, cartoonists, and
folks who just had a clever idea. I, by necessity,
had become an editor, and learned how rewarding
it was to help someone polish their idea, not
by rewriting for them, but by asking them questions
so that they could think a little more about this
detail or that.
By 1995, The Gundie Weekly Journal was professionally
printed, and getting a larger reputation as a
readable, fun, sometimes serious, well presented
magazine. Each issue was proofread twice! It was
also more than I could do alone. And so, after
its baby steps had grown into adult strides, The
Gundie Weekly Journal turned towards the sunset
and we said good-bye.
And now, a radio show with the same editorial
bent. So why not the same name? Okay, so I finally
dropped the Weekly. …It’s not the
same without it. Sigh.
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