(Written for the souvenir book of the first SFContario, held in Toronto in November 2010 with Geri as fan guest of honour. Now with added afterthoughts!)
What can I possibly say about Geri Sullivan, a fabulous fan who needs no introduction?
The Plain People of Fandom: That is what, in the esoteric and impenetrable jargon of the fan world, we call a cop-out. Get on with it, Langford.
Myself: Oh, all right. I have particularly fond memories of meeting Geri in what should be one of fandom’s holy places, marked with a blue plaque on the outside wall like other UK dwellings of the famous. This was the late Vin¢ Clarke’s fanning room at 16 Wendover Way, Welling, Kent – crowded with fanzine production equipment, chunks of Vin¢’s vast Collection, 1940s-50s fan memorabilia, original Atom cartoons on the walls, and much more. Vin¢, publisher of Science Fantasy News from 1948 to 1960 and the TransAtlantic Fan Fund’s first winner in 1954, had returned to fandom in the 1980s after a long absence and appreciated the good things he found. One of these was Geri.
So Vin¢ held a special KTF (Kent TruFandom) gathering at “16WWW” in honour of Geri’s UK visit in 1992, and the Spirit of Fandom filled the room with a golden haze. Or maybe this had something with the vast quantities of booze that I and others hauled along for fear of being too great a drain on Vin¢’s hospitality. Towards the end of that happily blurred afternoon, as various guests sought the railway station, I remember Geri and Bridget Wilkinson walking ahead of me ... tactfully pretending not to notice my repeated efforts to haul famous KTF (Kill The Fuckers) fanzine critic Joseph Nicholas out of the gutter and keep him lurching in a vaguely forwards direction. A true fan like Geri knows the value of tact.
Alas, Vin¢ died after long illness towards the end of 1998. Of course there was a substantial fannish turnout for his funeral. Those living on the other side of the Atlantic could hardly be expected to fly over at short notice in deep-frozen winter, but to general astonishment Nigel Rowe made it from Chicago and Geri from Minneapolis. True fans indeed.
Geri’s much-admired fanzine Idea began publication in 1988, and after a couple of xeroxed issues switched to traditional mimeography, becoming an object lesson in how to coax beautiful results from the Old Technology of the Ancient Forerunners – such as Vin¢ Clarke. Despite heavy local competition at the first Corflu (the fanzine fans’ convention) ever to be held in Britain, Geri decisively won the Best Fanzine category of the 1998 FAAn Awards for Idea, and was also voted #1 Fan Face. The latter came as a great relief to all concerned, since the runner-up was the rather less photogenic D. West, of whom adjectives like “eldritch” and “batrachian” have so often been used by observers who unwisely thought they were at a safe enough distance. Idea won another FAAn as Best Fanzine in 2001.
Of course the secret of Geri’s success isn’t confined to mere technology and incantations to the forgotten gods Twiltone and Fibertone. Actual design flair comes into it – and here we remember that in real life Geri is a freelance designer of brochures and other publications for a demanding clientele with cruel, ever-changing specifications. There’s also the question of selecting good stuff to print. Contributors (I am as pleased as by anything else in my fan career to have had this honour) know if they fail to deliver less than their very best work, the editor will square her shoulders and give them a penetrating yet plaintive Look.
From 1991 Geri brought her superb production standards to Lee Hoffman’s legendary Science-Fiction Five-Yearly, as guest co-editor of its last four issues, whose changing editorial line-up also included Randy Byers, Andy Hooper, Terry Hughes and Jeff Schalles. Geri, Lee and Randy shared the Best Fanzine Hugo for SFFY’s twelfth and final issue, published on schedule in 2006 – 55 years after the fanzine began. Back then, everyone thought that title was a joke; but (just like, or maybe not just like, Harlan Ellison with The Last Dangerous Visions) Lee Hoffman meant what she said.
In convention-going circles, Geri has a reputation for lavishly hospitable con suites. Indeed she was division manager in charge of hospitality for ConJosé, the 2002 San José Worldcon; and, beyond the fields of fandom as we know it, has played a similar part in the Ig Nobel Prizes ceremony as a member of this august body’s Board of Governors. Rather than list the all too many conventions for which she’s toiled so hard ...
(The Plain People of Fandom: Because you’re too lazy to do that much research.
(Myself: Shut up.
(The Plain People of Ben Yalow: You could at least mention Boskone.)
... I’ll merely wallow in happy memories of her and Jeff Schalles’ hospitality at Toad Hall in Minneapolis. Just as Vin¢ Clarke’s trophy room had been a shrine of old-time fandom, this was the modern and differently weird equivalent, with an expected motif of toads (in all shapes, sizes and colours) and an unexpected counterpoint of exotic Pez dispensers (ditto). As I bemusedly wrote afterwards:
“Every surface is littered with enough toys and silliness to keep the most jaded fan (me) happy for hours. Living-room highlights visible from where I most often sat slumped included much antique wooden furniture (most spectacularly, an ancient music-box that plays 18” perforated metal discs, the one in situ being Der Hugenotten [1898], which I painstakingly translated as The Huge Otter), stained-glass windows, a realistic wall-hung punk unicorn head conceived by Terry Garey and arted by Giovanna Fregni, sundry arcane optical devices, a monstrous deep-sea fish model suspended from the ceiling, a Fabergé-style egg containing a china frog reading The Wall Street Journal, a USS Enterprise telephone, a chair that delivers alarmingly intimate electrical massage, racks on racks of Pez memorabilia, and innumerable further frogs, toads, books, knick-knacks and playthings.
“But, contrary to popular report and the insidious distortions of urban myth, there are only ten mimeographs in the Toad Hall basement. The other two are out in the garage.”
It was a place of awe and wonderment, and it seemed almost anticlimactic to move on to the 1998 Minicon, where I had my own 15 seconds of fame as fan guest and Geri – being my official minder or Shouter-At-Deaf-Twit – had thoughtfully stashed the party-suite beer in my room just in case I should come over all thirsty in the night. Good memories indeed. The final Minicon party may have been a little dry, but the fan guest still made happy sloshing noises when tilted.
Lastly, as a SF aficionado with Welsh roots, I can’t help but feel a deep spiritual bond with Geri since she and Toad Hall moved to Wales. Iechyd da! Sospan fach! (Insert further plangent Welsh oaths here.) Admittedly she opted for the Wales in Massachusetts, but nevertheless it shows the right Celtic spirit.
I know you’ll give Geri a great and greatly deserved time as SFContario’s Fan Guest of Honour, and only wish I could be there to see it.
The Plain People of Fandom: Just because you’d like a chance to hug the poor woman again, the way you always do, you male chauvinist swine.
Myself: Well, it’s all in the fannish family. The late great Chuch Harris, sometime co-editor of that hallowed fanzine Hyphen, made a point of adopting Geri as his mother-in-fandom since the position of daughter had already been taken by Avedon Carol. Perhaps Geri could be my uncle or something?
The Plain People of Fandom: Dream on, Langford.
Myself: Further remarkable facts about Geri Sullivan may be discovered by applying the ancient and mystical art of Anagramancy to her name. Thus she is notorious for being the hard-working Sugar Villein who supplies candy to con suites; she may often be found wearing an Allusive Grin; she loves strange late-night parties, or Unreal Vigils; where fandom’s goals are concerned she can Unveil Grails (very probably including the Enchanted Duplicator or Magic Mimeograph); she views unsociable con-suite behaviour as a Singular Evil; admirers are apt to gaze on her with Visual Linger ...
The Plain People of Fandom: Enough!