A Brief History of Electric Velocipede
John Klima
Around the turn of the century I sat in a cramped convention room while Gavin Grant and Kelly Link exhorted to us that every single person in the room could start their own zine. Gavin and Kelly had been publishing Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet for a number of years and had recently founded Small Beer Press; they knew what they were talking about. They were making a cool zine that was unique, quirky, and full of great stories.
It wasn’t the first time I thought about starting a magazine, but it was the first time the idea stuck. I kept hearing Gavin’s voice, “Every single person in this room can start their own zine” over and over again. I had just left working in publishing full time and missed it terribly. And now I knew what to do about that.
In short order Alan DeNiro, Kristin Livdahl, and Christopher Barzak started Rabid Transit, Gwenda Bond and Christopher Rowe started their Say… series, William Smith started Trunk Stories, and Mark Rudolph started Full Unit Hookup.
And I started Electric Velocipede.
Other than the perennially fantastic and still in publication LCRW, Electric Velocipede had the longest run of all those involved. We ran for twelve years publishing twenty-seven issues in all.
We won the Hugo in 2009 for Best Fanzine. We were nominated four years in a row for a World Fantasy Award. We’ve had stories shortlisted for the Sturgeon Award and the Tiptree Award.
We had a great run. We survived this long because we got consistently great work from writers and artists. Nearly every issue started with an email to the issue’s contributors where I told them it was the best issue to date, and in general it was true. The last issue really cemented what I wanted Electric Velocipede to become over its twelve-year run.
This anthology showcases the high-quality work we published over the years. If you’ve never read the magazine, you’re in for a treat. If you’re already a fan, you’ll still find a lot of great stuff in here that you’ve never read before.
We’ve had a great run. Enjoy yourself.