Ploy
Ploy was a science fiction fanzine by Ron Bennett (1933-2006).
Ploy was published in the UK in the 1950's. There was no 'first' issue; as the Fancyclopedia mentions, "the ploy here was that the first issue was PLOY #2." Bennett decided to begin the zine with issue 2, which was published in Autumn 1954. 13 issues appeared, the last in June 1959. Coming on board with issue 4 as art editor was Bill Harry.
Contributors of writing included Don Allen, John Ashcroft, Mal Ashworth (Rot), Eric Bentcliffe, John Berry (Pot Pourri), Sid Birchby, Bob Bloch, John Brunner, Greg Calkins (Oopsla!), Terry Carr (Innuendo), Vince Clarke (Science Fantasy News), Bob Coulson (Yandro), Pete Daniels, Alan Dodd (Camber), Paul Enever (Orion), Cliff Gould (Oblique), Don Harley, Bill Harry, Lee Hoffman (Quandry), Dave Jenrette (later co-editor of Tabebuian), Terry Jeeves, Keith Joseph, Brian Lewis, Nigel Lindsay, Stuart Mackenzie (EYE), Archie Mercer (Vector), Ken Potter (Brennschluss), Pete Reischer, Peter Rigby, Sandy Sanderson, Laurence Sandfield, Jim Sharman, Jack Smillie, Arthur Thomson (The ATom Anthology), Bob Tucker (Le Zombie), and Dennis Tucker.
The covers were drawn by Don Allen, Bill Harry, Dave Jenrette, Eddie Jones, Ken McIntyre, Arthur Thomson and Jack Wilson.
Interior illustrations were by John Berry, Juanita Coulson (Yandro), George Matzger, Lynette Mills and Bill Rotsler, which were captioned by John Owen.
The article, "The Purifans", written by Sid Birchby for Ploy was included in the fanzine yearbook, The Best of Fandom 1958.
The last issue of Ploy was the Bob Tucker Appreciation issue, which was published after Ron Bennett had already begun his next fanzine, Skyrack, which would be published till 1971.
At the same time as he was publishing Ploy, Ron Bennett also co-published the apazine Antwerpse Letterkundige En Wettenschappelijke Gazet with fans Jan Jansen (Alpha) and Archie Mercer (Vector) for the Offtrails Magazine Publishers Association, as well as Through Darkest Belgium with Dave Vendelmans (Alpha), and the newszine Contact with Jan Jansen, John Hitchcock and Ellin Mills.
