Quark (Tom Perry)

Quark was a science fiction fanzine published by Tom Perry.

Quark was published in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A. beginning in 1964 and published till 1966. At this time Tom Perry took a ten year break between issues, and returned to publishing with issue 13 in 1976. He resumed published new issues in the UK for a year before he stopped publishing in April 1977.

Contributors to the 1960s issues included Gina Clarke (Honque, Descant), writing on George Lincoln Rockwell, and Walt Willis with his regular column "The Harp That Once Or Twice". Other contributors included Eric Bentcliffe, Norm Clarke (Descant, Queebshots), David Langford (Ansible), and Joe Piloti.

At this time Tom Perry took a ten year break between issues, and returned to publishing with issue 13 in 1976. He resumed published new issues in the UK for a year before he stopped publishing in April 1977.

Peter Roberts, in Checkpoint 74, from December 1976, reviews the returning Quark; "In the midst of all these newcomers the wise and aged Tom Perry has emerged from the depths of time and restarted Quark after a ten year gap. I don't seem to have any of the older issues, so he'll be spared the comparison – from me, at least...In any event, I look forward to seeing future issues."

Contributors to the 1970s issues included Eric Bentcliffe, David Langford (Ansible), and Peter Weston (Speculation).

As Rob Hansen writes in Then, Volume 4, Chapter 3, Quark 14 contained a full account of 'the War of Hazel's Nose'; While visiting these shores in 1976, Harlan Ellison had dropped in on the July meeting at the One Tun and had a long conversation with Hazel Langford, during which he playfully tweaked her nose. When husband Dave joined them and was told of this he had, on impulse, tweaked Ellison's nose. He thought no more of the exchange but, in the course of an interview with Chris Fowler in VECTOR 75 soon afterwards, Ellison complained about "the son of a bitch" who would now go around boasting that he had "tweaked the great Ellison's nose":

"I have an enormous number of people who think they're going to make points with themselves, who must lead such mingey little lives that to be able to do this kind of thing must be a great feather in their cap."

Dave Langford was understandably annoyed by this, and his piece in QUARK was an attempt to set the record straight about a trivial incident he hadn't thought interesting enough to be worth writing up for a fanzine at the time. He still didn't, but yielded to Perry's badgering.

Tom Perry died of cancer on July 8, 1997, in Gainesville, Florida. Aside from publishing the fanzines Logorrhea and Quark, he also was a frequent contributor of articles to AMAZING under the editorship of Ted White, in the 1970s.