The Essence

The Essence was a science fiction fanzine by Jim Shull and Jay Zaremba.

The Essence was published in California, U.S.A. Issue 2 was released in 1970, and reviewed by John D. Berry in Amazing. Four issues were released, the last in June 1973.

Contributors included Tim Kirk, with a feature art portfolio, "Lords of the Starship".

Contributors of writing included David Gerrold, and Andrew Offutt.

Writing in So It Goes #18 (2009), Tim Marion's article "The Ghost of Fanzines Past" talks about The Essence; "Shull was Severely Underrated, in my opinion. Or at the very least, not given much attention in fanzines, other than the article in Outworlds by Barry Gilliam...Shull himself actually addressed the issue of not very much criticism (or comment) being given toward fanart in the first issue of his and Jay Zaremba’s The Essence...Although The Essence quickly evolved into an elaborately mimeographed fanzine, using much blank space very artistically (perhaps even more artistically than Gregg Calkins!), the first couple of issues are small, wraparound, offset digest affairs...Also of note is a piece by Andy Offutt talking about letters from editors, in other words, the rejection letters he has received in the course of his career so far at that time of writing. It made surprisingly amusing reading."