The electric Wild Goose

The Wild Goose: A Collection of Ocean Waifs was a weekly newspaper published in 1867 by British prisoners as they sailed to a penal colony in Australia.

Handwritten on foolscap donated by the onboard priest, it was read aloud to passengers of the convict ship Hougoumont every Sunday. Reaching a landmark seven issues, The Wild Goose could be called Australia’s first zine.

So when Adam suggested we should do an e-zine, I suggested we reuse the title from Australia’s earliest days.

We hope to publish regularly (allegedly monthly!), and to include works from fans local and distant. Our zine will first appear on the website (you can subscribe to get an email when it’s out), then later be available as a download you can read locally (ie unconnected to the internet).

We hope to cover SF, fantasy, whimsy, and odd interesting items which we run across. There will be some argument, some controversy and, I suspect, lots of agreement amongst the editors. We also hope to encourage new fans to write, draw, record or film content for the zine.

You can contact the editors via email to editors@wild-goose.net, and letters of comment should be sent to letters@wild-goose.net.

Why an electric fanzine?

  • It means that the fanzine is immediately available worldwide, for both contributors and readers.
  • We can add content which can’t be published directly on paper: audio recordings, animated slideshows, videos and games.
  • Full colour is available for publishing paintings, drawings and photographs.
  • No postage costs!

But most of all, we wanted to experiment with the form.

We hope you enjoy the experiment and contribute to the contents and discussion.

Roman & Adam

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