The Offense Newsletter #13

The Offense Newsletter was what The Offense quickly evolved into when it became clear that editor Tim Anstaett had hit the point of no return with distributors; and, one might imagine, his own sanity, given the breakneck pace of publishing The Offense had from its perch in Columbus, OH in the early 80s. (You may or may not recall we took a look at this fanzine here and here – that’s probably a good place to start in order to better understand what’s going on with the Newsletter). 

Yet the breakneck pace didn’t stop. That Offense #15 I talked about was a March 1982 issue; by the time of this “December 3rd, 1982” Offense Newsletter, Anstaett and his contributors were already on their thirteenth issue of the newsletter. It would go at least into 80-something issues, and they’d vary in size. The Offense Newsletter #13 is a mere 8 pages (7, really – with a blank back cover), with so much crammed into it it’s kinda like I said before – could easily have been sixteen or more without too much art filler.

Anstaett and I actually guested together on a podcast about fanzines recently, which you can listen to here. I should probably know this already as a result, but I surmise that the Newsletter only received minimal if any distribution in non-Columbus stores. There’s no cover price, for instance. It’s also 8 pages – in 1982, that might’ve garnered about 25 cents. I only became aware of it when Tim sent copies to Sound Choice magazine in 1987, where I was a “summer intern”, so I’m guessing that was the main conduit – distributed to other fanzines, given to friends, mailed to contributors, traded for records and so forth. Compile any three or four of these together and you’ve got a real-deal, content-packed fanzine proper.

Better than that, even. The Offense Newsletter #13, with the Three O’Clock on the cover right after they were forced to change their name from The Salvation Army, carries on with what I really admire about the thing – its figurative status as a “meeting point” for highly opinionated letter writers, highly opinionated contributors (Don Howland, no less!), the deep wells of the American sub-underground at a time when hardcore was steamrolling the midwest in particular; and the UK post-punk and its ascendent global equivalents that were particularly near & dear to Anstaett. Just one interview – this one by Blake Gumprecht, who challenges the mostly moronic Bad Brains with sharp questions and thrown elbows, which they mostly try to dodge. I can imagine Gumprecht wasn’t the most captive interviewer they’d come across, as he goes after them for their Rastafarianism and all the idiocy it leeched into their personal stances on women, gays, and apostate Christians, then leavens it with “so when’s the new record coming out?”-type queries.

Aside from this, it’s reviews, letters and a short story about a dream. Steve Hesske’s name is taken in vain by one Dan Rouser of Wichita, KS. The LA paisley underground gets some notice, as well it should have in 1982. Billy Idol is summarily dispatched with for his “hey little sister” song in a review. The first UK82 Punk and Disorderly comp – which was hugely popular and distributed everywhere – gets a write-up. And, given this is effectively a weekly newsletter – at least this week – there’s a show calendar for December 3rd-9th that displays what’s going on in Ohio; in Lawrence KS; and for some reason, at Danceteria in New York – and only those places. The Plasmatics at the Columbus Agora, anyone?