After not doing much for a bit, Fox Den has launched a new project today!
Back in the ’60s my dad got into the wargaming industry with Lowrys Hobbies, which was a mail-order business for miniatures, terrain, and the like, as well as reselling games of course. He got his own printing press to produce the catalog, and then started Guidon Games to start publishing miniatures rules and board games. In 1972, he bought Panzerfaust magazine from Don Greenwood and ran that for the next decade.
I am now working on republishing all those issues (#53-#111) in PDF format. My dad doesn’t remember the terms of the sale well enough to be entirely sure of the rights to the first fifty-two issues (talk of reprinting them at the time suggests he does have the rights, but I’d want to talk to Don Greenwood first anyway)… and getting a hold of them to scan would be a major undertaking.
I hope to put one out, on average, once a month, and since my dad ran it as a (mostly) bimonthly for ten years, this is a five-year project.
Each issue will be a scanned PDF with searchable text. I’m also adding a final page with my own commentary and elaborations on when the issue came out and its contents.
So, here’s the spiel for issue #53:
In 1972 Don Greenwood was hired by Avalon Hill as editor for their magazine, the General. The magazine that had brought him to their attention was sold to Don Lowry, who took over as of issue #53.
This is a searchable scanned PDF of the original issue (without the game insert) from May/June 1972. (Note that there are a couple of pages where the text gets cut off a little, this was in the original printing.)
Panzerfaust was an amateur ‘zine, but was growing up into the semi-pro leagues at this point, having graduated from mimeographs to actual offset printing.
Contents:
Line of Communications: Editorial
Wargamer of the Month: Don Greenwood
Western PanzerBlitz Revisited * Paul Mills
Assorted Comments On Western PanzerBlitz * Roy Easton
More Western PanzerBlitz * Roy Easton
Forgotten Military Vehicles * Tom Wham
Fuhrer Directive 33 * E. Gary Gygax
Wargamer’s Guide To the ACW, Part II * Don Lowry
The Battle of New Orleans * Larry Schmidt
Midway Island * R. W. Garbisch [rules]
The Ship With Guts * Damian Housman
The Super Battleship * Kevin Muyzinski
Fall Barbarossa Review * George Phillies
Blue and Gray * E. Gary Gygax
The Great Debate * Lou Zocchi, Gary Gygax, and Tom Clarke
Diplomacy: Russia’s Northern Offensive * Rod Walker
Warfare In Miniature: The Battle Report of the USS Franklin * David L. Arneson
Blunderovsky Blows the Battle of Moscow * Mark Swanson
Design Analysis: Nuclear Destruction * Harold Totten
Thumbnail Analysis
Pass In Review * Donald Greenwood
Reconnaissance In Force
Mail Call
Also, as a ‘value add’, there is an extra page with observations and some commentary on just where things were in 1972.
Available at Wargame Vault.
At the start of 1972, Lowrys Hobbies was a successful mail-order store for wargamers. However, the catalog was going out of date faster than it could easily be revised, so a supplement with updates and corrections was provided.
Issue #60 of Panzerfaust was the first of a set of eight issues that did not bear a cover date. However, Don Lowry’s personal copy has “Feb-Mar ’74” penciled on the cover, implying it went out about five months late. Among the regular articles is a piece by Jack Scruby describing how the miniatures business works.
