

APA-X, later called Apex, rose like a Phoenix from the ashes of the Carbon Reproduced Amateur Press (CRAP) to become the microcosm’s first secret apa while continuing CRAP‘s practice of being invitational (allowing its members to cast a blackball against anyone proposed whom they disliked or did not feel comfortable with). By “secret“ it was meant not only that the group was not to be mentioned elsewhere in fandom but that its mailings were to be considered the equivalent of personal DNQ/DNP correspondence, not to be randomly shared with non-members. More specifically, Andy Main scuttled CRAP but immediately invited those he considered to be on more congenial and intimate terms with each other into the newly formed group, dropping most of the fans who’d been in before the membership expansion, particularly those he considered to have been in the group just to maintain their status as omniapans (such as Bruce Pelz) or who were not active in other areas of fanzine fandom. The group did not succeed in maintaining its secrecy, obviously, or it would not be mentioned here, and its publications were eventually to be found in the collections of some of those who had been excluded, but it did allow, for several years running, those who remained in the apa to talk about some intensely personal subjects, including but not limited to expansive love and recreational drug use.

Contributors: Dr. Gafia

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