In the mid-1960s, while Rickard was studying Product Design at Birmingham Art College he met several like-minded science fiction fans, particularly crediting fellow-student Peter Weston's fan-produced "Speculation" magazine as helping him to " the art of putting together a fanzine," some years before he created his own. Attending a science fiction convention in 1968, Rickard obtained Ace paperback copies of all four of Fort's books from a stall run by Derek Stokes (later to run Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed and take a role in the day-to-day running of "The Fortean Times").