Ufology Research

Back in 1978 (yes, that long ago), I began publishing a ufozine. (That's a newsletter about UFOs privately published by an individual.) At its height, my Swamp Gas Journal was being mailed (i.e. snailmailed) to about 100 people and organizations around the world, usually with an exchange of similar zines. It was a great way to get info about the UFO scene in Canada out to fans, buffs, investigators and researchers in other countries, and receive stuff in return. It cost me paper, printing and stamps, but I recouped my expense through such exchange of info. It was estimated that there were at least 200 such ufozines worldwide in the 1960s and 1970s and into the 1980s.

And then the Internet happened. By the mid-1990s, many zines were already online through dialup BBS systems.

I think I may have lasted the longest of most of them. I continued printing (originally they were mimeographed, and then photocopied) and mailing The Swamp Gas Journal until its last physical issue in 1997. Then things went online into blogs and other e-vehicles.

That's progress for you.

Most of the issues were lost one way or another. However, I did manage to save some of them in an electronic formal, and they had been storied on a number of ISPs' servers until those servers (such as GeoCities) went the way of the Dodo.

Someone had the foresight to copy much f the GeoCities site and so, some of the issues have been preserved. They are archived online and can be found at:

http://www.oocities.org/thecynicalview/sgj.htm

Most issues are from the 1990s, but there's one from 1980, just to give you a taste of what has been preserved. The issues give some insight into what ufology was like about 20 years ago.