Spiral -- a complete run (9 issues)

Pasadena CA: Spiral Group, Inc.. Fine. 1984-1986. (Nos. 1-9). Softcover. [all issues in as-new condition]. (graphics, photographs) A complete run (9 issues) of this short-lived periodical devoted to avant-garde and experimental filmmaking. Created and edited by Terry Cannon, who had co-founded Pasadena Filmforum (later Los Angeles Filmforum) in 1975 and served as its Executive Director for the organization's first eight years, it was conceived, he said, not as a publication that presented lengthy critical pieces and interviews (in the mold of Millennium Film Journal, for example), but as a type of "creative film journal" which he felt was needed, a place "where filmmakers would be able to have some of their artwork published, some of their drawings, some of their photographs, some of their text pieces and collages." He hoped it would get enough support from the filmmaking community to at least sustain its publication -- "it was going to have to be supported by the filmmakers or it wasn't going to exist" -- but unfortunately that didn't come to pass. Cannon calculated that he would need 300-400 subscribers in order to make Spiral self-sustaining, but as he remembered: "It just never really took off and I was putting a lot of money into it and it was pretty clear that I wasn't going to be able to go much up above that 100 and 125 subscribers, [which] was barely covering half of the production cost." Although seven of the nine issues are in an identical oblong card-cover plastic-comb-bound format, Cannon played around a little bit with the format for the other two issues: #3 was issued as a cassette tape, an anthology of sound works by filmmakers, while #7 was a "postcard issue," consisting of about 50 designed by artists, sealed inside a printed silver wrapper and further enclosed in a small ZipLoc plastic bag. (The original bag and wrapper are present here, and it appears that the wrapper has only been opened once, to peek inside, and that all the original postcards are still there.) A noble, if ultimately unsustainable, enterprise, it was called by avant-garde film historian David James "a singular publishing project" and "the only sustained attempt in Los Angeles to create a periodical about avant-garde film." At least a few institutions were supportive -- OCLC locates at least five American libraries with full runs (and I know of one other) -- but given the miniscule subscriber base, it's doubtful that another complete run -- let alone one in uniformly Fine condition, as here -- will show up in the marketplace anytime soon. Govern yourself accordingly, and decide wisely. .