More on Comic Book stores

Our Local Heroes were people who ran comic book stores.

Manager Lance Fielder from 'Another World' comic book store (specialists importers of Science fiction) in Leicester.

FanZines.

I first picked up an Issue of 'Protoculture Addicts' which at that time was the official Fanzine for Robotech, (produced and printed in Canada) sometime in the late 80's. With such features as “The voice of the Freedom Fighters” (Fan letters page), “Japanimation & manga” (Reviews), “The shaping of Protoculture” (feed-back to readers including :- addresses for Pen Pals, retail stores that do mail-order, and other Fan clubs), the “News & Reviews” page focussed on available translated Manga, Anime magazines, Fanzines, and fan clubs too).

['Protoculture Addicts' started with only 6 fanzines by the end of 1989, this would only grow and grow, more on this later..!]

[With some very well known Fan Clubs from America; C/FO (Cartoon/Fantasy Organisation), Anime Hasshin (run by Lorraine Savage), and Earth Defence Command (EDC) – just a few of the clubs in all, and I must say that many individuals and organisers help support the UK Anime fandom, and are in touch to this day!]

 [Note: started to find more details here EDC & Anime Hasshin.]

Mektek

After picking up the two fanzines together MekTek 2 (Summer 1988) & MekTek 3 (Summer 1989) from 'Another World' comic book store in Leicester in the winter1989, these yearly British FanZines centred on Battle Suit Warfare games mainly BattleTech with new rules and scenarios for players, and surprisingly a follow-up on the Japanese roots of these Giant robots used in the games, edited by Ashley Watkins, with contributions such as the Stunning black & white Artwork by Steve Kyte

(Patlabor, Macross), and the many reviews from Helen McCarthy on Manga and Anime in the UK.

[I think 'MekTek 3' told us about an up and coming Science fiction Convention over the Easter weekend April 14th & 15th 1990 (note: this will be ground Zero for the UK Anime Fandom as I would know it).]

[I wrote to Ashley Watkins in November of 1989, and got a reply in January 1990 with flyers for EastCon 90 and the contact details for a very busy lady, by the name of Helen McCarthy (we have been Anime friends ever since).]

[Not forgetting the early form of Etiquette the Stamped Self Addressed Envelope (SSAE), this also enabled the recipient to reply a lot sooner.]

[just think of it.....the time it took to gather this information and then publish it once a year, if Wiki or Google was down for just a day the shock would reverberate across the internet and smart-phones, how like sheep have we become trusting on the reliance of technology?!]

[More on these pioneering fanzines will come later..!!]