Monday, 17 July 2017
About this Blog (Post 80)
Working as a part-time
Anime Fandom historian, transferring written questionnaires (and
trying group interesting data together), scanning Magazines, and
manga comic-books, and those few surviving pen-pal letters from the
late 80's and early 90's. All to be re-read and correlated
chronology, and to see what statements of that time can be used as
testimonials, to give a seance of what new and existing time it was,
when cartoon were not just kids shows, and Black & White
comic-books had a new cinematic feel to them for an older reader.
What tasks I set
myself, can of course lead me away from uploading on a regular basis,
as I'd hoped to give a month-by-month view of what it was like back
in the day.
At times when you get
immersed in the past when reading these old letters, and after 25
years or more have gone bye, the temptation to explore the internet
to re-connect with old pen-pals does take you to the side once and a
while, what stopped me in my tracks was the discovery that a Anime
pen-pal had died 18 years ago (1999) on the Isle of Wight at the
young age 27, I only had a few letters spanning two years (1990 &
1991) that had survived in my collection, but the overwhelming
feelings of loss, of a fellow pioneer, and the time that had already
passed bye this was October 2016. I was already struggling with the
self-promoting idea of my own part in the spread of Japanese pop
culture in the UK entitled Birth
of a Fan Club
and an aversion to writing had sunk in.
By December of 2016 my
attentions had moved to the information that my job after 11 years
was to be made redundant, and later that month my son was admitted to
hospital with the discovery of a very serous heart condition. Six
months on and I have re-discovered the joy of collecting the past, a
few Manga comic-books at a time, scanning, dating and cataloging in
the hope of uploading to a future Blog post, or other medium for
content.
Now diving back into
the past.....
 |
| Area88 and Mai the Psychic Girl |
Area 88 ran for 42 Biweekly issues (2 per month) from May of 1987 to February 1989.
Mai the Psychic Girl ran for 28 issues Biweekly (2 per month) from May of 1987 to June 1988.
 |
| GREY and BAOH |
Grey ran for 9 monthly issues from August 1988 to April 1989.
Baoh ran for 8 monthly issues from December 1989 to July 1990.
 |
| JUSTY and Appleseed |
Justy ran for 9 Biweekly (2 per month) issues from December 1988 to April 1989.
Appleseed ran to 20 issues from December 1988 to November 1991, 4 books each had 5 parts.
With American imports to the UK those smaller complete runs of 8 to 9 issues could be easily missed, or even later forgotten about.
Sunday, 28 August 2016
June 1990 Pt.1 Mangajin Magazine
Consisting
of 80 pages (including front & back covers), with a Cover price
of $4.50. Mangajin was Distributed by KINOKUNIYA BOOKSTORES (in the
U.S.) & was available in Japan through SEKAI SHUPPAN KENKYU
CENTRE (Tokyo) First (Pilot) Issue Volume 1 #1 Printed June 1990,
start of print run August of 1990. Last issue published Volume 7 #70
November\December 1997. Mangajin was published 10 times a year,
Monthly except for January and July each year.
Editor &
Publisher Vaughan Paul Simmons (Based in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.)
The
Mangajin Project (as its Editor refers to it) issue one is such an
oddity of a point in time when interest in Japan went a little
deeper, from a fascination of modern Japanese business practises, and
it's almost unknown alien culture to that America. With
Hollywood movies like “Black Rain” staring Michael Douglas and
Andy Garcia, and Yusaku Matsuda that was only released in September
of 1989 in America still fresh in people's minds.
A
magazine aimed at helping those interested in the Japanese language,
studying both its politeness and slang, alongside what business
tourists may want to add to their understanding.
I
have only included a few samples of what you would find within the
pages of Mangajin from my own view as someone that appreciates all
aspects Japanese manga, in the hope it will spark a search for
knowledge in you the reader.
[NOTE:
By the late 90's Mangajin had ceased being published, it did have a
presence on the Internet, sadly that too is now in the past - using
the Internet's Archive Way-back machine
http://web.archive.org/web/20110215113738/http://www.mangajin.com/
you can discover the WASABI BROTHERS Trading Company run by....]
The Contence page (just look at the variety, and the scope).
A few words from the Editor.....
Supporting Advertisement from VIZ COMICS, showing popular Translated Managa of the past few years.
How to make Sushi.
Tanaka-Kun (Salary-man) by Hiroshi Tanaka.
What's Michael? by Makoto Kobayashi.
HOTEL by Shotaro Ishinomori
(better known in the West for his Anime 'Cyborg 009' and his creation of live-action series 'Kamen Rider' ).
If you lived in 'Los Angeles', 'New York', or 'San Francisco' you had access to a Kinokuniya Bookstore, and a copy of mangajin.
Supporting Advertisement from ECLIPSE INTERNATIONAL and featuring a production from STUDIO PROTEUS (the translation company founded by Toren Smith).
Your Janpanese vocabulary at a glance!
The future of Mangajin, what's coming next!?
Not only does West meet East, but now you know that the city of Atlanta, is the birthplace of CocaCola, is also the birthplace of Mangajin.
[Note; a 7 year old link may still work if you are looking for resources thespectrum.net mangajin ]
{Note: I did not have a subscripion to this magazine, but chose to pick it up at Comic-book stores around England in the early 1990's, it may have been months or even years before an issue would get to the UK.]
Thursday, 18 August 2016
May 1990 Pt.7 Anime Kyo UK
Anime Kyo UK
This Page is under continued development, and its Links will be updated from time to time.
A
continuing fact page will also be updated.
A time of
'Pen and Paper', a time of ' Scissors & Pritt Stick glue', when
Photocopiers re-sized Artwork and printed whole Fanzines, who knew
Desk-Top-Publishing was done on a table or on the floor?!
Having found paperwork
from my Anime club, and personal letters of correspondence from my
old Pen-pals, as well as the month of May being the time when I was
having treatment for Cancer, I will have to make a great deal of
effort to show the transition from Novice Anime Fan and consumer of
all things Anime, to an enabler, connecting Fans far an wide, to a founder of a local
Anime Club that developed beyond its Shire borders.
 |
 |
|
|---|
Dated August 2016, August 2017
Post 77 American Fandom
And now another break
from the chronology of the past.
I thought you would
all like to know that with a road-trip up to Sheffield Arena on
Saturday 13th. Of August 2016 I attended the
“FILM & COMIC CON Sheffield” run by Showmasters,
just on the off chance of picking up some old Translated manga from
the 80's and 90's (they are in the same format & style as any
American imported comic-books, not like modern Manga that is in the Diary format).!
Out of the six or so
stalls that sold manly DC & MARVEL comic-books, one would have
ten random issues of manga, and one of those was now to replace a
lost comic-book that many a UK Anime and Manga fan would have read
back in 1989, if remembering it for its 'Letters Page'.
Appleseed
Book3 Volume 2,
September,1989
American Appleseed
Cover painting by Adam Warren
American Appleseed Logo
designed by Tom Orzechowski
Editor Fred Burke
Editor-in-Chief
Catherine Yronode
Publisher Dean Mullaney
English translation by
Studio Proteus
The Letters Page.
For what I am so thankful for is a comic-book fan Dan White writting to the Editor Fred
Burke, and that his letter about the cost of Anime (on VHS) was published in the Letters Page.
[NOTE: The reply was
signed Toren Sez, with the tone of someone who knew the industry in
Japan, could this have been Toren Smith founder of Studio Proteus and
supporter of Comic-Con giving his insight?]
[NOTE: These two
American Anime Fan Clubs (Earth Defence Command, Anime Hasshin) would be an early part of my own Nexus into
a wider Fandom, linking me with other Fans in the UK and forever
changing my life.]
Sunday, 31 July 2016
About this Blog (post 76)
Much of my free time
has been spent in the last few months taking photos and scanning
Pen-Pal letters, Fanzines and manga (sometimes stretching from '90 to
'92 or even taking the Chronology further in to the future from the
past) to record what is left of my collection of mainly 80's and 90's
Anime and manga memorabilia, as well as adding to them for
cataloguing. I still hope that by tackling the past on a month by
month basis an over-all picture will emerge from my observations and
recollections, and from the written word.
Blog updates as follows
A small piece of
information regarding Convention Video room listings has come to
light.
More information on
Robotech in the England has been pieced together.
Finding the lost manga
of BAOH
The May of 1990 onwards
was when I was having treatment for Cancer of the tongue, both
Radiotherapy and later surgery and is to this day difficult to write
about, and think about that time of my life.
My continued scanning
of private Anime Pen-Pal letters (many of whom I have lost touch with
over these past 20 to 25 years - writting as of August 2016), to help track how events unfolded in
the infancy of the UK's Anime & Manga Fandom has again taken up
my time in more ways than one. As I am transported back in time
rereading them, I am once again immerse the excitement, hope, and
discovery of like-minded people exploring what Japanese animation had
to offer, making it all so fresh in my mind 26 years later!
Spending snippets of
time when I can, to use the World Wide Web and the Internet to try
and reconnect with old friends, I had not prepared myself for the
possibility of them no longer being alive. This has taken me aback,
and emotional and personal feelings have come forth and slowed my
progress in typing this record of the early days of the Fandom as I
reflect this.
You may also see this link from time to time, these pages will be under construction, but accessible !
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
May 1990 Pt.6 Nippon Shuppan Hanbai USA INC
Having just found
paperwork (sorry hard copies) from Nippon Shuppan Hanbai USA INC .(Books Nippan)
buried among reams of correspondence in a few tightly packed surviving boxes, finding more fragments
from May 1990 for you the reader to ponder over.
It was about this time
I joined the B.N.A.F.C. (Books Nippan Animation Fan Club) that gave
you discounts on what the company was selling [much like Manga video
did in the UK later in the 90's].
My Membership of Books Nippan Animation
Fan Club Paid $12 (invoice 04.18/1990) - Membership Card 05/90 to
06/91.
I had seen their advertisement
in April's issue of 'Protoculture Addicts' fanzine of their
subtitled Japanese Animation on VHS 'GUNBUSTER Vol. 1' and '
DANGAIOH' a first for Anime to the direct-to-home American market,
to be released January 1990 by U.S. Renditions.
[NOTE: According the
internet (post 2000) GUNBUSTER Vol. 1 was released in March 1990. But
I can not confirm this.]
U.S. Renditions was the
Special Projects Division of
Books Nippan, the American branch of Nippon Shuppan Hanbai, the only
UK connection being the shop in London 'Books Nippon' that I knew of at the time.
The B.N.A.F.C. Had a
leap in membership from about 1000 to 4000 members in just a short
space of time, that triggered a re-organisation of their
mail-ordering department to harmonise to meet the new demand for
goods.
Looking at BOOKS
NIPPAN's Newsletter #8 - (copyright Shinji Aramaki IDOL/ARTMIC
1985) Previous newsletters were originally to come out Yearly. Can
you imagine waiting 12 months or more for News and feedback from a
distributor of Anime, that's breaking into a new market!?
[NOTE: U.S.
Renditions Update “Work continues on the new English subtitled
videos for 1991. The original U.S. Renditions production team along
with new translators Toshfumi Yoshida and Trish Ledoux (Editors of
ANIMAG Magazine) are currently (late 1990\early 1991) projecting an
April 1991 release for 'GUNBUSTER Vol. 2', and APPLESEED, GUNBUSTER
Vol. 2 which contains episodes 3 & 4 will also have the “Science
Classroom II” which was cut out of 'GUNBUSTER Vol. 1' due to length
of time considerations.]
[NOTE: Sometime during June or July will be the
Release of 'GUNBUSTER Vol. 3 and Black Magic M-66. ( There are
currently other projects being discussed for FALL 1991 release.).]
Sunday, 12 June 2016
May 1990 Pt.5 Round-up \ overview
We
still had a few on-going
Manga comic-books and
Anime based comic-books that could be still found “On the racks”
in May of 1990, such as:-
#20
of 'AKIRA' (1-38)
#33
of 'Lone Wolf and Cub' (1-40)
from First comics,
#17 of Outlanders.
(1-33)
from Dark Horse
Comics.
#6 of Dominion. (End of
1-6)
from Eclipse Comics.
#4 of COBRA (1-12)
#6
of 'Baoh',
(1-8)
#3 of HOROBI: Part One (1-6)
from
Viz Comics.
GRAPHIC-NOVELS STILL ON
SALE IN THIS MONTH:
What's
Michael?
Appleseed
Book #1
Dirty
Pair – Biohazards
from
Eclipse Comics
LUM
Vol #1
from
Viz Comics.
[Note:
You still had #2
of
Lensman
#4 of 'Leiji
Matsumoto's Captain Harlock',
#15
of 'Robotech II – The Sentinals Book One'
from
Eternity Comics.
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