july-1990-pt11 US_A-KON-90

PROJECT A-KON

Mean while in July of 1990, over on the other side on the pond, the E.D.C. had been hard at work putting together PROJECT A-KON (26th. & 29 July in Richardson TX USA).

The first fan run Anime convention of the 90's!

With support from E.D.C.'s local affiliates; NEO  DALLAS, and 3WA, 

just ask Meri Wakfielkd,

GUESTS: from Animag;Trish Ledoux (Magazine Editor), 

and

 Jeffery Tibbetts (of Pacific Rim Publishing). 

Animag; America's only Professional Anime Magazine.

Louis Scarborough JR. (Animator),

Steve Krueger (comic book artist),

VERY SPECIAL GUEST OF HONOR Tex Henson (Animator), 

FAN GUEST of HONOR: B-D Banzai 

[NOTE: At this time the Earth Defence Command (EDC), had only 8 inquiring Anime Fans from the UK who had contacted them by June of 1990.]

[NOTE: "Editorial Comments - Project A-kon Diary" can be found written by the Editor of Animag #11 (1990 - time of year unknown) ; by  Trish Ledoux chronicling 24 hours from 23.15 (7/27/90) to 23.28 (7/28/90).  - It would by anything from 3 months to 18 months before I would have picked this up from a comic book shop in England!]

June 1990 Pt.5 Anime Pen-Pals & Video Game Consoles & Cancer

By June of 1990 the UK Anime Pen-Pal network was growing, most people only knew of 3 to 5 people that they had contacted and this included local friends too, at this time I was corresponding with about 15 or more Anime\Manga fans, all very time consuming for a Dyslexic, even with the support of my Mother using a manual typewriter for typing-up my badly spelt and grammatically incorrect scribbling in English, as well as my health.

From late in 1989 the American Fan club the E.D.C had a list of members and correspondence, and inquiring persons of 8 UK fans and 3 overseas (outside of the USA & Canada), *

You could also find UK Fans via the American Anime & manga Fan Club Anime Hasshin.

The odd UK Pen-Pal that knew about Anime could be found in imported American Robotech comic-books, but when writing a letter to a comic-book publisher overseas it could take up to 2 months before your details appeared in the Pen-Pal section of its comic-book, and another month (if you were lucky) to receive any letters back!

Those Fans that either went to EastCon '90 (UK's Science fiction Convention) or had shown an interest would receive the “Anime contact list” (that was attached to the First News-sheet for Anime Fans in the UK (the proto Anime UK Newsletter) put together by Helen McCarthy, and Steve Kyte this had contact details of 31 UK fans & 7 overseas fans, and was a Hub and a Nexus to many finding the new World of Anime.

On Saturday 23^th. (June) I went to Nottingham, and found a shop that Imported Japanese video game consoles, called 'Supervision Electronics' run by a Mr. Wong, on Mansfield Road, and the two consoles that stood out where the Japanese new SEGA 'Megadrive' that cost £165 to £220, and the compacted Japanese 'PC Engine' that cost £160 (the equivalent of £365 in today's money). These imported Japanese electronics were known as Gray-imports. **

It was I believe that in this shop it was when I first pick up a copy of 'Console ma'zine', produced and edited by Onn Lee. Another NEW frontier running parallel to the underground fan base of Anime and Manga, was of 8-Bit and 16-bit gaming consoles from Japan, for 2 or more players, that's right you got yours friends to come to your house to play games, and in the days when you had NO saves, only Lives, and Credits! There were a few games that came from Manga\Anime that were not all text heavy RPG's one caught my eye it was a 'City Hunter' game for the PC Engine console.

City Hunter

Sometime before the end of June My weekly radiotherapy treatment for Cancer was stopped, as it was not effective enough, and so I was quickly booked in to Hospital from the 8th. to the 13th.of July, for surgery to remove the Cancer from my tongue, I was just 23 years old, and the dogma the the NHS Doctors & Surgeons for talking to their patients was very different in 1990 from today.

My new found interests kept me going at this time (and starting a Local Anime Club), as well as the support from my family and friends, and the Anime pen-pals letters of encouragement.

That was My June of 1990 I remember.....!

*[NOTE: 7 of the 8 UK fans listed in American Anime fan Clubs would find their way on to Helen McCarthy's list of UK Fans.]

**[NOTE:A grey import is equipment that has been supplied by a manufacturer in a different part of the world, that ends up being sold on to you in the UK. The key point is that the manufacturer has sold it into a different (not UK or EU) geographic market, and someone else is then importing it into the UK. Different power supplies and fittings\plugs, will be an issue, as well as No manufacturer warranty, but you do get the new technology months or years ahead of the normal UK market, and sometimes the equipment\technology was never exported outside of the original manufacturer's country (Japanese 'PC Engine' games console\s).]

[NOTE: After 27 years (1990 -2017) have gone bye, hoarding letters and Zines does help fill in the gaps in my memory.]

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 13^th. 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.]

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..!!]