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.]

January 1990 Pt1.

Moving forward in to the 90's with the knowledge of a Video programme that would be a part of the British Science Fiction Convention (EastCon 90) taking place over the weekend of the 14^th. of April, and the hopes of meeting like-minded people for the first time, gave me the motivation to find more information and make new contacts regarding Japanese popular culture.

[Note: In Post 6. I touched upon the importance of the British FanZine MekTek.

MekTek ]

The art of polite letter writing, whether a letter was handwritten or typed (on a manual typewriter no less!) people did embellish the envelopes, make their own letter-headed paper, and had little pieces of artwork to accompany their signature, this all added to the Pen-Pals network a sense of community however far apart we all where. Having the patience for a reply (that would take weeks in some cases, as International mail can take its time), add to this that you may not be the only person writing to them that week, the time scale for communicating back and fourth was unlike today’s electronic mail and messaging services for speed of delivery!

[Note: In Post 25. I start to hint at the importance of the September (1989) issue of Appleseed Book 3 part 2, as the gateway to the American Anime Fandom, and a means to contact Pen-Pals in the Uk. American Anime Fandom, started to find more details here EDC & Anime Hasshin.]

So the the two main American Anime Fan clubs I contacted where 'Anime Hasshin' and the E.D.C., and may I add that I was not the only one who had seen the listings in the issue of the Appleseed Comic-book, and that many American Fan clubs had contacts and members lists to put people in touch with one another, that was all part of the family of the Anime Fandom in those days. As you can see from these flyer’s Anime characters, Science Fiction and Comedies where popular icons of the day!

 I hope you can name all the Anime characters?!