Star Blazers Fandom...

[Star Ranger4]

Hey, Logan, is this you?

http://www.starblazers.com/html.php?page_id=235

(Anime Fandom, Texas Style....)
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Logan Darklighter]

Yes, that was me. And the E.D.C. is the fanclub I was associated with through the 1980s to the mid-90s. ^_^

[Logan Darklighter]

BTW - Since you expressed an interest, here's the full, unexpurgated text of my e-mail "interview" with Dave Merrill for the article. There's
lots of stuff in here that didn't make it into the article.

Heya Dave, nice to hear from you. I'll try and answer your questions as best I can. But some of them, especially the ones involving the early history of
EDC might best be directed to Derek Wakefield. Nevertheless, here's what I remember off the top of my head.




david merrill wrote:

Hey Logan, this is Dave Merrill, formerly of Atlanta but now of Toronto, bugging you about the EDC days... Tim Eldred is putting together some material
on the history of SB fandom for the Star Blazers.com website, and he asked me to write an article on the EDC side of things. Rather than guess, I figured
I'd ask the people who were there at the time. I've prepared a list of questions; please feel free to answer them in as much (or as little) detail
as you care to go into.

-What year did the EDC start as an active club?

I wasn't there for the absolute beginning. I joined up in 1983. I understand the club itself had it's first meeting and newsletter in 1981. This
would coincide with the -second- time that the episodes were aired in the D/FW area, so it's logical that it started about then. The very first time the
episodes were aired, of course, started with Labor Day, 1979. I believe the club started later the second time because more people actually had video
recorders that time. In 1979, few people would have had them. And I specifically recall myself using a cassette tape recorder to get audio copies. I also
recall that the video recorder boom (both VHS and Beta) occured between the time of the first airings and the second run in 1981. By the time the show was
shown again in 1981, the local fans were ready with their VHS and Beta recorders. And because COPIES existed, you could now show them at meetings. Very
important when, unlike Star Trek, which aired ALL THE TIME somewhere, you might go years without seeing Star Blazers episodes otherwise.

-Was there an awareness of any other anime or Star Blazers fan clubs?

There was an awareness of The Star Blazers Fan Club (SBFC) in the northeast at the very beginning. And those of us who were involved in fandom in a wider
sense were aware of the Cartoon Fantasy Organization (CFO). Later on, many of us became friends with people in San Antonio and Austin who were part of the
CFO down there. In fact, our tape archivist, Jeff Blend, worked closely with the archivist for the CFO San Antonio... oh man, now I'm embarrassed. I
cannot recall his name. Tim Eldred would know him, he worked with him on the Harlock comic book and the guy was also a huge Hokuto no Ken fan. I -know- who
I'm talking about, and I'd recognise him if I saw him, but the name escapes me right at the moment. I hate when that happens. Anyway, Jeff Blend
worked with this guy to get tapes and traded back and forth with him. It's one of the main reasons why we had such an extensive library of stuff for
viewing in the late 80s and early 90s. There was awareness of some of the BNFs like Rob Fenelon and others on the east coast.




To be honest, one of the reasons (though most definitely not the main one) that Derek started the EDC was in part because he had been a member of SBFC and
the leader of that club, Mike Pinto, rubbed him the wrong way on something. It's been so long at this point that I can't recall -exactly- what went
wrong there. I'll just lump it into "wanky fan politics" and call it a day at this point. I don't even know if Mike Pinto was even aware of
the EDC at the time, or if he had any antagonism towards Derek. I just know that Derek had some mild antagonism towards Mike when the subject ever came up.
And even that antagonism was mild. More of a rivalry of sorts. "We can do better than them" sort of thing.

-What was the fandom scene in Dallas like at the
time? Were there other local SF fan clubs or conventions in the area?

For me, it was like entering a whole new world. You have to understand, I didn't just enter "Star Blazers" and "Japanimation" fandom
at the time. This was my first intro to fandom PERIOD. I'd always been a fan of Star Trek and Star Wars, but I'd never joined clubs before. Never
been involved in fandom. There wasn't as much need, really. So because of that, my perspective may be more than a little bit skewed. Bear with me please.




With Star Blazers and anime in general later on, there was a NEED to stick together, to make the contacts to get the tapes and the other stuff. Local stores,
with some notable exceptions, didn't carry ANYTHING at all of this! Fandom was pretty tight knit. There were, perhaps 40-50 people in the local area who
were active on some level, even if they did nothing but hang out at the meetings. And you knew who everyone was. Despite some stupid fan politics of the day,
we generally stuck together.




There were local Sci-Fi/Fantasy conventions independently run. Probably the biggest mover during the 80s was an outfit called "Bulldog
Productions". They put on the various Dallas Fantasy Fairs. These were conventions that were held 2-3 times a year on average. Starting as early as 1984
or so, the EDC would run "Japanimation" rooms at the cons. They were privately held at first. Then the con-organizers took a chance and ran a block
of anime in the main video hall. Maybe about 4-5 hours worth. We showed a couple of Yamato films and maybe a smattering of episodes of stuff here and there.




In 1985, there was a one-off convention NOT run by Bulldog, but by a local bookshop, and they gave carte blanche to the EDC to run an anime room for the
entire weekend of the convention. That was the major foot-in-the-door that we needed as an organization. From then on, based on our rep that we made, the EDC
ran the "Japanimation" (later to be called anime) rooms at the Dallas Fantasy Fairs and a couple of other local conventions. We were pretty tightly
organized too. We had a set schedule of people there to run the machines. And even to provide color commentary and explanations for what was happening
on-screen when there were no subtitles, which were rare back then. We sometimes had people reading from a script translated from various sources in order to
allow people to get the gist of the story. It was all rather intensive.




The man MOST responsible for keeping these operations all organised and running like they should was Jeff Blend. He did SO much work that he became known,
somewhat jokingly, but always with great affection, as "the Dynamic Do-All" (in reference to the machine shop in the lower part of the Yamato where
they made all the spare parts for the ship).




I REALLY want to stress this - Jeff Blend was THE go-to guy in the local fandom. Derek Wakefield and later Meri were good at organizing "the big
picture", but if you wanted something copied, if you wanted the scripts, if you wanted the raw information, if you wanted something DONE. NOW. You went
to Jeff. And he worked with everybody, regardless of fan politics.




In the end, it kinda burned him out. He's still involved in anime. Still a great fan. But he's not seen very much anymore outside of a small circle
of people in the local area and on the net. He doesn't much get directly involved in fandom anymore. Not since the mid-90s or so.




But in the end, it was people like HIM that mattered more than any petty SMOF or leader of a fan club. I want that known in BIG NEON FUCKING LETTERS A MILE
TALL, DAMNIT!!! No one knows of these contributions but a few. I'd like VERY much to change that. Because Jeff deserves more recognition for what he
accomplished for fandom. Much more.

-What was the impetus behind starting a Star Blazers fan club - to find other SB fans to socialize with, to promote Star Blazers (get it back on TV,
etc)? Were there other reasons? What was the rationale behind the naval-style organization?

Pretty much what you posited in the question - to find others who shared your interest. To show the show and promote it (Later, this would include anime in
general). To socialize with people who "spoke the language" so to speak. With Star Blazers last major showing in 1983 and 85, after that, there was
really no way to see the program except on tape. Later, as we matured in our interests and learned of the greater "Matsumoto-verse" and later,
Robotech, Voltron and anime in general, there was a period of time where there was NO way to support your hobby other than to know who to go to in order to
get the recorded shows from Japan. (This was another way Jeff Blend supported the local fandom. As one of the go-to guys to get the tapes. He had - and still
has, some pretty eclectic contacts.)




The rationale for the naval style organization. Wow. Can I state for the record that I'm now actually more than a little embarrassed by all of that?
(grin)




But hey, we were teenagers and 20-somethings at the time. A little melodrama in service to your fandom? Sure!




Basically, Derek Wakefield was (and still is) a big fan of the military, especially the Navy. NATURALLY Star Blazers was right up his alley! He told me that
he had been involved with another club that adhered to a "ship" structure. A Star Trek Fan Club called "Star Fleet". It may even still be
in existance in some form. He got the idea from that club, and applied it, with modifications, to the EDC. Lots of modifications.




Lots and lots of modifications. In fact, the infamous "Blue Book" of the EDC never actually saw a final version for print because Derek kept
messing with it!! (Laughter)




We did have abbreviated by-laws printed for use at meetings and such. And there was a fair amount that Derek made available for the various chapters of the
EDC. But he always had this goal of a unified structure, and it never came together.




But to get back to the main point of this - the ship structure. I think it was supposed to engender a form of cameraderie. It may seem silly now. Objectively
it WAS silly. But in a way, it helped. Remember what I said above about the need to stick together? The imaginary mental construct of "ships" was a
way to help that along. Although I'm not so certain we thought about it in such complex terms at the time!




But having some form of structure - know who you go to for what specific needs - was helpful with a small fandom like ours was.




It also, unfortunately, made for some really -strange- politicking at the time.

-What was the peak membership of the EDC? Around when was this?

That is a complete unknown to me. The peak membership had to be in the late 80s to early 90s. At a rough estimate, I'd guess around 200-300 people maybe?
This is one of those questions better directed to Meri or Derek. Probably Meri, since she would have had to have had a raster of members to work with when
mailing out NOVA, the fanzine.

-What do you consider to be the greatest or most significant accomplishment of the EDC organization?

Getting anime shown and known to people via the convention circuit in the 80s was big. But the biggest assimplishment really was Project A-Kon. Especially in
A-Kon 1, 2, and 3, it was EDC organized.




It was the great swansong of the EDC, really. If EDC died in the 90s, then it died giving birth to one of the biggest and certainly the longest running anime
convention of them all. That's something that even those of us who were on the periphery at the time can take a little pride in.




Because of conventions like AKON, the Japanese producers and animators who visited the states and visited those conventions realized, I think what a market
was here for anime and manga. I think it really helped convince them to market their products here in the states.




And Project AKON wouldn't have come to exist without the EDC.




That's a pretty significant legacy for a group that at it's biggest, was probably no more numerous than, say, the crew of the Space Battleship
Yamato. Not bad, eh?

-Eventually the focus of the club's publications shifted from Yamato/SB to general Japanese anime. Was this deliberate, or a natural reflection of
the interests of the membership?

Mostly it was a natural outgrowth of people discovering more stuff while they were researching on their main hobby. The most significant way that this
happened early on was when a lot of us discovered, then became fans of, Captain Harlock. We loved Matsumoto's style and design and his way of telling a
story, even if it wasn't Yamato. And Harlock was similar in a lot of ways to Yamato. I remember the very first Roman Album I ever owned was NOT a Yamato
one, but was in fact, the Roman Album for "My Youth in Arcadia". I spent hours and hours looking at that book, mesmerized by stuff that was at once
so similar, and yet completely different. My first attempts at fan art were copies of pictures from that book.




So Star Blazers and then Captain Harlock, then from there to discovering other Matsumoto works like Queen Millenia and Galaxy Express 999. From there to
discovering other major artists and writers. RE-discovering Osamu Tezuka and Astro Boy, discovering the Gatchaman source material for Battle of the Planets
(and realizing just how much that show was HACKED!)




Then of course, Macross and Robotech brought in more fans that were more interested in THOSE shows. So the EDC adapted, almost in spite of itself.

-Project A-Kon came along at a time when EDC activity seemed to be winding down; did A-Kon hasten this process?

Perhaps it did. Some people (like myself) burned out on actually running things. I was involved with the first A-kon, but none after that except in small
ways like providing artwork and design for badges and promo material. (The T-Shirt for A-Kon #5 was a collaberation between Lee Madison, Guy Brownlee and
myself.)




Ultimately, what killed the whole concept of the club - ANY club, not just the EDC - was how irrelevent fan clubs were becoming with the much more ready
availability of films and merchandise and Anime Conventions themselves. And of course, then there was the Internet. With people able to communicate over the
internet, what need of fanclubs and their printed newsletters? If you can get your info and tapes from conventions or even ordering straight from online,
what need to go to someone distributing tapes?

-Is the EDC still active in any way?

Not to the best of my knowledge. I've not seen nor heard anything directly even referencing it for years now.

-Are you still involved in anime fandom? To what extent?

Oh, I suppose I am. But you won't find me very active any more. I still go to conventions at times. I'm really more of a manga fan than anime,
really. Portable, far more convenient to view, and I don't need special equipment. (Grin)




Ironically, I don't really want to go to Project A-Kon anymore. It's gotten TOO big for me! And not as focussed on anime as I'd like. I like
smaller conventions like Animefest and Anime Weekend Atlanta. (Although I understand AWA has gotten pretty big of late as well.)

-Any anecdotes, stories, rumors, or tall tales that come to mind about the EDC?

-- There was that one time that a meeting and viewing was set up for the Dallas Chapter of the EDC. I was the one setting it up, and I was up in Denton
getting some tapes for the meeting when an Ice Storm started blowing through! I literally almost skated the car back on the ice all the way back to Dallas to
the apartment meeting area. I think maybe one or two people showed up. We retired back to Meri's place and had less of a meeting and more of a viewing
party while we waited for the storm to blow over. That was actually much more fun than I make it sound. Made a little party out of it.




-- There was a kind of generally acknowledged "hang out" that centered on Derek and Meri's (later, just Meri) apartment/house. We generally
called this "Metropolis" for reasons which are now something of a mystery.




-- The very first convention held in the local area that was all Star Blazers oriented was called Yamato-Con. And that was where I joined up with the EDC. I
won the model contest there. Mostly by default, as I was practically the only entrant! (But I think I would have won anyway, with my meticulous cut-away
model of the Yamato. Which I still own, BTW)




-- I got my "fan name" of Logan Darklighter by registering with the EDC with that name and then being introduced at my first meeting as
"Logan". Unlike many others who made "fannish" handles in the club, mine actually stuck! I've never legally changed it or anything
that weird. But I still answer to "Logan" to this day. My real name, by the way, is William H. Jordan.




-- There was this ONE tape of Yamato: The New Journey. And everybody - I mean EVERYBODY seemed to have gotten their copy of that movie from that ONE tape!
How would you know? When Iscandar explodes at the end, anyone with a copy of the original has the top 1/3 of their screen BEND 90 degrees at exactly the same
time code!




That was a common thing to happen. Many tapes copied in that era had come from the exact same sources. Who knows if any of those survive?

Thanks for helping out with this, and hope you have happy holidays and a good 2008!







Dave M.

Same to you, Dave! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

david merrill wrote:

Hey Logan, thanks for the responses. I got a lot of interesting stuff from Derek about the early early days of the club, as well. I will definitely try
to make sure Jeff Blend's name is up there in big shiny lights... he is a key player in everybody's scenarios of how things went down. I sent a
questionaire to him as well and I'm looking forward to his recollections.







The San Antonio guy you're thinking of is Robert Gibson, right?

(Slaps hand to forehead) Yes! That was the guy! I cannot -believe- I could not remember his name the night I wrote my reply to you!

Hey, what was behind the feud between the EDC and the San Antonio crowd of the late 80s? Meri referenced it but was kind of vague, and I seem to recall
something about Randall Stukey feeling Nova wasn't being published fast enough or something.

It's been so long now, it's more than a little fuzzy to me, too. Take this with a grain - nay - A TON of salt, but I -think- Randall was upset that
there wasn't as much accountability for the membership funds as he would've liked, considering how infrequently the NOVA fanzine came out at the
time. I think it started as a case of "what am I paying for, here?" and kind of escalated to other things, like criticizing the whole structure of
the club, (or in some cases, the lack thereof).




Thing is, though I couldn't see this at the time myself - he was largely _right_ on a good many points. Despite the whole pseudo-para-military concept of
the club, we were really kind of disorganized. It's just that the way in which he brought these issues up wound up seeming really antagonistic. If there
was anyone more socially stunted than my immediate circle of friends in the EDC, it would have to have been Randall. And misunderstandings snowballed.
It's really kind of ironic. I truly believe now that he started off by really wanting to help us. And if he had communicated it better... if we had
listened... But that's fan politics for you.

AWA got within a hair's whisker of 10,000 attendees this past September, so I guess it's a big show, but it's hard for me to think of it as
anything bigger than a bunch of guys saying 'let's put on a show'. I got kicked upstairs to an emeritus position when I moved to Toronto, but
I still arrange things, do panels and Anime Hell, and act as general communications facilitator since I'm still the guy with everybody's telephone
number. Go fig. I work staff on the anime show in Toronto but thankfully my responsibilities are not nearly as heavy. The fans up here are friendly and
fun but not nearly as crazy or destructive as American anime fans. I guess you could say that about Canada in general.

I only have two (final) points I want to touch on (before you go to print).




One - Although you know me as "Logan Darklighter" in print and I will always answer to "Logan" in real life, my real name is William
Jordan and if this is going to be a historical retrospective, I want that noted. Don't get me wrong, you can refer to me in the body of the article under
my quotes as "Logan". I've got no problems with that. Even keep the full name "Logan Darklighter" in there at the top. But you
mentioned Derek Wakefield as a pseudonym and strangely didn't with me. Bwah? Just put in there somewhere what my real name is. Could you do that, please?
You could even take the opportunity to explain the whole pseudonym thing about the club that way!




Second, and this is more my commentary on something in amusement rather than a request to actually change anything, get this -





"NOVA began as a 8.5 x 11-sized magazine, spent a few issues as a digest,
and returned to the full-page format for the remainder of its run. Early
articles included synopses of the various Yamato films and TV series, with
notable exceptions being articles about Mobile Suit Gundam and fan fiction
including Logan Darklighter's epic saga "Between Galaxies", one of the
earliest Star Blazers fanfics.:

Epic? EPIC? Ha ha ha!!! That thing was a piece of CRAP!!! I actually made an attempt to rewrite it in the early 90s and realized the whole premise was
monumentally flawed. My friends ask me to rewrite it occasionally and someday maybe I'll find some way to do it that isn't painful to look at. But if I
do the end result will probably look NOTHING like the original.




But you can keep the word "epic" in there. I approve of anything that makes me look better. ^_^




Heh.... epic.... (snicker)