The roughly mid-90's and earlier (generally pre-Toonami, pre-anime boom) era of anime & manga fandom: early cons, clubs, tape trading, Nth Generation VHS fansubs, old magazines & fanzines, fandubs, ancient merchandise, rec.arts.anime, and more!
Started in 1986 by Dean Lee Norton, Steve Bremer, and Wayne Wright; apparently it veered more towards the furry side of anime during its C/FO years. (^_^;) Here's the concept art for the club mascot:
Not much info on the name change, when they left the C/FO, or when/if they stopped meeting. Anyone out there have any more info?
mbanu: What's between Old School and New School?
runesaint: Hmmm. "Middle School", perhaps?
It looks like it was still active in 1997 under David Bliss, and still furry-centric. I was a little surprised to see this mentioned in the C/FO-LA minutes; did the members of Southern California former C/FO chapters still attend eachother's meetings?
mbanu: What's between Old School and New School?
runesaint: Hmmm. "Middle School", perhaps?
If the day is right, then this would be May of 1998 (although I could see it being May of 1997 with a typo too).
Also some member bios:
Wayne Wright has been a the President of Inland Empire Anime since the club's inception. He works a postal worker, and a substitute teacher. Some of Wayne's hobbies include reading, surfing the Internet, and spending time with his fiancee.
Jerry Shaw is an integral part of IEA, as he supplies most of our programming on Laser Disc. Jerry posseses the largest private collection of animation Laser Disks outside of Japan. We at Inland Empire Anime owe a great debt of gratitude to Jerry.
Bruce J. Eng is one of the more notable members of IEA. Affectionately known as "The Evil One", this movie afficianado's hobbies include modeling, sculpting and collecting movie music soundtracks. Bruce is also a VERY talented artist.
Larry Corpuz Jr. is the Vice President of Inland Empire Anime. His hobbies include video game playing, building computer systems and sleeping. He works for Blackwolf Computers in Riverside as a Computer Technician. Larry is one of IEA's several computer experts.
David Bliss is the Treasurer for Inland Empire anime. He's one of the founding members of IEA. Some of David's hobbies include collecting and drawing Furry Art and traveling coast-to-coast attending Sci-Fi/Space Travel conventions. David works as a drafter for Fleetwood, Inc.
Too many officers. And I would suspect James Long would have some words over "... posseses the largest private collection of animation Laser Disks outside of Japan"
But yeah, the furry component of the C/Fo, even unto chapters, has been there forevermore.
mbanu wrote:If the day is right, then this would be May of 1998 (although I could see it being May of 1997 with a typo too).
On second thought, I take that back; it wouldn't have been on a Friday at noon because it was a community club rather than a college club. Also, maybe expecting a U.S. club to have the first episode in May when it was out in Japan in April is a little optimistic. (^_^;) If there was any typo-ing going on, it would have been pushing it in the other direction to Sunday May 30, 1999.
mbanu: What's between Old School and New School?
runesaint: Hmmm. "Middle School", perhaps?
