An index of prominent figures in the early anime fandom?

[Fireminer]

at the time, the 1986 Baycon anime room program guide was pretty much the Bible for anime fans. It was very well regarded indeed. The Baycon guide was the best and most comprehensive English-language guide to the most popular Japanese animation films and TV shows, period, unsurpassed until Helen McCarthy and Johnathan Clements' "Anime Encyclopedia."

You may be confusing Heidi McDonald with Lea Hernandez. Lea was married to Mark Hernandez when Mark and Bobb Waller started Yamatocon.

You're right! My bad! And thanks for the information?

But do Lea and Mark coincidentally have the same last name, or did one of them take their spouse's family name?

[Fireminer]

Also, in that same article, Lea mentioned that she was an editor of a fanzine devoted to manga- and anime-influenced and inspired erotica. Does anyone here have any idea about that specific fanzine?

[Fireminer]

After I sent an email to the Anime World Order team, Daryl actually spent some of his time writing a reply to me. He listed some of the names that I might want to add to my index, which included: Trish Ledoux, Ardith Carlton, Kay Reynolds, Meri Davis, Sue Shambaugh, Lorraine Savage, Jim Kazpostas, Don Magness, Enrique Conty, Ryan Gavigan, Steve Harrison, Steve Pearl, and Jay Fubler Harvey.

Is there anyone here have any thing notable to say about any person within the above list? I can seem to find anything about Don Magness except Fred Patten mentioning him in a book that Don had worked with Mark Hernandez in making Yamato Con 1983. However, in the previous post Mark mentioned that Bobb Waller was the one working with Mark in organizing the con. So who did Mark really work with?

[Fireminer]

Also, according to Wikipedia and Michael Pinto’s writing, the first anime booth that he Brian Cirunick and Robert Fenelon established the first anime booth in an American convention was held at Lunacon 1983. However, in his book Watching Anime, Fred Patten wrote that the three of them had already set up a Star Blazers booth at New York Creation Convention 1982.

[davemerrill]

At the time of Yamatocon, Mark Hernandez and Lea were married (they are no longer married).

It's my understanding that Yamatocon was put together by Mark Hernandez, Bobb Waller, and Don Magness. I'm sure there were other people involved as well; even a small convention requires a staff of a dozen or so people.

[SteveH]

Also, according to Wikipedia and Michael Pinto’s writing, the first anime booth that he Brian Cirunick and Robert Fenelon established the first anime booth in an American convention was held at Lunacon 1983. However, in his book Watching Anime, Fred Patten wrote that the three of them had already set up a Star Blazers booth at New York Creation Convention 1982.

This seems to forget the 'little Japan' island of dealers at SDCC circa 1980 or '81 This carried on for a couple of years. Books Nippan, Pony Toy, Bud Plant's Comics and Comix, and so on.

The same thing happened at the 1984 Worldcon, adding a table from General Products and Fred was lugging around a bag of LPs from Melody Records. Of course this is later.

I have a feeling Books Nippan was a regular at SDCC for a time. That was likely due to...oh crap. Dave? Bill something. He was a Doctor of Chiropractic... Wilson, right? Bill Wilson D.C. He was a mover and shaker in the C/Fo who lit a fire under the Japanese stores to 'outreach'. Not just sit there and wait for some hapless gaijin to walk in but actually advertise and promote their existence.

[Fireminer]

Does anyone here have any idea what happened to Don Magness? What was his involvement in the anime fandom post-YamatoCon 1984?

[Fireminer]

Dave, are you familiar with the translator Anna Exter, who worked with the TechnoGirls fansubbing group before going professional? She still works on anime even today, and according to this page, she lives in Windsor, Canada.

Furthermore, on this interview with ANN, Anna mentioned working with a figure named Barbara Chambers. Anyone here has any idea who she is?

Also, was JACOSub more popular than Sub Station Alpha?

[davemerrill]

I do know Anna Exter, I hired her to translate the movie "Flying Phantom Ship" and she does good work. She was living out in Nanaimo BC when I first met her at a Project A-Kon, but since has moved to Windsor. She came out to Anime North a few years back.

I do not know Barbara Chambers.

As far as JACOsub vs Sub Station Alpha, I have no idea. JACOsub might have appeared earlier.

[Drew_Sutton]

Furthermore, on this interview with ANN, Anna [Exeter] mentioned working with a figure named Barbara Chambers. Anyone here has any idea who she is?

Was there something you meant to link? I would be interested in the read, even though I probably don't know Barbara either.

Also, was JACOSub more popular than Sub Station Alpha?

As far as JACOsub vs Sub Station Alpha, I have no idea. JACOsub might have appeared earlier.

I'd never heard of Sub Station Alpha, so I looked it up. Sub Station Alpha is a Windows software released sometime about 1996, per this archive.org link.Given its vintage, the software probably was designed with Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 in mind but going through the archive, it looks like NT was the last OS it was developed for. It is also, a dead project. Compared with JACOsub, JACO is indeed older since it is tied to the Commodore Amiga, which was niche but a popular niche in the 1980s. JACOsub was prolific in the fansub community in the tape days, probably because of the Amiga's dedicated following at the time.

Where the real longevity lies, is that the subtitling formats generated by SSA and JACOsub can both be encoded and decoded by most modern video players and codec packs. ASS was a format used very heavily in the early digisub days but not on systems generated by the SubStationAlpha software. Most folks I knew (which is hardly a large sample) used AegisSub or Adobe Premier.

I do know Anna Exter, I hired her to translate the movie "Flying Phantom Ship" and she does good work. She was living out in Nanaimo BC when I first met her at a Project A-Kon, but since has moved to Windsor. She came out to Anime North a few years back.

Windsor (or South Detroit ) isn't too far from Toronto, surprised she's not a regular up there.