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!
When it comes to publications in North America, there were a few that started around 1988-1989 but Mangazine has the distinction of starting around 1985. The publication was also very driven to showcasing "American-style" manga which owner Ben Dunn was known for (and I see his company is still around -> http://www.antarctic-press.com/html/ver ... /index.php).
While I didn't purchase too manga Mangazine issues at the time, I actually started to respect it for how they connected with fandom. In my case, at the time, giving us anime BBS owners a chance to plug our site. Other's publications didn't do that at the time and if anything, wanted you to advertise (which was understandable).
I'm not really sure how long the publication survived but it was not a publication that one could find easily and you hope that your comic store would have it.
As for "Sentai", it was a pretty cool 6 issue release (I think that's all there was) that covered sentai and tokusatsu.
But anyone have memories of this publication or "Sentai"?
Mangazine lasted a good long while. AP has been in business a long time, and I have to respect that, even though I haven't bought anything they published since... 1992? 1993? They have a serious fan base, I'll tell you that.
davemerrill wrote:Mangazine lasted a good long while. AP has been in business a long time, and I have to respect that, even though I haven't bought anything they published since... 1992? 1993? They have a serious fan base, I'll tell you that.
I really didn't read much Antarctic Press (maybe an issue or two issues of "Ninja High School" back then)..aside from Mangazine and Sentai...but mainly because I was trying to buy every darn X-Men, the Death of Superman related comic book at that time. Lol...
Last edited by kndy on Sat May 18, 2013 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I used to like Oriental Cinema and Asian Trash Cinema mags. They covered everything and were pretty laid back. Still like that for horror mags like Rue Morgue and Fangoria...
_D_ wrote:I used to like Oriental Cinema and Asian Trash Cinema mags. They covered everything and were pretty laid back. Still like that for horror mags like Rue Morgue and Fangoria...
I remember seeing these mags and a godzilla mag at the grocery store back then.
I liked Mangazine, though it was hard for me to find copies (our local comic shop at the time only carried it when they felt like it, lol).
AP may still not be a HUGE company, but they're persistent, which I've always admired. And a lot of people attribute them or their titles with their first exposure to anime/manga style, so you have to give them that. I'm always amused/annoyed at Stew Levy's claim that Tokyopop "invented" American Manga-Style comics (or "Original English Manga" or whatever they want to call it) because Ninja High School & Antarctic Press in general's been doin' it since the 80s.
Although AP's stuff always had a "trashy" vibe, Mangazine and their other publications resisted the urge to "go corporate" longer than most publications. They would talk about fansubs and import LDs long after mags like Animerica had turned into mouthpieces for the US industry at the expense of the artform as a whole. They also printed four panel doujin, the non-H kind, which was fun.
One series they did, I think there was only one or maybe two issues, was Settei. It basically just reprinted line art and design works from art books. Eventually they quit doing it when they realized that...you need rights to do that.
Also, in an attempt to diversify, they printed the first three issue miniseries of Strangers in Paradise, and I'm very grateful for that.
I loved Antarctic Press in the 90's because they published unknown original doujinshi artists. They actually went to Comiket and other conventions hiring up and coming artists. I have a few collections of work done by artists I would otherwise not know of. None became big that I know of, but they are really lovely 80's/90's style comics. I saved any duplicates so I could scan them eventually.
I picked up a few Sentai magazines and I have one Mangazine, I like them. Really neat stuff!
Wow, I didn't even know they had any sort of magazines covering Sentai in this country. Might have to look into a copy or two.
The only thing I really remember about Antarctic Press (besides a friend's ex being the translator there) is this Warrior Nun Arelala VHS tape I picked up. Its only a minute or two long and the style seems to have been anime-influenced.
Path--that Warrior Nun Areala video was apparently what they were trying to use to convince people to back an actual anime animated series. AP and Ben Dunn were trying to drum up money to pay Sunrise to animate it, but they never got completely funded...so that short video was all that ever got made. I remember there was a lot of buzz about it. I'm kinda sad it never got completed, the stills I saw from it actually looked kinda cool.
I think that was what inspired Chaos Comics to do that "Lady Death" anime with ADV later on, actually. (Which I never saw, but heard was fairly decent for what was basically a direct-to-video movie.)
