Breaking It All Down: the ‘Zine – Is Edited and Written by Alexander Case
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Issue #8, November 2015 1 Jose Sanchez was born and raised in Miami, Florida on March 10,1968,where he still lives today with his wife Aliana. At the age of six, he was introduced to fingerpainting. By first grade, he had picked up his first pencil, but it was not until the summer of 1977 when Star Wars hit the movie screens across America, that his imaginative spark was truly ignited! Like so many other people that were influenced by the cult phenomenon, he was too. So much so, that this led him to seriously explore and develop his talent for creating art further. As time has gone by and he has honed his skills, he has been notably influenced by the works of Science Fiction and Fantasy artists such as: Stephen Youll, Donato Giancola, Chris Moore, Tim White, Jim Burns, David B. Mattingly and Michael Whelan, to name but a few. He attended Lindsey-Hopkins Technical Education Education Center in Miami, Florida where he received a certificate in Commercial Art Technology-majoring in illustration and minoring in Graphic Design. Jose would ideally like to see himself one day working professionally in the motion picture industry as a Concept Artist. He had previously worked on a low- budget SF/Super Hero Animation flick titled: "Shadow Runner", designing the individual character's spaceships. "They tend to depend more on technology than they do on their own superpowers". He is also interested in the publication and gaming markets. To one of his many credits, which have included several fanzine covers and one semi-prozine cover and interior artwork. Also appearing in the official LucasFilm Star Wars Insider magazines: "City Patrol", was chosen for publication in the March/April 2006/issue #86. “Oil Bath”, “Artoo”, “Pair of Jawas” and “Land of the Rising Suns” in April 2014/issue #148 now being published by Titan Publications and online at starwars.com on the Jan.15,2014 Blog article: Bantha Tracks: Best of the Year, Online edition: “AT-AT Driver” and in the Blog article: Bantha Tracks: Art Galaxy, March 2014 “ Djas Puhr-Settling The Score!” Much of his art can be currently seen at efanzines.com. 2 Contents Letters of Comment • 4 Sasquan Con Report • 6 Con Report: Kumoricon & Portland Retro Gaming Expo • 14 Cosplay Photographs! • 18 Anime 204: Directors I Know On Sight • 24 Hayao Miyazaki • 24 Mamoru Hosoda • 25 Makoto Shinkai • 26 Yoshiaki Kawajiri • 28 Satoshi Kon • 29 Mamoru Oshii • 30 Breaking It All Down: The ‘Zine – is edited and written by Alexander Case. Letters of Comment can be sent to [email protected]. If you’ve never sent a LoC to me before, please put “LoC:” at the start of the subject line, so it gets filed in the right place. I also sporadically appear on the Bureau42 Greatest Science Fiction Film Tournament podcast, available through the Bureau42 Master Podcast Audio Feed, which can be found on iTunes and Stitcher. My YouTube Channel, where the web-series that this fanzine is spun off from. can be found at http://www. youtube.com/user/CountZeroOr 3 Letters of Comment A handful of LOCs, and one of them spurred an article, so that’s awesome. We have a first-time LOC (at least to this fanzine) from Allan Maurer: Hi Alexander, Regarding the piece on the Ackermonster doc: A lot of what I’ve seen about Forry since his death has been one-sided. He more or less introduced me and legions of others to fandom with Famous Monsters and Spacemen, was at least partly responsible for cos-play, funded Ray Bradbury’s trip to the first Worldcon and otherwise helped shape fandom. But as much as I like FJA, and I do, it would be interesting to see a probing biography of the man that also deals with his many fannish feuds, his difficulties with Robert A. Heinlein, the lawsuit over FM, and the ultimate dispersal of his marvelous collection, his fondness for taking nude photos of young women, his endless parties, and so on. He was certainly of considerable cultural significance and worth considering in that light, but with all his peculiarities intact. On another topic, Taral Wayne briefly discussed Miyazaki, whom I discovered only when TCM did a special showing of all his films (up to then) in both English and dubbed versions. His work is really the only Japanese animation I’ve enjoyed, but it’s something of an outlier, isn’t it? I mean, it’s superior film-making, period. It stands out as major cinema. I have not seen enough other Anime to know what to compare Miyazaki with. Any suggestions for work of similar quality or kind to take a look at? Best, Allan Thank you very much from your letter. When I asked Allen about whether they were interested in directors with a style similar to Miyazaki or ones with their own unique style, the response was he was interested in both – so, Allen, you’re going to get your question answered on that this issue – I hope you enjoy the article. As far as Forry goes – I would also like to see a more candid biography or documentary on Forry. I noticed that while some of Forry’s feuds were covered in the documentary (in particular his feuds with H.P.L. and with Harlan Ellison), they were generally covered in such a fashion that Forry was shown in a better light than whoever he was feuding with, and his difficulties with Heinlein weren’t mentioned at all. The next is from the Incomparable Lloyd Penny: Dear Alex: Thank you for Breaking It All Down 7, and there’s got to be something in here to comment on. Let me have a look, I am sure it’s there... Like Taral, I am not into anime or video games, as that means there’s much in your zine I can’t really comment on. The best thing is, there are other things to comment on, and that’s what we do. My loc...well, the Puppies didn’t have the impact they were hoping for re the Hugos. They could stuff the ballot box all they wanted, but they couldn’t control the outcome. Some were unfortunately hurt by the various No Award results, so they did have some impact, and not what they were hoping for. We did have our tables at ConBravo in Hamilton, and Unplugged Expo in Mississauga. ConBravo sales were poor, and Unplugged Expo sales were nearly non-existent. We will be looking into dedicated craft shows in the Toronto area to see if we can find better markets. I had seen the terms onmyoji, kami and yokai before, so the explanations here are useful. Many thanks! 4 I seem to recall The Ackermonster Chronicles as something shown on the Buffalo PBS station. I think it was a fun watch, but as you say, there was so much more that could have been put into it. Great to see, but could have been better. Done for now, many thanks, see you with the next one! Hope there will be plenty more. Yours, Lloyd Penney. It’s always great to hear from you, even if there are chunks you can’t necessarily comment on. It’s a bummer that the ConBravo sales were poor – I’d heard some good things about the con, and several of the other video producers I follow go to the convention (particularly Lewis “Linkara” Lovhaug – who I mentioned in the Internet Critic column I wrote – and Nash Bozard, who does a show reviewing fantasy film), and they’d sung the praises of the con. Hopefully the con reports this issue will give you something more in-depth to comment about. Finally, from Jerry Kaufman – who helped get me into writing my fanzine: I just got around to reading BIAD, and wanted to say congratulations on graduating - are you thinking of going for a higher degree? I didn’t see many movies this past summer, but Mad Max: Fury Road was one. I loved The Road Warrior and have watched it more than once (the first and third movies were interesting but not ones I’m likely to sit through again - though I have seen a few segments of Beyond Thunderdome when it turns up on TV). I was totally enthralled by the sets, costume design, and general look of Fury Road, and the action was entertaining. However, overall, it didn’t make a lasting impression the way Mad Max did. I attribute this to being older - the more I live, the less impressive new experiences are. I read your overview of Madoka Magica and its predecessors in the “magical girl” genre. It was interesting in a disinterested way - I’m not likely to get hooked on anime, but if I do, I’ll have Breaking it all Down as a guide. However, I did skip the “Video Game Primer.” I do look forward to your next issue, to see what movies you’ve watched and happens next in your post-college career. And Suzle and will be at Orycon, so we’ll see you there. Yours, Jerry Thank you very much for the letter. As it stands, I’m going to stand with the Bachelor’s Degree for now – I’d like to shave down some of that college debt before I go rushing back into the breach. I’m really looking forward to the full-bells-and-whistles Blu-Ray release of Fury Road, with the planned alternate Black & White and Silent Film versions of the film.