Issue #11, January 2017 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. 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!” Also appearing in the official LucasFilm Star Wars Insider magazines, now being published by Titan Publications : “City Patrol”, issue #86, March/April 2006, “Oil Bath”, “Artoo”, “Pair of Jawas” and “Land of the Rising Suns” issue #148, April 2014, “Surveying the Situation”, Issue #154, Jan.2015, “Sinister Jawa Pair” and “The Real Dynamic Duo : C-3PO and R2-D2“, issue #156, April 2015 and the “T.I.E. Fighter Pilot Elite Tribute”, Issue #161, Nov.2015. Much of his art can be seen now at http://jose77sanchez.deviantart.com/gallery/ and efanzines.com. Contents Letters of Comment – 4 Submitted for Your Consideration: The Best SFF Anime of 2016 – 7 Submitted For Your Consideration: Notable Anime SF Fancasts of 2016 – 13 Haiku – 15 Letters of Comment Before we get into the letter, just to get this out of the way – I’m pretty sure I’m eligible for a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine, and I would not object to a nomination if you felt like nominating me. Our letter this issue is from Lloyd Penny. Dear Alexander: Thank you for Breaking It All Down: The Zine, issue 10. I’m sittin’ here, just a-chillin’, wishin’ summer could come back. But, no such luck. So, we stay inside, and get caught up on things, and I have a lot of zines yet to respond to, and you’re next! I had thought a while ago that Lucasfilm had revised what was considered canon when it comes to the Star arsW universe, not as Expanded as it once had been. It is not as easy to simply move to Canada as you might think. It might take some time, but if you are serious about it, contact the nearest Canadian consulate, and start the process. Do your research, and allow for a couple of years. My letter…yes, we did go to England for two weeks, and we’d happily return in a heartbeat. Watford’s Harry Potter exhibits were gigantic and amazing to see, and The Asylum in Lincoln, the biggest steampunk event in the world, was great fun. England certainly loves their trains, and we were on Virgin First Class for a couple of trips. Riding these trains reminded me of the superfast trains in Japan…I never did know how fast we were going, but it got us to where we were going in not much time at all. I never saw the movie Suicide Squad, but some of it was shot here. The street where there’s a number of cars that explode…that’s Yonge Street, Toronto’s main north-south street. I like the fact there’s anime and manga about the production of anime and manga. It does get a little self-referential, I imagine, for there must be thousands who would like nothing better than to make it themselves. For this coming year, we hope to once again get a vendor’s table at Anime North. With their attendance of 25,000, it is usually our best convention of the year, and it is in less than six months. Time to get moving, so off this goes to you. Not much in the way of plans for Christmas plans (we’ve spent our cash on getting to and around England), but staying inside where it is warm is probably the best for us.e W hope you have a warm Christmas, too, and see you in that far-off science-fictional year of 2017. Yours, Lloyd Penney. Well, we did have a warm Christmas in Oregon. However, the past few weeks have been followed by snow, ice, and more snow, and ice. Of the storms we got, the last one was probably bad by the standards of people outside of Portland, with over a foot of snow in parts of Portland. However, the other two had separate issues with the first starting during the evening commute, and starting hard enough to be a navigation hazard.Things were bad enough that my commute home from work ende up taking 6 hours. The other significant snowstorm happened on the weekend, which was good, but still ended up causing problems for the many bridges in the Portland area, causing traffic to slow to a crawl again. I managed to take a few pictures of the snow, which I’ve included below. The view outside the Tualatin Public Library during Snowpocalypse 1 The view outside my breakroom at work a few days after Snowpocalypse 2: Electric Boogaloo - and the moniker actually fits because it was only a week later. The view just across the Colombia in Vancouver, WA during Snowpocalypse 3: Son of Snowpocalypse Submitted for Your Consideration: The Best SFF Anime of 2016 2016 has come and gone, and the time has come for nomination season. This time, hopefully before the cutoff, I have a list of five SF/Fantasy Anime series from last year that are worth your consideration for the Hugo or Dragon Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation Long (or Short) form. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Arc 4 - Diamond is Unbreakable The first arc of JoJo’s, Phantom Blood, was a pastiche of Hammer Horror. The second arc, Battle Tendency, was inspired by Indiana Jones & pulp adventure. Season 3, Stardust Crusaders, was an adaptation of the prototype of what would become the archetypical Shonen Battle formula. The arc that was adapted into Diamond is Unbreakable takes its cues from Twin Peaks, taking the globe-trotting action of the previous 3 arcs, and confining it to one city in rural Japan.The story for this arc has Jotaro Kujo and his grandfather, Joseph, coming to investigate an illegitimate son of Joseph’s, Josuke. However, upon their arrival, they discover that not only has Josuke discovered that he is a Stand Wielder, but a bunch of other people in town have started developing Stands, and with this has come a bunch of mysterious deaths. The three members of the Joestar family, along with some new friends they make along the way, must get to the bottom of these murders. The new JoJo - Josuke, and his stand, Crazy Diamond Thunderbolt Fantasy This isn’t exactly anime... because it’s not animated. Instead, this show is a wuxia* fantasy series like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, done with incredibly detailed puppets. The Supermarionation series of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson such as Thunderbirds and The Mysterions caught on in Japan and Taiwan to a degree that dwarfs their successes in the US and the UK, likely due to the Japanese tradition of Bunraku puppetry and Taiwanese glove puppetry. This leads to Thunderbolt Fantasy, a Japanese-Taiwanese co-production, written by author Gen Urobuchi, who I’ve discussed previously through his series Madoka Magica, Gargantua, and Fate/Zero. The series follows (and I’m using their “Art” name - or their name in the Martial World - which is normally what is used in the subtitles) - Vermillion Kingfisher, a martial artist and the last surviving protector of the powerfulHeaven’s Retribution Sword, a blade of such strength that to keep its power sealed, the blade, hilt and crossguard were kept separated - Kingfisher holds the Crossguard. When a group known as the Onyx Demons seeks the sword, they kill Kingfisher’s brother for the Hilt, which he possesses, forcing Kingfisher to flee with the Crossguard, in the hopes of reaching the blade before the Onyx Demons do. To do so, she must join forces with an enigmatic swordsman called “Edgeless Blade” to stop the Onyx Demons before they can achieve their goal. The series itself is incredibly well done, with fight choreography on par with real-world martial arts films, and puppeteering work that blows the work by the Andersons out of the water. Additionally, Urobuchi has a strong talent for writing compelling characters, which really shows through with this show.