Breaking It All Down: the ‘Zine – Is Edited and Written by Alexander Case
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Issue #5: Winter, 2015 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. 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 Contents Letters of Comment 4 Con Report – Kumoricon 6 Con Report – Portland Retro Gaming Expo 21 Con Report – OryCon 2014 22 5 Recommended SF/Fantasy Anime of 2014 23 Book Review – Ready Player One 28 Letters of Comment It’s been a short hop since my last issue of the zine, the ball and managed my time better, I would have but I’ve still gotten a couple letters, one of is why gotten captions together for the pictures and a better there’s such a short turnaround. Text of the LOCs explanation of why these series are so frequently will be in bold, and in a different typeface then my cosplayed. For that matter, I would have put together comments. con reports for Kumoricon and Portland Retro Gaming expo. As it is, this issue I’ve got articles on all If you’d like to see your LoC printed in the next issue, three cons I attended, as well as my thoughts on some please send your E-Mails to alexander.case@gmail. of the best SF & Fantasy Anime of 2014. com Also, I would have had the sense to put a contact From Jerry Kaufman: E-Mail in the issue, so I could get LoCs from people Thanks for giving Suzle and me the new issue at who hadn’t previously commented on the ‘zine. Orycon. I’m glad to see you got two meaty letters from To make up for this failure to plan, now that my two of fandom’s meatiest letter writers. internship and the term are over, I’m putting out I have to admit that some of the contents this this issue of the fanzine a little earlier than normal. issue were lost on me. The piece on Anime, “Most As it is, I have a slew of pictures of cosplayers from Frequently Cosplayed”, was mildly interesting, and Kumoricon that I didn’t use last issue which I’ll the thumb-sucking young woman was somewhat be using in this issue, and a couple have some neat attractive, but it all left me wondering. Why are these stories attached to them. shows Cosplayed? What character is the thumb-sucker From Lloyd Penny: supposed to be, not to mention those in the other photos? Dear Alexander: Your review of Guardians of the Galaxy grabbed Many thanks for issue 4 of Breaking It All Down my attention the most, because I saw it this past – The Zine. Time for a few comments, and I will flesh summer. I would say that part of the movie’s appeal is them out as best as I can. that its skeleton is the old “mysterious father” aspect. For me, the original Star Trek, the original Star I don’t know if this derives from the comics or was Wars, and dozens of SF anthologies and novels is what added by the screenwriters. I have the impression that got me started. I didn’t find fandom until that Star Wars screenwriters nowadays draw on Campbell’s Hero with year of 1977, but I have stuck around ever since. Well a Thousand Faces more often than not, to add a mythic done on the paid internship! Most internships here are echo. The hero of unknown origins who turns out to be salary-free, and some wonder at the legality of that. the son of a god or culture hero - or a galaxy-spanning villain - crops up in many myths, said Campbell. Being Good to see John Purcell here. I started as a captured and sent to that prison planet also matches the media fan, and helped to found a Star Trek club on the hero’s visit to the underworld in Campbell’s version of West coast of Canada, but I had to ask what else there the hero’s journey. was, moved to Toronto, and found so much more. After so many years of SF literature, fanzines, con running, Also, the “mysterious father” angle gives the costuming and more, we’ve added steampunk to the mix filmmakers a good hook to hang a sequel on. to keep things fresh. And, we’re now vendors at SF cons Yours, and at craft shows, so there’s more fun to be had. Jerry Kaufman My loc…Yes, no Sasquan for us, and two of the senior committee live here, and they are not pleased So, this is why I’ve written this fanzine so quickly with us. In fact, I doubt we will ever get to another (hopefully) after the last one – I rushed my last issue Worldcon, unless a lottery decides to burden us with of the Fanzine out the door to get it ready in time for untold wealth. C’est la vie. OryCon, without giving it the editorial passes and formatting that it really needed. Had I been more on Thank you for the article on Attack on Titan. The uniforms seem to be mass-produced, and that’s why Fullmetal Alchemist, which I mentioned in I saw so many of them. I gather there is a lot of anime passing my previous article, and also in an earlier that also contains a lot of steampunk, and Steam Boy article, either the Anime 101 article in my first issue, is the only title I can name, and the only title I own. or the Anime 102 article I wrote for The Drink Tank, Would Black Butler be part of that mix? Some of the also falls into this sort of “diesel-punk” esthetic, other titles at the end? probably fitting into something similar to the 1930s in terms of the visual style of the world’s setting. Like Again, not much for me with gaming and video Black Butler, the series has a mix of technology and games, so I skip over them, and say that I am done for magic, though the magic in Fullmetal Alchemist is now. Thanks for this, and I look forward to the next more common and flashier than the magic in Black issue. Butler. On the video game front, the Sakura Wars Yours, Lloyd Penney. series of RPGs also has a steam-punk style. The most Black Butler would be a little closer to recent title in the series – Sakura Wars: So Long, Steampunk, being set in Victorian England – though My Love – received an English-language release it contains a very strong occult element as well. Kia for the Playstation 2. In the Shin Megami Tensei Asaimya’s manga Steam Detectives (which was also series (which I started covering last issue, and I’ll adapted to an anime series) is another steam-punk finish up this issue), the Raidou Kuzunoha games anime. (Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army and Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon) are set in Japan during However, I’ve encountered more anime and this period and bring some diesel-punk elements to the manga that I’d describe as “diesel-punk” rather than table.