Matt Schley
September 9, 2022 
Helen McCarthy, one of the UK’s preeminent anime experts, is set to deliver a webinar about a fascinating topic: UK anime and manga fanzines.
The lecture, which is set for Sept 15 (6PM London time), is about the fanzine culture that kept anime and manga fandom alive and vital in the years before the internet. If you’re interested in what fandom was like in the days of copy machines, staplers and stamps, this is one not to miss.
Helen McCarthy is the author of books like The Anime Encyclopedia and The Art of Osamu Tezuka and the founder of the magazine Anime UK.
Here’s the official webinar description and a link for registration.
In the days before broadband, fanzines and fanzine culture were a vital part of British cultural experiences from football to punk music. The emerging anime subculture was no different. Starting with a one-shot zine, moving on to articles and imagery in gaming and modelling fanzines, and gradually gaining traction as professional anime and manga magazines began to appear, fanzines formed a vital part of communication between fans. They were supplemented and supported by fan club newsletters. This revolution was most definitely not televised; instead, it was painstakingly typed, illustrated, pasted up, photocopied and sent through the post to a small but passionate number of eager readers.
Most of that culture has not been preserved or archived in any formal sense. Any surviving physical incarnations are mouldering away in boxes in attics and garages. But its other incarnations, the passion and energy of the fans who created those fragile pages, still live on. Those fans have gone on to become writers, artists, designers, academics, business owners, parents, filling many niches in 21st century life with the punk energy of fanzine creation. Helen McCarthy gives a brief outline of the genesis, history and demise of the British anime fanzine, a suitable case for further exploration.
Source: ANN
