EDITORIAL
My 2 wupiuipis
What
is the SWFA?
(May 1999)
What
is the SWFA?
(May 1999)
| Fanboy \Fanboy\, n. A person who loves a subject very much, and dedicates much of his time and/or money to it, whether by building a collection, expanding knowledge about, and/or contributing to the subject. (Not quite the same as Geek, Loser, Dweeb or Nerd, for a Fanboy usually has a steady job or studies and is not a virgin.) |
After that, people started saying, "Hey, can this guy join our list? He's a good guy with a spiffy website", etc., etc... Then someone came up with "STAR WARS FANBOY ASSOCIATION", Jeff got the idea for the website, and here we are today. Quite a story we've put together here!
So, this thing may have gotten a little out of my control, but that's OK. I'm having fun anyway! :)
I was fortunate enough become part of that list when I sent James some
comments and changes he could make on his site, JMM's Star Wars
Chronology. Everybody has his own story of how he came onto the list.
Month after month, the list kept getting bigger. To see the current
members of the SWFA, go to the SWFA
members page.
Anyway, the e-mails soon became a forum for discussions about everything from continuity errors to updates of new material that was coming out. For an example of the kind of discussion that usually takes place, see this issue's Trash Compactor.
Fanboys were trading tapes/books/copies by mail. I got "The Stele Chronicles" from Dan Wallace, copies of some RPG articles from Challenge and Shadis magazine from Mark Hudson, a recording of the "Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell" record from Abel Pena, the first Marvel Illustrated Book from Joe Bongiorno and lots more! Thanks, guys. Of course, I sent my share of material too.
Some Fanboys, like Drew Campbell, Pablo Hidalgo, Rich Handley, and Dan Wallace, had worked for West End Games, and written articles or stories for the Star Wars Adventure Journal. When the company folded, some of their material was left in limbo. Members of the SWFA had an exclusive look at some of their unpublished material.
Some of the others, including myself, Abel Pena, James McFadden, and Josh Radke, were never published professionally, but wrote some good fan fiction pieces. Coming from dedicated fans, the stories were very detailed, and were improved by the comments and suggestions from the other members. Creative criticism. Some of these include Josh Radke's story "Galaxy of Vengeance" and my analysis on the Battle of Yavin entitled "Fighter Squadrons of the Alliance".
One day, I had the idea of making a collective website, to showcase our various fan pieces and discussions we were having by e-mail. I also kind of wanted to continue where the Adventure Journals left off, with some sourcefiles and adventures for the role-playing game from West End Games. In pure Fanboy fashion, I had the idea of reprinting the hard-to-find articles from gaming magazines like Challenge, Polyhedron, Shadis, Casus Belli (for the first time in english!) and Dragon. James McFadden joined me as co-website manager.
This would also open the SWFA to other Fanboys (and girls) out there. If you have a fan fiction story or an essai you'd like to see posted, if you have some cool Star Wars artwork or picures, don't be afraid to send it to us for review. The submissions e-mail address is submitSWFA@hotmail.com.
As the website gets more and more exposition, it will keep getting better all the time. So send your comments, suggestions and opinions!