I suppose some of you out there, who can't imagine life without the internet, have no idea what a fanzine is, or how they came about.

Once upon a time the "Star Wars" fan community was made up of people all over the country, like it is now, but these people couldn't easily communicate. There were little or no cellular phones, no internet, and long distance calling was still expensive (no unlimited calling). Therefore, fans who were far away, that wanted to get closer, had the US postal service to fuel their interest.

Therefore, little clubs were organized throughout the country. Some focused on a specific performer in "Star Wars", for example, ON THE MARK, organized by Lisa Cowan, was a club and fanzine that focused on the career of Mark Hamill. They also covered stories on the "Star Wars" films, Ewok movies, as well as the Marvel "Star Wars" Comics and more. As I understand it, Cowan was Mark's manager and went on to contribute articles for the Lucasfilm Fan Club. Although ON THE MARK was a small fanzine; about four to six pages per issue, it was one of the most professional: it ran quarterly from 1982-1987.

Most clubs, however, focused on fan fiction. That might be another difficult thing for some of you to imagine. Personally, I prefer this time in "Star Wars" history, before we knew everything, prior to the Bantam and other novels. When we had more questions than answers. Fans used their imaginations to formulate their own further adventures of Han, Luke, Leia, and the others. Such zines include FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW, THE WOOKIEE COMMODE, and countless others.

These fanzines can still be collected. I would give one word of cautious; there are some that have adult content. Most, however, stick to the spirit of the motion pictures.

Presently we have this blog site and other official clubs. In many ways we carry on, online, what fans twenty years ago and more did by mail. Most clubs only produced one or two fanzines, and they could run over 300 pages long. That would be a lot of Stooge's jokes!