Dark Jedi - the evolution of a fanzine

I guess it all started around late 1995/early 1996, I can't remember the exact date but some when around then I 'rediscovered' Star Wars. I say rediscover but truthfully it had never gone away. I was a huge Star Wars fan in the early 80s during my formative years and I still remember vividly seeing Return of the Jedi at our local Odeon in Portsmouth, which has sadly recently closed. I'd seen Star Wars first and then some years later on the TV, The Empire Strikes Back, so my introduction to the saga was somewhat backwards. I remember after the release of Jedi maybe 1984/85 getting some of the toys and one of my proudest purchases was an AT-ST from Tesco's (yes they had a small toy department then) second only to my Darth Vader figure. I remember being with my brother and being allowed to choose just one figure each, for me it was an easy choice, it was never going to be anyone other than Vader!

I suppose it was from first seeing Star Wars that I liked the character of Darth Vader. Whilst most kids would probably either have identified with Luke or Han or Leia (for girls) I went with the arch villain! I am not sure why; I have always found villains more interesting, even though they should rightly never win the day. I guess it was because Vader was hidden behind that fearsome mask and had those swirling capes - an air of sinister mystery - that interested me. Not to mention that the Empire had the best uniforms and the stormtroopers were cool even though they could never shoot anything!

When I 'came back' to Star Wars in the 1990s it was again the villains and Darth Vader in particular that drew me in once more. So perhaps it was inevitable that when it came to writing my first piece of fan-fiction - The Hidden Jedi - it would feature Vader as its central focus. That was published in Jedi Issue #3, September 1996. Jedi was the newsletter of The British Star Wars Fan Club edited by two people that I came to know well over the years - Simon Clarke and Gary Tester. The basic plot of The Hidden Jedi was that Obi-wan had a daughter, who had been kept secret from both Vader and the Emperor. Reading it now, the plot doesn't make much sense - this daughter of Kenobi lures Vader back to the scene of his fateful duel with her father - which in my imagination was Mount Tinmar on a planet called Tarisha 5. She seems to be on some foolish mission to convert Vader from his dark deeds and in a moment that is reminiscent of both Darth Maul's demise in The Phantom Menace and Anakin's own fate at Obi-wan's hands in Revenge of the Sith, the daughter of Kenobi is ruthlessly dispatched.

It was around the end of 1996 I think that I first started to become aware of the larger Star Wars fan community that existed and the fact that some people were producing fanzines. This was a time before the Internet had reached its mass appeal and it was something that would ultimately come to kill off the concept of the Star Wars fanzine.

In 1997 I read my first Star Wars fanzine produced by Suzanne Godsalve, Child of Darkness; Child of Light 2. I believe, if memory serves correctly, that I saw this advertised in the classifieds section of Starburst #205.

It seems remarkably precocious looking back now but I decided that I would do my own Star Wars fanzine and so was sown the seed of what would become Dark Jedi. The first issue was published in November 1997, comb-bound with a front cover by James Simmonds and stories by Jason Grant, Gary Tester, Suzanne Godsalve, Stephen Mohammed and of course not to be outdone, four entries by me! Although it has to be said that only one of these were a story, the other three were profiles of the Empire. My fiction contribution was a piece entitled Dark Servants, which imagined an alternative ending to Return of the Jedi. I should also mention that Sandra Scholes (who became a regular contributor to successor fanzines Tales of the Empire & Delta Source) provided the illustrations.

Even now I remember the buzz and excitement of getting this 'zine finished. In the grand scheme of things it was a modest and rather unimportant project but it felt important to me personally. It was something that I was very proud of and I hope that the people who contributed, similarly felt proud of the end product. Moreover, it was during the production of Dark Jedi that I got to know Jason Grant and joined his Star Wars fan club, The Moons of Yavin. That was as they say, my first step into a larger world.

A second Dark Jedi appeared a little under two years later in September 1999, when Star Wars again seemed to be on a high with the release of The Phantom Menace a few months before. This second issue featured a quite spectacular A3 foldout cover in full colour by John Conway of the Emperor and the Empire's servants and it remains one of my favourite pieces of Star Wars fan art.

The contributors to this second issue were a mix of some from the first and new names. Selinthia Avenchesca provided some thoughtful poems on various themes connected with the Empire, Jason Grant provided two irreverent pieces - Grey Walker Down and Wraith Uncovered, while Joe Sales, Gary Tester, Richard J Thompson and Valerie Vancolie all contributed stories. A rather bizarre cross-over with Batman came courtesy of Graham Walters. I have always been doubtful of cross-overs and perhaps on reflection this one would have been better left out. Again, Sandra Scholes did a sterling job with the illustrations. Something I specifically asked all the contributors to do this time round was to provide a short piece describing the work they contributed or about themselves. This is fascinating to look back on and I note from Jason's piece such as using the names of the astronauts in Apollo 13 for the characters in Grey Walker Down which also drew inspiration from the title of another film - Grey Lady Down.

Sadly there was never a Dark Jedi #3 although something of a resurrection of the concept came when Tim Goddard started the Delta Source Fiction Specials.

There will never be another Dark Jedi either, the Internet has pretty much put an end to that idea and that I suppose was partly what killed off the Delta Source 'zine as well. What I miss from those days is the collaborative effort that went into making each issue. Okay, it was only an amateur publication and not one that was ever going to get much notice or recognition but that didn't matter. It was the satisfaction of working together with people that became my friends on something that collectively at least, we could be proud of.