In preparing to work on my first issue of my online zine, I decided to dig out my old issues of the Clobberin' Times and do a little skimming to get into the mood. Man, time sure has flown since the Summer of 1988 (when the first issue came out - I joined in issue 5 during the Spring of 1989)!

The APA started out with five members (Tim, Mike, KC, Brian & Derek) and four zines. By the time I got on board, after posting an ad in the Comic Buyers' Guide for sharing Champions characters and Rex sent me a letter with info on how to get in touch with Tim (our first Central Mailer), the APA membership had grown to nearly a dozen. Issue 5 was the first two-section zine, sporting covers by Ron Lim (Mike and Tim were good friends with him, before Ron hit the big time!). With issue 7, the buzz was starting about the newly released 4th Edition rule book (Hero Games now has a 5th edition - already quite a few years old).

Back then, any of us who had heard of e-mail were only using it at work. The rise of the home computer with online activity by everyday people was still a ways off. We did our zines on typewriters or Commodore PCs or by any means necessary, then we shipped out copies off to the CM for him to collate and send back as the combined issues. Discussions in mailing comments could last for months on end (since each issue was bimonthly, six Times per year).

When I joined the APA, I was a Champions novice in many ways. Yes, I owned the game rules since the second edition and had been making characters ever since, but at the time I had only played in one actual Champions game (a tournament in college) and had tried GMing twice - each were one-shot solo sessions with AD&D players trying this "new" genre. My early character sheets showed slight flaws in calculations (back then, we did it all by hand and calculator - we didn't have programs like HeroMaker that make whipping up a character a breeze). While many of the folks in the Times were seasoned pros, they were all very helpful in pointing out how I could improve stuff. They also encouraged me to find a game or some players to GM for (which I had done by the time of issue 8). During the run of the Times, I did manage to GM a couple campaigns with varying degrees of success as well played in a couple too.

It wasn't until the San Diego Comic-Con of 1999 that the gang convinced me that I had to come out for the annual gathering (their first one happened during the first year of the APA). They had been attending for years, and I enjoyed reading the Con write-ups each Fall in the Times. It was the 10th anniversary of their hitting the Con as a group, and they wanted me to make the celebration. So, I did - and I was hooked! The next time I made it out was in 2001, and I even ran the annual "Clobberin' On Infinite Earths" game for the group (events of which centered around the destruction of Atlantis in my game world). I've been trying to make the Con ever since, mostly because I enjoy spending a week hanging with my buddies with whom I have a lot in common.

I lot happened to all of us during the 12 year run of the paper APA. For me, personally, I got engaged by issue 8 and married a year later. My son was born five years after that. Sure, I remained with the same company (IBM) and same line of business (Retail Store Systems), but I've done different assignments within that group. Around us, technology exploded with the advent of home e-mail and instant messaging, high speed Internet access, affordable cell phones, TIVO, and DVDs. Ultimately, it might have been technology that led to the ending of our APA. With most of us online, it was easy for us to talk to one another on a daily or weekly basis. Mailing comments in the zines became sort of obsolete. Plus, the online world opened us up to other things that detracted from our time spent on the games. Mike proposed we switch over to an online thing in 2001, but many of us were still so new to web page design and such that we weren't ready to dive in (yet).

One thing hasn't changed though - and that's the camaraderie and friendship I discovered in the pages of the APA. Sure the APA had its share of heated conversations early on, but over the years calm heads prevailed. Prior to the first time I made it out to the Con, I had only met (in person) KC and Joel. But I knew I'd hit it off with everyone because we had corresponded for years and had similar interests, etc. At the end of that first Con, when Mike and Aaron told me I had an open invitation to come out and visit any time, I realized that these folks were friends for life. I now look forward to that week in the summer, when I can head out to San Diego for some good times and good friendship. The time seems to pass so fast, but its a great way for me to recharge with folks I feel like I've know for my entire life (as it is, I've known them for nearly half of it - the summer of 2005 marks the 17th anniversary of the Times's formation!).

And so, we come full circle. Mike proposed the online APA again after the 2004 Con. There were already bits and pieces folks had up (like his Forte 2000 pages, a number of our pages for the Omniverse, etc.). We just needed to dive in. This online zine is my cannonball off of the high board.

Last one in the pool is a rotten egg. (smile)

Martin
12/24/04