Tai-Pan Original Issue #1

Miko's review:This is the infamous original issue, no longer to be had for love nor money (although at the moment I have two copies -- Alan left his issues behind when he moved!) Whitney Ware published this at a time when many of the founding members were not really doing a whole lot to move the project along. The issue served as a catalyst to get people involved, and the Tai-Pan Project took off. However, along the way we chose to tighten our editorial policies (Whitney hardly had any to begin with, she was mostly focused on getting the project off of the ground) and in the process several people dropped out of the project, removing their characters and stories. In response we chose to republish issue #1 without all of the "unofficial" material, and with some new material added. We also created rules that allowed us to operate without the threat of other members suddenly pulling all of their material from the project and rendering prior issues "invalid". So, in some ways, it was probably a good thing that this happened to us so early.

As part of the fallout from all of this, we were told by one member that we would be sued if we printed anything featuring their character ever again. In accordance with that statement, part of the cover shown here has been blackened out.

The first issue contained character information and artwork from Mark Barnard, Melody Luke, Scott Alston, Michael Capriola, Steven Carter, and Roy D. Pounds III. In particular, it contained a nifty cover picture and an even more nifty interior cartoon by Roy D. Pounds III, and a complete story by Mark Barnard. Mark reworked his material and went on to publish his own fanzine and then, reworking again, created a professional comic publication. He worked closely with Terrie Smith in all of this, and for that reason you have at least two versions of Chester running around these days, which probably still doesn't account for all of the pictures of him! ^_^

Roy D. Pounds III never created a character that I'm aware of. Whitney told me that she lost contact with him and therefore didn't re-publish his cartoon... however, at a Confurence a couple of years ago Roy told us that he'd been kicked out of the Tai-Pan. I don't know what really happened, but it's a shame that his cartoon didn't get republished. I still like it.

Gene's update: A few years after Mark wrote this review, Roy and I finally met. It turned out that both Roy and our then-editor had moved at about the same time, and each managed to write the other before the forwarding orders were in place. Later, Roy saw a copy of the new issue #1 without his cover, and inferred that he was no longer wanted. Once he heard the full details of what had happened with the original "green" issue, we had a good laugh. Roy has graciously offered to do a cover for a future issue, which we would love to publish.

Back to Back Issues

Tai-Pan
P.O. Box 17032
Seattle, WA, 98127

Tales of the Tai-Pan Universe copyright 1988-2007, Tai-Pan Literary & Arts Project. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American conventions. All art and stories © by respective artists and writers. All persona characters © by their individual creators. All other material © 1988-2003 Tai-Pan Literary & Arts Project. No part of Tales of the Tai-Pan Universe or these webpages may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems - without written permission, except for reviews with proper credit. We reserve the right to reprint any material contained within the pages of Tales of the Tai-Pan Universe.