Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2022: Week 23
Against the Sith is one of the first Star Wars zines. It was created and edited by Nancy Duncan and Tracy Duncan, two sisters who lived in Eugene, Oregon.
The zine series contains fanfic, poetry, art, articles, reviews, and letters of comment. It ran for nine issues from April 1978 to October 1980.
From a 1979 ad in The Clipper Trade Ship #24: "A fanzine devoted to STAR WARS: stories, articles, art, serial, and always plenty of surprizes!."
The zine's two editors were adamant supporters of the character Luke Skywalker, and were open in their annoyance with the character Leia Organa, something that was reflected in many of the articles and fiction they contributed. Two of those articles were The AtS Virtue-Chart of Heroic Characters and A Royal Pain which were published in issue #9.
In May 1980, the Duncans also wrote the Open Letter to Star Wars Fans by the Duncans which was distributed very shortly after the sisters saw the much-anticipated movie, The Empire Strikes Back, for the first time. In the letter, they asked fans to boycott the movie, and they demanded that George Lucas destroy all copies of the film. The Duncans' dissatisfaction with the movie was also the subject of the October 1980 essay, The Death of Star Wars, published in "Against the Sith" #9.