Anji Valenza
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Anji Valenza |
| Alias(es): | Fa Shimbo, Fara Shimbo |
| Type: | fanzine publisher, fan writer, tribber, fan artist |
| Fandoms: | Star Wars, Star Trek: TOS, Klysadel, Darkover, original fiction |
| Communities: | |
| Other: | |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Anji Valenza was a Star Trek: TOS writer, zine publisher, and artist.
Valenza also illustrated some Darkover zines.
Valenza (later Fa Shimbo) also published a series of written and drawn stories set in her Klysadel universe.
Shimbo also operated Special Rates To Fen Press.
Bios
1977
In 1977, she submitted the following bio to Who's Who in Star Trek Fandom.
Anji Valenza aka "You," 'Fang' and "The Tall One,"...Anji entered SF fandom in 1972 and got into STrekdom in 1974 through various friends and conventions and through working on Germaine Best's zine. She is a member of The Alien Inquisition, the NYFed, and the National Fantasy Fan Federation.
Anji has published "Monkey of the Inkpot" and "Universes in SF Vol. 1." She is currently writing and doing illos for several fanzines including Probe, Mindsifter and some N3F publications. Anji's other interests include astronomy, horseback, riding, and lab rats. Her motto is: "Oh, if it were only as simple as that in real life," said by Groucho Marx.
2021
I got into fandom after responding to a flier Germaine posted at Brooklyn College, and has had a long and checkered fannish career since then, both in Trek and general SF fandom. I claim the distinction of being "The Only 'Fara Shimbo' On The Internet."Thanks to Germaine's faith in the stories, I gained a fleeting fame as the creator of the Klysadel universe, which currently consists of numerous short stories, four novels and a comic strip that was nominated for an Ursa Major Award in 2003. I'm so, so grateful we've found each other again, after a decades long hiatus to get "real life" out of our systems!
I was editor of the N3F's Tightbeam magazine in the early 1980s, and did illustrations for Galaxy magazine in the late 1970s. (Also read the slush pile for that magazine, which scarred me for life.)
I met Bob Shimbo at the IguanaCon Costume Contest in 1978 (a weird story in itself!), and we were married two years later. (The Italian/Japanese food at our wedding dinner was... interesting.) Past professions have included potter, tack-maker, editor of The Weasel Help Monthly, assistant professor of domestic animal genetics, computer-game designer and programmer, 2D and 3D Design and Animation, and now just a general dog's-body to 9 cats and two Akhal-Teke horses.
Back in a past life I went by "Anji" but that's over now. Besides, I liked Cardinal Biggles better. [1]
Lots of Star Wars Art in "Tightbeam"
Valenza contributed much Star Wars art, mainly in the form of cartoons, to Tightbeam.
In November 1977, Valenza commented:
Saw STAR WARS 12 times? For me that’s too much of a good thing. And speaking of SW, I saw one comment that disturbs me greatly... It’s about SW becoming "Just like STAR TREK with Warriors and everything." Unlike Rebecca, I do see something wrong with that. She says it will spawn more movies. Well, so did ST [2] and 2001. But how many do you remember or want to? STAR TREK spawned more TV SF, but how much of that do you remember or want to? What ST/SW have, to my great regret, spawned, are Trekkies, people whose whole existence revolves around one thing to the exclusion of all others. Beatlemaniacs of another generation. The "clique" attitude that worries so many T3 readers is prevalent, at least in New York, especially among the more virulent Trekkies. And that nobody needs, especially something really good like STAR WARS. [3]
A 1978 Statement: Star Trek Was Simply a Hook
In the zine, Snow on the Moon, the author explains her connection to Star Trek fandom and how it was a planned hook to get readers for her Klysadel Universe:
All the stuff which I wrote when I was tirading against the "Prime Directive" and those who "fought to uphold it" — that is, the ST related stuff I'd written, was out.
I no longer want even to remember that I once inserted ST characters into my universe, even though doing this was what made my stuff "salable" to the only people who seemed interested in it at the time, the trekfolk. Not that I'm not grateful that they published it at all; no sir, for unless they did I'd have no reason to be writing this now, for there'd be no anthology; sf fandom does not have an outlet for a new writer who writes long stories. But unfortunately, many people now think I'm an ST writer— PLEEEZ, this is not the case. I was trying to get your attention, folks, and now that I have, he he he, well, welcone to the world of sf for some of you out there, and I have accomplished that which I set out to do.
Zines to Which Valenza Contributed
Sample Art
1974
from original Probe #2
from Tetrumbriant #1/2
from Tetrumbriant #1/2
from Tetrumbriant #1/2
1975
from original Probe #3: Laurie Dewitt as "Dragonwick" from HELPERS
from original Probe #5: "Uhura and Eventide" (a different version was printed two years later as the cover of Probe 5, the Revised Edition)
from original Probe #5
from original Probe #6: "Shandra and the Menace of N'Ganth"
from Monkey of the Inkpot v.1 n.1
from Monkey of the Inkpot v.1 n.3
from Monkey of the Inkpot v.1 n.3
1976
from Tetrumbriant (Best Of Issue)
from original Probe #7
from original Probe #8
from Monkey of the Inkpot v.1 n.4
from Menagerie #9, for the story by Paula Smith: What Henoch Did
from Mindsifter
from Mindsifter
from The Goddess Uhura
from original Probe #9
from original Probe #9
1977
from Warped Space #38 (Star Wars)
from Warped Space #39 for Gohirsid Jon (Klysadel Universe)
from Tightbeam #7 (July 1977)
from Probe #10
from Probe #10
from Probe #10
from Warped Space #28
from Warped Space #29/30
from Jumeaux #1
from revised Probe #5, "Uhura and Eventide" (a new version of the cover of the cover of the original Probe #5)
from revised Probe #5
from revised Probe #5
1978
from Warped Space #34/35
from Warped Space #38
from Sol Plus #5
from Snow on the Moon
from Jumeaux#2
from Jumeaux #2
from Jumeaux #3, also used with Contes di Cottman IV #10
from Jumeaux #3
from Jumeaux #4
from Jumeaux #4
1979
from The Ninth Quadrant #3
1982
![from Jumeaux (Definitive Issue 8, August 1982) - "Every time I pick up this issue of JUMEAUX, I am impressed by the cover illustration. Although perhaps a bit dark and grim for the cover of a zine, Fa Shimbo's sketch is artistically one of the best things I've seen in a zine for some time. Consider how the costumes of the women are simple and functional. The clenched toes and fists of the oath-taker are evidence of her tension. The darkness of the picture is obviously due to the fact that this scene is being enacted at night, perhaps in a way-shelter, and the only available light is the fire off-right. With that in mind, the shading is magnificently done." [4]](/w/images/thumb/4/4e/Jumthreefront.jpg/160px-Jumthreefront.jpg)
from Jumeaux (Definitive Issue 8, August 1982) - "Every time I pick up this issue of JUMEAUX, I am impressed by the cover illustration. Although perhaps a bit dark and grim for the cover of a zine, Fa Shimbo's sketch is artistically one of the best things I've seen in a zine for some time. Consider how the costumes of the women are simple and functional. The clenched toes and fists of the oath-taker are evidence of her tension. The darkness of the picture is obviously due to the fact that this scene is being enacted at night, perhaps in a way-shelter, and the only available light is the fire off-right. With that in mind, the shading is magnificently done." [4]
![from Jumeaux (Definitive Issue 8, August 1982) - "Every time I pick up this issue of JUMEAUX, I am impressed by the cover illustration. Although perhaps a bit dark and grim for the cover of a zine, Fa Shimbo's sketch is artistically one of the best things I've seen in a zine for some time. Consider how the costumes of the women are simple and functional. The clenched toes and fists of the oath-taker are evidence of her tension. The darkness of the picture is obviously due to the fact that this scene is being enacted at night, perhaps in a way-shelter, and the only available light is the fire off-right. With that in mind, the shading is magnificently done." [4]](/wiki/File:Jumthreefront.jpg)
1987
from Contes di Cottman IV #10
References
- ^ Retrozine: Two Fandom Elders, One More Time! Vol.1 No. 1, Summer 2021 Who's Responsible Here?; archive link
- ^ ST? Is she talking about the long-running plans for the yet unfilmed Star Trek: The Motion Picture?
- ^ from a letter in Tightbeam #9
- ^ from a fan's LOC in Jumeaux Definitive Issue 9