Interview with Jon Bradley Snyder
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Interview with Jon Bradley Snyder |
| Interviewer: | T-Bone at T'Bone's Star Wars Universe |
| Interviewee: | Jon Bradley Snyder |
| Date(s): | February 9, 2001 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Star Wars |
| External Links: | T-bone's Star Wars Universe - Interviews - Interview with Jon Bradley Snyder, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Interview with Jon Bradley Snyder was conducted in 2001 by T-Bone.
Among other things, Jon Bradley Snyder is an editor of several zines including Report from the Star Wars Generation and the official zine Star Wars Insider.
He was was a main organizer of a Star Wars Celebration, which is a big topic of the interview. He was also one of the creators/editors of Star Wars Insider.
Excerpts
Let's go way back to the beginning. Your first fanzine, 'Report From the Star Wars Generation', grabbed the attention of Lucasfilm. How long was it in production before you left to work for Lucasfilm? Let's make one thing clear, because I think some people are a bit confused about this; I have never worked for Lucasfilm. I worked for Fantastic Media, which is a licensee of Lucasfilm, just like Hasbro is a licensee of Lucasfilm. I printed the first issue of 'Report From the Star Wars Generation' back in 1991.
How much was it costing you to put it out? The first issue (Vol 1 #1, 1991: B&W Xerox pages) cost nothing. I borrowed a Xerox machine. The second issue (Vol 1 #2 1992: half-sheet Xerox w/ yellow cover featuring a 3x5 photo) cost next to nothing because I worked at a one hour photo place and had some good buddies that worked at Kinko's in Spokane , WA. The third issue (Vol. 2 #1 1993: full-color offset press cover) cost over $4,000.
Any ideas on the kind of numbers it was doing - like how many copies were distributed per issue? The first issue had less then 75 copies that I mostly just gave away to friends. The second issue I did around 300 copies. The third issue had almost 20,000 copies, most of which were sold to Diamond Comics. I went to offset press and a large print run on the third issue primarily at the urging of Chris Gore of Film Threat fame. He and all the crew at Film Threat at that time were big early supporters of me.
I only saw one once and I don't remember what exactly was in there but there was some pretty controversial stuff in there at times, no? It wasn’t controversial to me. The first issue I did an editorial advocating that America improve the space program so that I could visit the moon. The second issue had an article describing an incident where my friends Greg and Bruce and I smuggled beer in an R2-D2 toy box into a theater to see a charity screening of The Empire Strikes Back. The third issue contained a letter someone had sent me relating a story where they had a one night stand with and actress who played an Ewok. Also in that issue was an article about Frank Allnut’s 1977 book called The Force of Star Wars, in which he described Star Wars as an allegory for Christianity. An illustration that appeared with that article depicted Star Wars personalities as characters from Jesus Christ Superstar. This upset some people, but I don’t know why. Frank Allnut was the one making the comparisons and we were just visualizing and trying subtly point out that the comparisons were a bit absurd.
I understand Lucasfilm, at first, was not too thrilled with your magazine when they got hold of it. Tell me the story about how you go from there to working at Lucasfilm. What happened at the ranch - who did you speak to - what did they say - what was the deal that was made in the end?Lucasfilm never really mentioned much about the content of the zine to me. They were upset, and justifiably so, that I was using their trademarked name in the title of a magazine, that was being through a major distribution channel for Star Wars products, Diamond Comics. I was a young, naïve punk at the time and did not realize at the time that what I was doing was clearly copyright infringement and could get me in a heap of trouble. (The funny thing is that now, I probably could do the same thing online and nobody would care.) I received a letter from Lucasfilm telling me to 'Cease and Desist', which totally freaked me out. I thought they were going to sue and I didn’t have any money because I had taken all the profits from the third issue and invested in a computer to use to make the next issue. At the time I got this letter the fourth issue was almost completed. I had even solicited the cover to Diamond. The cover consisted of a photo of the back of some guy’s head with the Star Wars logo carved into his hair. The guy, of course, was me. I don’t think I ever needed to prove my fandom credentials ever again after that.
At the same time a fellow at Lucasfilm named Allan Kausch, an old Bay area punk rocker that was way into Phillip K. Dick, bought a copy of Star Wars Generation. He knew that it was a bit out of control from a Lucasfilm standpoint, but thought that I had brought a refreshing slant to Star Wars fandom. He brought me to the attention of his boss, Lucy Wilson. In August 1993 I went out the ranch with my boss at the time, David Latimer, who was also interested in the project, and met with Lucy and Alan. The end result was that, after meeting me, Lucy and Alan were convinced, that I wasn’t a freak, that I was somebody who could be good for Star Wars, and they hooked me up with Dan Madsen at Fantastic Media and I went to work for him on the official magazine a few months later.
What was the most exciting thing that happened to you during your years with the Star Wars Insider?One of the most exciting things I did while with the Insider actually had nothing to do with Star Wars. I went to Disneyland for the opening junket for the Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. That was a blast. Got to see all the celebrities come check out the ride, including Wayne Gretsky and Carrie Fisher. When someone in the press crew asked Carrie Fisher what she was 'expecting from the ride?', Fisher responded with her trademark deadpan stare and said, 'Nothing short of orgasm.' Of course I couldn’t print that in the magazine. Disney, being smart like they are, made sure every journalist who came to this junket had the time of their lives. During the day we had our own private escort who could get us to the front of the line on any ride we wanted. At night they closed off Adventureland for a big party. You could go on any ride you wanted, plus they had live music and DJs with cast members whose only job was to dance with you. There was terrific food, not the park food mind you, but fabulous California gourmet stuff. And there was booze. All the free booze you could drink. My friend Chris and I got roaring drunk and went on the new Indiana Jones ride over and over again until the wee hours of the morning.
I could live until I was 300 and never have more fun at Disneyland.
If you could go back and change one thing you did with the Insider, what would you change? The Star Wars Celebration. I would not do that. That took ten years off my life.
Ok - I understand that the Celebration planning did not in any way go smoothly...true? What happened? I thought the Celebration went incredibly smooth considering, a) the ENORMOUS constraints we were under given the fact that we had to produce the biggest event in Star Wars history from start to finish in less than 5 months (!), and b) the weekend of the event Denver received more rainfall in one weekend than it had in almost 100 years.
I understand that Lucasfilm wanted very little involvement with the Celebration other than to provide celebs and props, etc. Is that true? Was it to me more of a 'grass roots' thing? Lucasfilm’s involvement was limited.