Klysadel Universe

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Fanwork
Title: Klysadel
Creator: Fa Shimbo (see Anji Valenza)
Date(s): 1971-?
Medium: original fiction
Fandom: Furry
External Links: WBM link to klysadel.net
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Klysadel is a furry original science fiction universe which got its start with a leg up from Star Trek: TOS zines.

Description

From a 1987 ad for Snow on the Moon:

SNOW ON THE MOON is an anthology of the Klysadel Universe, entirely created, written, and illustrated by Fa Shimbo, nee Anji Valenza. The science-fiction showcase of Fa's universe includes seven never-before-published stories, a huge fold-out poster of many of the main characters, a glossary, and a Klysadel time-line. If you enjoy outstanding science fiction, like cats and dolphins, and can assimilate stories that range from stark drama to endearing (and wacky) humor, you owe it to yourself to buy this 'zine. Be the first one on your block to read all the naughty stones people only used to whisper about Thobo Telecom, android extraordinary!

The Furry Connection

Those who were around when Furry fandom was starting up from the late 1970s to the early 1990s will remember Fara Shimbo and her Klysadel stories, told in over a dozen fanzine text stories and comic strips, about Wargentin College on the Moon several thousand years in the future, and its bizarre faculty and students mixing humans, talking animals, and Furry aliens, notably the satamuri (roughly a cross between cats and baboons). Shimbo also entered paintings of her characters in the Art Shows of the first couple of Furry conventions. Then she dropped out of fandom. [1]

It was originally published in various zines, and was put online at klysadel.net[2] for some years, until the author dropped the website.[3] Until around 2019, items were available though through a CafePress store.[4]

Valenza's Comments About Her Fannish Journey

From the editorial of Snow on the Moon (1978):

It was the crystal city that did it, actually; but I'd been drawn to science fiction since ... well, I can't remember when. My earliest pleasant memories include, in the main, scraps of Planet Patrol. Fireball XL6 and Superman; movies like Destination Moon, Angry Red Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still (let me -date myself for you; I was bom in 1953, Year of the Dragon. Aquarius.) I moved from television to comic books as soon as my mother decided I had enough sense not to eat the latter. Comic books were my undoing; by the time I was four I had established myself as the family hermit, sitting for hours at my hallway desk, drawing comics of my own. But I never took any of this seriously.

That is, until I saw the crystal city, I was on,the verge of knowing how to read. My mother was reading this particular comic book aloud to me, translating whatever words I didn't understand. It was an issue either of Superman or Action. Superman was fighting Brainiac; I don't remember the plot. But somewhere within the book there were two "frames, one of which I remember quite distinctly, which depicted this crystal city, the capital, I guess, of some alien world. That city was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

I treasured that issue to death. And from that moment on, I was writing my comic strips in dead earnest. From that moment on, the future of my fantasy life was set. And now, almost a score of years after that initial shock, I have a crystal city of my own, peopled by characters some of whom are relics of old imaginary playmates. This is the Klysadel and its people, the Kheveh.

I sat down at my desk that fateful day, back when I was but five or six, and began designing my own world, from scratch, I thought at the time. Now I can see more clearly all the old in fluences that shaped it then. And the newer ones which have all helped to shape it now; years of college, fans, fanzines, conventions, movies from Robinson Crusoe on Mars to Stars Wars... everything from 8th Man to Asimov, and, of course, the comic books to which I am still loyal. It was not until last year, in 1977, when I could finally say that at last the structures of the Klysadel were in every way as. I wanted them to be.

As for you, the reader, I can only assume you like it as well, or else you'd not be spending good money on this thing. And although the universe itself is what I wan't it to be, my actual writing, of course, leaves much to be desired. There are stories in here which were embarassing to type up; but they were all well received when they were published, so I have tried not to alter them too much.

So here, then, is the Klysadel thus far. Along with the actual stories are included background material from the eight or is it nine now? — volumes of background material here in my apt. Even though I can't write music, I've included some of the music found in the stories, as well as other diabolical tidbits which might alleviate the most common complaint about the Klysadel series, that it's difficult to follow for those with only a one-or-two story background.

I hope after you read this that you all will feel that you've gotten what you've paid for. Between outings I am always open to suggestions and ideas; but don't try to get in touch with me dur ing the outings. During my outings I haunt comic-book stores and hucksters rooms of comicons, searching through the boxes for a certain magazine, which I'll recognize on sight, and for which I'd be willing to pay almost any reasonable price. Just for the chance to see if that original crystal city is still the most beautiful thing in the universe.

Star Trek Was Simply a Hook

In the 1978 zine, Snow on the Moon, the author explains her connection to Star Trek fandom and how it was a planned hook to get readers:

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.

Other Comments by Valenza

In 1975, Valenza was unhappy about feedback:

My sincere apologies to Germaine. She did her best to make this issue a veritable work of Art, and I have ruined it. She has every right to fire me.

If there is anyone out there who reads these visuals, they will know that the visuals usually run quite a bit longer than the ones here do. That's because, when I was drawing those, I hadn't read the mail responses these things had been getting.

Frankly, even before that, I was stuck for ideas. I tried asking my local fonts of inspiration, but they couldn't come up with anything that could be put in the form of a visual either. Then I read the mail.

And I have been sulking ever since.

I AM A ROTTEN TEMPERAMENTAL ARTIST! ROTTEN, DO YOU HERE?! D0ESN'T ANYBODY OUT THERE LIKE THESE THINGS?

Doesn't anyone out there have any opinion at all? (that's not an entirely unfavorable one??)

We have all decided to boycott the next zine because I can't draw when I'm sulking. BUT you can save us all from oblivion — just write to the zine and say something intelligent about this. People, it takes me sometimes eight hours to draw one page of this (when I'm not sulking — when I'm sulking I do them a lot faster.) Am I doing this in vain???

Write in, folk. If you has story ideas, if you have plot ideas, format ideas. If you hate it and have a reasonable explanation. I f you love us and like us the way fee are. INSPIRE US! [5]

In 1978, Valenza commented on the story Tei Daminen:

There is one story which should be in [Snow on the Moon] but which, I discovered when preparing it for publication, would have been as long or longer than this volume itself, and that is TEI DAMNINEN. TD was published in Tettrumbriant [sic] as a short visual. It was chopped and mangled to death, for the original was done in comic strip form. It was three hundred pages long — that's about two-thousand frames. I was putting it into novelization form, and realizing that a picture worth a thousand words, at the very least.... But I wish it were in here [in Snow on the Moon], because it covers a lot of ground in how Thobo and Fara became such good buddies. [6]

2008 and The Future

In 2008, Valenza/Shimbo wrote:

Well, after all these years, I finally dropped the Klysadel website. I doubt I'll put it up anywhere else.

Of all the things I've done in my life, I think what I'm proudest of are those stories and art. But if "The Future" was unlikely when I first wrote them, it's just plain impossible now. The radical overhaul I would have to do to the universe to make it even plausible at this point would ruin it utterly, I think.

Oh well, it was a good run. [7]

A fan, Kay Shapero, responded:

Nobody writes about "The Future" - we all write about "A Future", and the one thing we can be sure about The Future is that it will drop things we weren't expecting on us. Look at Venus Equilateral - vacuum tubes, sliderules, and social conventions we dumped years ago. It's still a lot of fun to read. I'll admit to being most curious about what we're going to be playing with when Charles Stross' version looks quaint and dated.. but I don't doubt it'll happen.

There's no need to modify the Klysadel universe; like all fiction it always was an alternate and the big thing about alternate universes is that they don't match ours. This doesn't make them any the less enjoyable.

[8]

Another fan, Amy Harlib, said:

Couldn't agree with the previous commenter more!

Please don't give up on Klysadel. I just love those stories and the art and it's a wonderful invented alternate universe. No need to worry about whether it realistically extrapolates from this world as long as it is internally consistent within its own world which of course it is! I will always treasure all the Klysadel zines which I do have in hard copies, thank goodness.

Love, Amy[9]

Some Klysadel Works

This list is incomplete.

Fan Comments

Fans praised her skill but often felt the Klysadel universe to be too complicated and hard to understand.

This was due to Shimbo's intricate world building, as well as due to the fact that the stories were spread around in many fanworks, making continuity difficult. At least one fan compared this intense complexity and scattered publication to Diamonds and Rust.

It may also have to do with her audience, one generally primed to enjoy Star Trek characters and settings, a fandom that she purposely utilized in the beginning to get readers, and then dropped, something that likely was not popular.

Winston Howlett wrote an essay called I've Got Friends that took on some of these criticisms. It was printed in Tetrumbriant #12 in October 1976.

first page of the essay

While the topic of this meta essay was feedback and criticism in fandom in general, it specifically addressed the then-recent criticism and fan comments regarding the Klysadel universe, as well as some fans who over-stepped boundaries and criticized Valenza's personality.

In early 1977, the editor of Tetrumbriant v.4 n.1 spoke of fan feedback and Valenza's hurt feelings:

A special answer to LUBA's letter [10], and to other readers who are interested.

As of our last conversation, which was some tine ago, Anji Valenza has stopped doing the Visuals and the Klysadel Universe for publication. Between now and then, she may have changed her mind.

If so, I have not heard. During her Trek fandom career, she received much negative commentary, much, not objectively oriented but directed at her personality and literary ability, about her work. This, coupled with a temporary setback caused by a joint project which we participated forced her to curtail work on her sine and general ST fandom activity.

Anji, like most creative people, is very sensitive about her work, not to mention her personality. She took many of the rawer ones to heart, feeling unappreciated in the sphere. Only her friends tried to assure her otherwise. We had nothing to back us up, since you folks don't write. Her talents are not squashed. I understand she is still active in legitimate (SF) fandom. They deserve her.

Luba, I will forward your remarks to her, as (I have been informed) she is presently extremely difficult to reach and selective about whom she responds to.

Winston Howlett's Rauk story last issue, "I Have Friends", deals with her. It was another editor/creator's commentary on over zealous critics.

I doubt, seriously, whether you'll see her work on these pages again. At least, not anything I don't presently hold print-rights to at this moment. Try Probe. Winston is often able to dredge her out of her shell. Perhaps he can revive the Visual. I shall not try.

1976

"Whose Godchild, Space ?" was — interesting. I had difficulty following the storyline; this is my first Tai Daminen-Klysadel episode, so that might be it. The observations put forth on the Prime Directive, i.e., where it applies, its rationality as opposed to irresponsibility, are noteworthy; also, forcing people to conform to the 'norms' instead of vice versa. Who's right and who's wrong? Or are there shades of gray rather than black or white? Hmmm. [11]

1977

One of the best stories in the whole ish [Warped Space 29/30] is 'Gorhisid Jon,' a tale from her Klysadel Series -- it is neither Trek or SW, and is very good with excellent illos. [12]

"Gohirsid Jon" is a very good story; good writing, good alien psychology. A little bit too much explaining perhaps, particularly in the conclusion. We should have been shown rather than told the consequences of Jon's return to Asa- vet. I'm not sure I care about the fe males. They giggle and talk about sex a lot. But then, they're not human females, and nobody asked me to like them. It seems that "Gohirsid Jon" is part of a series of stories, the KLYSADEL series. I'd like to read more of it. [13]

1978

I want to make one fairly general comment on "Voices On The Wind", mostly because I was reminded of it by a LoC in 37. I'm glad to see that you're printing sf in WS; I like the increased diversity of the 'zine.- However, I found "Voices On The Wind" hard to read, for the same reason that I have had difficulty with other stories in the Klysadel universe: not that they are appearing irregularly and in different places, as one reader assumed the trouble to be, though it might help if they were all together in one place. My problem is that the reader is being asked to accept too much alienness, beginning with the vocabulary, with out any sort of human reference to help interpret all this information. I suspect any story that has to give a glossary and an explanation of the various characters — it seems to me that the author could have taken a little more trouble and included the necessary information in the body of the story; and it never hurt to cut down the amount of foreign vocabulary required (this rule was drummed into me in high school composition classes), alien as well as simple Earth-foreign. Now I am not exactly a new reader of sf — I've been reading it for over 16 years — so I think my difficulty with the Klysadel things is not a result of not having developed the mental set yet; I think it's a result of there not being any human reference within the stories. Constructing alien worlds and universes is a wonderful intellectual exercise — I've done it myself — but a story is no more than an intellectual exercise if there is no way for the reader to relate to the world in human terms; if everything is alien, including the characters' motivations, then the reader can admire the technical quality of the story, maybe, but not really get into it. For anyone but the author to understand what is going on or feel anything about it, it is usually necessary to bring human beings into it somehow so that we can at least have their reactions to identify with (the other alternative is to make the aliens in question basically human, and that is a less satisfactory answer); fiction is about people. There is good reason why little or no sf exists that is entirely alien, without at least one human as a focal point for the reader: nobody would read it. With a completely alien world, the author faces another barrier between herself and her reader: to be true to her own conception, she really should not use human metaphors, or the 'real' world intrudes on the created one. Unfortunately, this results in incomprehensible characters doing incomprehensible things for incomprehensible reasons.

Anji has a very interesting world constructed; I think she needs to concentrate on making it more accessible to the reader. [14]

1979

"Science Is On Our Side" ... I still think Klysadel is a heavy kind of draft horse and I refuse to get into that universe. I didn't grow with the characters, so I don't find much appeal to going to join them in the middle of nowhere, nice as they are. [15]

Valenza's contribution, "Science Is On Our Side", while making much less sense and having less 'weighty' import, I found quite delightful in its own right not just because of the usual outrageous puns and my favorite Klysadel characters, but be cause, having served my required time of penance in the "institutions of higher learning" in the Pitt and having been a mischievous student myself, I could find great kinship with the devilish bad-guys as well as the resourceful faculty.[16]

The Klysadel series for some reason normally does not appeal to me. [17]

1981

'For One Destroyed,' [is] as obscure in the writing as Valenza's often are, is fascinating. Worlds and societies and cultures roll out of her Bic; her sources and early influences may have been no more highbrow than Firmstone's but Valenza creates original things from them. [18]

It may just be me, but I can't seem to get intereeted in the Klysadel stories for some reason. I realize that to create a whole universe is a massive undertaking on Anji's part, but it doesn't interest me--yet. [19]

Valenza's "For One Destroyed" is another marvelous chapter in Anji's fascinating Klysadel tales.. As always there is the difficulty of many characters with different names, alien sexuality, and alien situations. However, the struggle of sifting through them and paying close attention to the net she constructs to draw all her story threads inexorably together is eminently worth the effort. Her drawings are a definite aid to understanding, too. [20]

I disagree with those who say that the Klysadel stories are hard to follow. I'm not having any trouble at all. "Voices on the Wind" had a little introductory piece at the beginning that explained a lot, and the rest you can pick up just reading the stories themselves. Speaking of "Voices on the Wind", Anji certainly seems to know horses. Much as I like the stories in WS, I like them even better when they have horses in them... [21]

I have no real comment to make about the regular Klysadel stories you feature other than I am still trying to figure out the universe it represents, and I can't really get involved enough to make a real effort. But this is a lack on my part, and is no reflection on the talent of the author. [22]

I'm one of those poor souls who walked in late on the Klysadel universe, so I can't make out a lot of the terms Anji uses to get any benefit from her stories. I do like Thobo and Jon, and Anji's deli cate artwork, so I guess that's something positive. [23]

Klysadel (which I have never been able to get into. I've tried, but it's really a very closed universe. Which is strange, since it started in Anji's own fanzine, MONKEY OF THE INKPOT. You'd think it'd be open, in an attempt to attract fans. But, just the opposite. Oh, well.)[24]

Fa Shimbo's new Klysadel offering was welcome, as always. I liked her part-comic panel/part straight text format, too--it's a novel approach that of course integrates story and illos in an unbroken continuity. [25]

References

  1. ^ The Klysadel is back!, Archived version, 22 Mar 2003 (accessed 30 Jan 2010)
  2. ^ WBM link to klysadel.net (accessed 30 Jan 2010)
  3. ^ Fara Shimbo. Sic Transit Klysadel.net - Mind Fluff, Archived version, posted 25 Jan 2008 (accessed 30 Jan 2010)
  4. ^ Cafe Press: Fara Shimbo's Klysadel Universe, Archived version
  5. ^ from Tetrumbriant #8 (v.2 no.4), published in September 1975
  6. ^ from Snow on the Moon
  7. ^ Sic Transit Klysadel.net - Mind Fluff, Archived version
  8. ^ Sic Transit Klysadel.net - Mind Fluff, Archived version
  9. ^ Sic Transit Klysadel.net - Mind Fluff, Archived version
  10. ^ "LUBA's letter" is not a letter of comment in the previous issue of Tetrumbriant and must be one that was sent either to the editor personally or is one that was shared with this circle of fans in another way.
  11. ^ from Probe #8
  12. ^ from Scuttlebutt]] #5
  13. ^ from Warped Space #37
  14. ^ comments by Bev Clark in "Warped Space" #38
  15. ^ from Warped Space #42
  16. ^ from Warped Space #43
  17. ^ from Warped Space #43
  18. ^ from Datazine #8
  19. ^ from Warped Space #45
  20. ^ from Warped Space #45
  21. ^ from Warped Space #45
  22. ^ from Warped Space #45
  23. ^ from Warped Space #45
  24. ^ from Warped Space #45
  25. ^ from Warped Space Supplement, LOCs for #46-#47, written in 1981-82, not published until 1983
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