Wanda Lybarger
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Wanda Lybarger |
| Alias(es): | |
| Type: | Fan Writer, Fan Artist |
| Fandoms: | Star Wars, Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones |
| Communities: | |
| Other: | |
| URL: | |
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Wanda Lybarger was a prolific writer and artist in Star Wars and Harrison Ford fandom. Her stories appeared in many classic zines, including Flip of a Coin, A Tremor in the Force, Field Studies, and Far Realms. She was a Star aWards winner and a FanQ winner.
She passed on December 31, 2022.[1]
In 2021, Wanda published an essay Living A Dream from the book Geek Elders Speak. It was her request that the essay be her eulogy.
In her own words
On the lonely path of fandom:
I was a “weirdo”. I waited, not always so patiently, for popular culture to get around to accepting if not embracing the fantasies I saw. The Lord of the Rings was first published in America while I was in college; by the time I graduated, the book stores were full of wonderful, affordable large paperbacks of artists like Frank Frazetta, Roger Dean, the Tolkien calendar art of the Hildebrandt brothers and Brian Froud.....Fantasy had arrived in the mainstream.I’d been somewhat aware of fandom before I jumped in, by reading some of the professionally published stuff on Star Trek. I loved Trek, but was satisfied with the novelized scripts.
When Star Wars arrived, the effects, the pell-mell speed of the action was so immersive, coming out of the theater was like emerging from a dream in deep sleep. The story was so much like a wonderful game you could act out on the playground, the compulsion to join in was irresistible. You were clamoring for a passport to that “galaxy far, far away”.
That compulsion probably had the most to do with my hunger to read the fan fiction, the continued adventures of characters I already loved and identified with. And of course, Han Solo had me the moment he slid into that booth on Mos Eisley.
On the hunt for fanzines
I became rather desperate to make contact with a fanzine. My search fell through a number of times, but finally I found a classified advertisement for one in the back of Starlog Magazine. I sent for the zine; it was a little thing put out by a couple of friends, who’d written and illustrated nearly the whole thing—and about what you’d expect from a couple of teenage girls, best buddies, who wanted to print a zine. But Starlog had scads of classifieds for other zines, and I started writing to them. That much of the fiction wasn’t very good was irrelevant. They satisfied my absolute hunger for more adventures.
On becoming a fan artist:
Though illustration had never entered my mind in the past, I found I wanted to draw for these stories and sent samples of my ink and brush work. It happened to be at a time when artists were in fairly short supply. All the good ones were always booked up, or not doing Star Wars. I was welcomed quickly for my art and sent stories to illustrate. I was also very lucky in the fact I came into fandom about the time printing was becoming affordable. Until then, zines were either photo-copied—at a time when even those machines were hard to find—or done on a mimeo machine. My style of art, with strong areas of black and dynamic thick and thin lines, would never have reproduced well on either method; mimeo in particular required a very controlled, thin line and open areas, or you’d have a nightmare of smeared ink. The printed sheets were still hand collated and stapled. It was a number of years before regular binding came in, often comb bound. When color printing for covers became feasible, it was like someone opened the floodgates.
The full essay can be found archived here: Wanda Lybarger: Living a Dream - Forest Path Books, Archived version
Memories/Recollections
[Cheree Cargill] I wanted to pass along to the Revelcon members that artist Wanda Lybarger, who was a super prolific zine illustrator, passed away this morning of end stage cancer and a major stroke about a week ago. She was very active in the Star Wars and Harrison Ford fan communities since the 1980s and was a regular attendee at MediaWestCon for many years. She was already a professional artist before she got into fandom and produced puppets and dolls along with her fantastic zine illos. She was much beloved throughout fandom and will be dearly missed.[2]
[Kenneth Keisel, posting two photos of Wanda and her friend Barbara to his Facebook] I can think of no finer example of what fandom is all about then these two photos. The first, taken at MediaWest Con in May, 1997. The second, taken in a hospice on December 14th, 2022. Barbara [A.]is on the left and Wanda Lybarger on the right in 1997. Barbara is throwing Wanda a surprise birthday party at the con. 25 years later Barbara is with Wanda in hospice, just days before her passing. This is what fandom is all about. It's about movies, and It's about costumes, but mostly it's about relationships. It's about the family we chose. The ones who understand, and will be there to the end. I'm so proud to say I knew both of these people. I'm humbled to say I know other as well, just as loving and caring, all through fandom.[4]
Example Art Gallery
Art from Kessel Run #1 (1981)
Cover art from Timeframe #5 (1984)
Art from Far Realms #8 (1986)
Art from Bright Center of the Universe #4 (1993)
Art from The Wookiee Commode #5 (1987)
Art from I Don't Care What You Smell #2 (1996)
Cover art from Who's Scruffy-Lookin'? (1994)
References
- ^ In Memoriam, Archived version
- ^ Cheree Cargill's January 1, 2023 Facebook post to the Revelcon Facebook group, quoted with permission.
- ^ Kenneth M. Keisel's January 1, 2023 Facebook post, quoted with permission.
- ^ Kenneth M. Keisel's January 1, 2023 Facebook post, quoted with permission.