I was… and am… a Blue Blaze Irregular.
When The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was released in 1984, it was not well received by critics and most audiences. But with me.,.. well, I “got” the movie immediately, and within hours of seeing the film I joined Team Banzai, the fan club that the studio setup to promote the film. Within weeks I got my first newsletter, and it hooked me even more.
The great thing about these newsletters were they were written like Buckaroo and team were REAL, and the movie was a “fictionalization” of events that actually happened. The newsletter promised and hinted upon other adventures, and these vague references to “The World Crime League” and “Hanoi Xan” got you excited about the sequel. There HAD to be a sequel, right?
Well, unfortunately… no (though lots of ideas intended for the sequel ended up being used in the movie Big Trouble in Little China). Twas not to be. While we did eventually get comic books and other BB tie-ins, we still don’t have that sequel.
But we DO have is World Watch One… and you can relive the experience of reading these awesome newsletters yourself, courtesy of the Internet! The biggest Buckaroo Banzai fan site out there has electronic scanned copies of all the newsletters for your download and perusal. Just go here.
(A quick note – Editor Denise Tathwell eventually married Star Trek designer and expert Mike Okuda, and they are still happily married today. Hi Denise!)