Equal Space

Equal Space is a Star Wars 100-page gen anthology edited by Sheryl Adsit. It is a a light-hearted zine produced by American fans stationed with the U.S. Army in West Germany. 
It was printed in Germany, but distributed from California.
It has art by Martynn, Steve Gallacci, Delores McAllister, and Pam Kowalski, and Sheryl Adsit.
A 1980 flyer in The Clipper Trade Ship #27 said the zine had a "projected availability of March-April 1980" and that the "first 100 orders [would] receive an original silk screen print" with their order.
The zine's dedication: "I would also like to thank my parents for their support (financial as well as morale), my grandmother for believing in me, and all of my fan friends—especially the other zine editors who tried to warn me— for encouraging me anyway."
 
==From the Editorial==
==Contents==
* Acknowledgments (2)
* Equally Spaced, editorial (3)
* Popularity (5)
* The Emperor's Mail Bag: Letter A by Dolores McAllister (Did you ever stop to wonder about all the mail that was never delivered to the Death Star after its destruction? What kind of insight could it give us about the crew? (What was that mumbling about the Dead Letter Office?) The editor just happened to get her hands on some choice examples and couldn't resist passing them along.) (6)
* Is Star Wars for the Birds (Steve Gallacci's rebuttal) (7)
* A Life or Death Decision by Sheryl Adsit ("To paraphrase the old expression, you can take the boy away from Tatooine, but you can't take Tatooine away from the boy. Think back to the dinner scene in STAR WARS. Luke reaches across the table for the pitcher. He drags his sleeve right through the creamed corn. Couth Control time—but you really can't blame the kid. What kind of exposure has he had to etiquette? It's only Threepio's first day there, and he's been hired to fix vaporators, not table manners. But as we shall see, table manners can be" -- "Luke groaned inwardly. The moment of truth had arrived. He felt as though all eyes were on him. Whatever had possessed him, a farmboy from the frontier world of Tatooine and still dusty behind the ears, to pose as a member of the Imperial elite?") (8)
* The Emperor's Mail Bag: Letter B by Ellen Blair (10) 
* The Introduction to When the Battle's Lost and Won (11)
 
* When the Battle's Lost and Won by Rose Wolf, art by Pam Kowalski (13)
* Strange Rose (27)
* Introduction to Beliefs (28)
* Beliefs by Ann Wilson ("This story is frightening. Written months before the story of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK became known, it suggests a method a certain Dark Lord might use to bring other Jedi to the dark side of the Force. In this story, the method works. If you have read any of Ann's other works (in MOS EISLEY TRIBUNE, or her novel, STORM), you know she is a staunch defender of Darth Vader. She admires Klingons and other warrior types. She has been a member of the United States Marine Corps and admits to a very violent nature, which she manages to control so well that some people are surprised it exists. She is married and lives the life (if you can call it that) of an Air Force wife. She is short—meaning (a) she and her husband will be returning to the States soon, and (b) when she wears her Darth Vader costume, she is the Reader's Digest Condensed Version of same. (Would it be much of a surprise to learn that even when she is not in costume, she dresses almost exclusively in basic black?) This story does not lend itself to illustration. The majority of the conflict is internal. The images it conjures up are not pleasant. I decided against trying to picture anything presented herein, allowing you to use your own imagination. It will be far more gruesome than any illustration could possibly be. This little introduction is intended to bring you out of the pleasant world of fandom and down to a more serious level, to lessen the shock a bit. You have been warned. Proceed at your own risk.") (29)
* The Emperor's Mail Bag: Letter C by Ann Wilson (35)
* Introduction to Like Father and Eight is More than Enough (plus story contest) (36)
* Like Father by Susan Matthews (37)
* Eight is More than Enough (When You're Talking about Corellians) by Sheryl Adsit ("Eight half brothers are looking for their father. They find him aboard the Millennium Falcon, and it isn't Chewie. Two writers take the same idea, and nothing else is the same from there on out." -- "Susan Matthews was one of the first people to send me a SASE for information on EQUAL SPACE. In my response, I mentioned I was looking for material and did she happen to have any lying around looking for a home. I was hoping the answer would be yes because I had enjoyed her works in other zines, such as FALCON'S FLIGHT and MOS EISLEY TRIBUNE. Susan's answer was that she didn't have anything at the moment, but she had two ideas in the works and if I picked one, she would send the story along. I, being greedy, besides finding both ideas interesting and a little offbeat, asked if she would be so kind as to send both. Oops! Susan apologized for not having them both ready, having thought to wait to see which one I liked and then concentrate on finishing that particular story. I apologized for my greediness and said that the idea about eight halfbrothers showing up at the Millennium Falcon looking for their da (sic) took my fancy more than the other one. (I'm not mentioning it specifically, just in case Susan wants to use it herself someday.) Then I sat back and waited for the story to arrive. When "Like Father" did arrive, I finished shredding the envelope (the Postal Service having started the process) and plunged into the story. I read it through immediately and knew I wanted it for EQUAL SPACE, but I was a little disappointed. It wasn't the story I thought it would be. Now don't ask me why I believed Susan would write a story the way I imagined it. Perhaps I should never have heard the idea first. My subconscious would not have gotten a hold of it and started working. The worst part of the situation was that there was a story clattering around the back of my mind, raising all kinds of ruckus.... I gave in to the demands of my subconscious and let the story out. I sent a copy of it to Susan to see what she thought about my use of her idea. She liked it, and suggested the same thing I had been ihinking—use both stories, with a suitable explanation (you're reading it) of how two writers can take the same idea and come up with completely different stories. Go on to propose a story contest for the read, rs of EQUAL SPACE, the winner to be published in EQUAL SPACE 2. (I find it rather ironic that Susan and I can take the same idea and create divergent works, but given one situation, we come up with the same solution.)") (44)
* The Emperor's Mail Bag: Letter D by Pam Kowalski (49)
* Lyrics by Sheryl Adsit and Rose Wolf (50)
* The Emperor's Mail Bag: Letter E by Devra Langsam and Barbara Wenk (51)
* The Introduction to Hidden Treasure and All About Tesoro (52)
* Hidden Treasure by Sheryl Adsit, art by Steve Gallacci ("We know that C3PO and R2D2 did not come from the factory as a prepackaged set, but just how did they meet, and how did they come to work for the Alliance? Is it really true that Artoo's former employer made him show "blue" holotapes?" -- ""Hidden Treasure" started out as an entry in Bev Clark's SKYWALKER 2 contest to write a story about the planet Tesoro. As you may guess from its appearance here, it never made it. Tesoro (the SKYWALKER description follows for your information) sounded intriguing. I tried to imagine the kind of people that would live there, and eventually this kid showed up. I thought he was a kind of blend of Huckleberry Finn and the Artful Dodger, with a talent for "finding" things— "finding" as in how kids tend to explain items acquired through less than acceptable means. ("Where did you get this book?" "I found it.") Authority figures don't like five-finger discounts, if you know what I mean. To my surprise, however, he wasn't interacting with the expected Corellian & Company, but with C3PO! I was a bit startled at first, and then I realized that the action of the story was taking place before STAR WARS. Ah ha! This must be where Threepio meets Artoo, I said to myself. Sure enough, that's what happened, but somewhere between the first fuzzy outline and the finished item, certain changes took place. The kid wasn't acting the way I thought he should, but then, my original idea just wasn't him. One day I noticed the scars on his hand and asked him about them. He was a bit reluctant to explain, but when he did—pow! A lot of other things began to fall in place—his orphan status, his finder's gift, and, yes, the behavior patterns that differed from the ones I was trying to impose. Then there was Threepio, all new and shiny-bright from the factory, his head full of programming and the personality still developing. Just how did he wind up with binary loadlifters, anyway? What was Artoo doing up at the Big House? How could he and Threepio manage to get free at the same time?") (55)
* The Emperor's Mail Bag: Letter F by Judi Hendricks (69)
* Excerpts from The Galactic Gourmet by Cam Greer ("This issue we bring you Beruberry milkshakes and Bantha Burgers. All recipes kitchen-tested by the editor, taste-tested by her pet scrod.") (70)
* The Introduction Star Wars: Eine Andere Version, a translation from a German's fan's alternative universe (von Han L. May und Tasheena El Assad, translated and illustrated by Dolores McAllister, lead illo by Martynn). ("Close the blast doors!" What might have happened if our daring Corellian had not made it through in time and was left facing a squad of oncoming stormtroopers. How would the familiar story have been changed, and how much would remain the same?" -- "If no other story in this zine has sent you running for writing material (for the purpose of firing off an outraged Letter of Comment), this one will do it. Why? It was written by a pair of German fans (in German, of course) with slightly different perceptions of the characters and their situations. The only "editing" I have done has been to smooth the translation out a bit, unkinking some of the German sentence structure to make it more easily understood by people who are unacquainted with the language. I have tried to keep the original flavor of the German intact, however. (Ann Wilson, reading the translation, said it sounded a lot like Perry Rhodan—not surprising, since the Perry Rhodan stories are originally written in German, too.) The narration jumps from scene to scene with a cinematic feel—a change in camera angles, so to speak. Sometimes there are "flashbacks" to cover points of view missed in earlier sequences. At times, this can be a bit confusing, but it is a part of the original, and I wanted to present the story as it was told, the only difference being the language. "STAR WARS: Eine Andere Version" appeared first in the second issue of CORRELLIAN (sic) CHRONICLE, April 1979, published by the German Jedis. If you would like to take a stab at the original, it is available from Han L. May (his passport says "Leonard May," but he goes by his fan name among friends).") (72)
* On the Horizon, a little about the next planned issue (never published) (98)
* Extranea, zine ads (98)
* Why (100)
==Inside Sample==
 
Image:equalspace-1.jpg|the You Are Receiving This Zine Because page
Image:equalspace-2.jpg|Steve Gallacci 
Image:equalspace-3.jpg|Pam Kowalski
Image:equalspace-4.jpg|Pam Kowalski
Image:equalspace-5.jpg|Pam Kowalski
Image:equalspace-6.jpg
Image:equalspace-7.jpg|Steve Gallacci
Image:equalspace-8.jpg|Steve Gallacci
Image:equalspace-9.jpg|Steve Gallacci
Image:equalspace-10.jpg|Pam Kowalski
 
==Reactions and Reviews==
==References==
 
Category:Star Wars Zines
Category:1980 Zines