Steve Pearl
From Fan History Wiki
Steve Pearl played a key role in the growth of anime fandom in the United States. In the the late 1980s to the mid-1990s he was the moderator of the online rec.arts.anime.misc newsgroup on usenet, and is best known as the author of the rec.arts.anime.misc list of frequently asked questions and the Anime/Manga Convention Guide.
He founded and coordinated two New Jersey anime clubs "Rutgers Anime" and "Megazone NJ" as well as founding "International Friends of Shizuka Kudo". In 1994, he and Chet Jasinski founded the Anime Alliance. He attended various Northeast anime conventions, including every Otakon from 1994 to 2000, as a fan guest of honor, and for a time, worked as a consultant for NuTech Digital. In 1995, former Gainax president Toshio Okada, who is known in Japan as the Otaking, met Pearl at the Anime East convention. Okada then bestowed on him the title of the "American Otaking".
Fanzines edited by Steve inclyde "The Atlantia", "SDF", "Spiral Arms", "The Rutgers Anime Song Book", and "Shizuka's Journal". Steve contributed to a wide variety of anime magazines, fanzines & APAs including AM Plus, Anime Access, Animeco, Animerica, EX, Get Stuf'd, Mangazine, Protoculture Addicts, DuoWorld, Nexus Six, The Rose, Anime Zasshi, Anime Inc, Ranma APA, and Endless Road.
He passed away November 12th, 2007.
We will miss him.
