[Shinji Mizushima FC] White Ball No. 4 (1977) - [水島新司 FC] 白球 VOL. 4 昭和52年 (1977)

 One of the many texts I acquired from M while in Hyogo. These, among several from the Raideen FC, Slapstick and letters from Makio Inoue to name a few belonged to his friend who passed away a long while ago. M's friend left him the estate and he let me have all of the books so long as I archived them.

The official, complete fanzine for the club, vol. 4 takes on more data driven info with settei that was more or less confidential at the time, being more organized. Based on research and from what I gathered reading the volumes I own, the fan club was primarily high school age girls with a smattering of young boys who were fans of Shinji Mizushima's baseball manga. Later organizers would be college age women. The organization, however, could be very sloppy at times and reading a few of the materials given, there was a lot of in-fighting, disagreements and more about the fan club's distribution. The book is being presented as found; Some clippings appear to be from Monthly Ikkyuu Nyukon (月刊一球入魂 ) of the Dokaben manga itself.

Makio Inoue, who played Shinji Kobayashi in the anime adaptation of Dokaben, seems to have been very active in the club none the less and offered signed goods and more, including cels, from Nippon Animation. This particular book is signed on the back cover my several voice actors on produciton.

There is no date on this book in particular, but the others appear to have been from 1977 forward and were released almost every month that year. This particular issue is from late 1977 as it includes Zambot 3 and additional information about an incorrect reference in the prior issue, which I don't own:

' Apologies... In the inaugural issue, No. 3, I wrote "voice actors" in an interview with Kamiya-san (Akira Kamiya) and Mori-san (Katsuji Mori), and I deeply apologize for this. It seems that I limited the scope of their work and ripped them off, and I am currently reflecting on this. I would like to apologize once again to the two of them, and also to the fans who were offended. I would like to apologize to the two actors, Kamiya Akira and Mori Koichi.'