Vol. 1, Issue 48 - Johto Times End of Year Feature 2023
In this issue, we look back over volume 1 of the Johto Times, and recap the first year of the newsletter, and share some thoughts on the future
I want to begin this End of Year 2023 feature by thanking each and every person who has taken their time to read the newsletter throughout 2023, especially those who subscribed to us and those who have been there since we began in February. In this special issue, I want to recap the project’s first volume (Issues 1-48), include some of my thoughts and feelings, and share my ambitions for the future of the Johto Times.
When I started the Johto Times back in February, I wasn’t sure how quickly the project would grow or how many people it would reach. At the time I estimated that we would have around 100 subscribers by the end of the year, but in actual fact, we reached well beyond that with over 500! I am overjoyed that this little newsletter, a project which focuses on the early era of Pokémon, has resonated with so many people across the world.
Back in late 2022 when I was coming up with the idea of Johto Times, I knew that I wanted to do something different to other Pokémon-focused projects and provide content focused on nostalgia that offered an engaging and enjoyable range of topics. Originally my plan was to share my own personal perspective as a fan who grew up with Pokémon in the late 90s, and to attempt to reach others like me or educate younger fans who could learn about those early days that meant so much to us. As I began writing the newsletter, this concept expanded to include other people’s memories, collections and opinions, in addition to my own.
Between our first and final issue of the year, I have been thinking about the future of the newsletter and what Johto Times should mean moving forward. One topic is Preservation, something I have been vocal and passionate about long before I started Johto Times, and something that applies deeply to the work I have done so far, providing information as accurately as I can to create a record of the past, sharing information that could potentially be lost in the years to come without intervention. Lost media, such as artwork connected to the Pokémon TCG, interviews with key people behind its products, or the personal memories of fans who grew up with the franchise, has tremendous value and importance, and I am proud to contribute towards this effort.
Recapping Volume 1 of the Johto Times
Our first year has been an opportunity to find my footing in presenting a newsletter that can be worthy of viewership. I began with writing and preparing content in January and then releasing our first issue on February 6th. Originally, I set out to publish short-form content that could be enjoyed on a break, with the option of viewing longer pieces of content by clicking a button within the page. This was my attempt at respecting the time of our readers and trying not to overwhelm them. Back then I stated that I would be willing to listen and learn to tweak things, and after reading feedback and accepting that this approach wasn't going to work. From issue 12 a news section was added, and the feature for each issue was included within the main issue so readers didn't need to click away. In issue 18 I added a mailbag section. I believe these changes improved the structure of the newsletter.
Initially, I decided against using social media to promote Johto Times, because I didn’t want to rely on platforms that didn’t put their creators first or that would restrict me from reaching my audience due to someone else’s terms and conditions or paywalls. While archaic in nature, I believed that a mailing list put the control back in the hands of the creator. However, I had to concede that the convenience of social media and its usage in the modern era meant I had to lean on it somewhat if I wanted to reach enough people to get my work noticed, something that wouldn’t have happened if I had stuck by my original feelings. Thankfully, I have been able to meet many wonderful people I wouldn’t have met otherwise, I have had a lot of fun hosting streams on Twitch to engage with our readers and wider audience, and I recently opened up a Discord server to help people stay up-to-date with everything that is happening at Johto Times.
There have been so many great issues in volume 1, but my personal favourites have been our interview with the former Senior Game Producer at Tiger Electronics/Hasbro Toys, Chris Nicolella, who worked on the original electronic Pokédex toy, and the feature detailing the very first Pokémon event outside of Japan in 1998, when the town of Topeka was named Topikachu for the day, which required months of research and conversations. I am immensely proud of the informative features I have been able to write, such as "How to spot fake Pokémon games", and "Preserving Pokémon", which suggested options for people wishing to preserve their Pokémon games. Sharing a fan’s personal experience of Pokémon and their fond memories has also been a great pleasure, giving them a platform to tell the world what the series meant to them.
Throughout the year, we reached out to interview several Pokémon fan websites and communities from the past and the present, such as Pokémon Elite 2000, PokéJungle, Articuno Island, PKMN.NET and The Cave of Dragonflies who shared their memories and opinions on the Pokémon fan community. It was great to read comments from Johto Times readers who told us how they used to visit these communities growing up, just like I did, and helped me recognise how much these communities meant to us when we were younger.
I am also grateful to anyone who took the time to read my own words, such as the "Legacy of Pokémon" series of features, which details my personal journey with Pokémon and my personal collection of Pokémon items. My feature on Game Boy photography allowed me a platform to express my passion for Pokémon, technology, taking photos, and creating something to share with others. I was very surprised by how well it was received, so I feel inspired to do something like this again in the future.
Towards the end of the year, I published interviews with some really special guests. In November we interviewed Craig Turvey, who won the Create-a-Snorlax Card contest, hosted by Wizards of the Coast in 2002, and became one of only two westerners to have their artwork printed on an official Pokémon trading card during the WotC era. In addition to that, we discovered and shared all twenty pieces of artwork created by the finalists of the contest, something that many people hadn’t seen in over twenty years. We were even able to track down and interview members of the musical group Johto, who shared their memories of working on the music to the Totally Pokémon album, which was heard throughout the Johto series of the Pokémon anime (Pokémon Johto Do-do-do-do-do do!).
In December, we shared an interview with Michael Haigney, the original Voice Director of the English localisation of the Pokémon anime and its early movies, and who provided the voice of many Pokémon characters such as Charmander and Psyduck. Michael shared many great memories and anecdotes of his time working on Pokémon and told us about his long career in television. I really appreciated his time, and being able to speak directly with the people who directly impacted the Pokémon franchise that I grew up with is always an honour and pleasure.
While it has been greatly satisfying to share all of this amazing content, it has been disheartening to accept that we won’t be able to reach everyone we would like to. A lot of the early Pokémon history from the fan community is already lost, and it has been a challenge to find some of the people behind some of these memorable websites, forums and blogs. While researching individuals who worked directly with Pokémon in an official capacity, I discovered that some had passed away within the last few years, something which weighed heavily on me and gave me pause. While disheartening, I am still determined to reach out to people, research and preserve lost media, and attempt to bring it to our readers while it is still possible, but I have accepted that some historical information will very likely be lost forever.
Future plans
As we celebrate the end of 2023 and close out volume 1 of the Johto Times, I look ahead to volume 2 and what we will be working on next. Based on the written content we already have prepared, you can expect to see more Pokémon memories, collections and interviews in 2024, as we will continue to focus predominantly on the late 90s and early 2000s era of Pokémon. I will continue to use social media to promote the newsletter and reach more fans, but focus more attention on decentralised platforms.
For several months, I have been contemplating the idea of a dedicated website and forum for Johto Times, something that was sweetened by the offer of partnering with a notable Pokémon fan website. While this would be a great opportunity to reach more readers, I am very conscious of the upheaval of moving to a new home and the risks that it can bring. For now i’m weighing up the pros and cons, and deciding what happens next.
I wish to move back to the topic of preservation for a moment. Earlier this year, I decided to form a group of people to research, investigate, and uncover information from the early era of Pokémon, focusing on the fan community, official Pokémon products, services, and lost media. Internally, this group is called Project R.O.A.R. In volume 2, I hope to share any findings within the newsletter when we have something exciting to share. We are open to working with other preservation groups to uncover information, and also hope to promote the efforts of other groups on the findings they have made.
I am also thinking deeply about ways to preserve our own content in the years ahead. If Johto Times becomes an important resource of information on the history of Pokémon and its fan community, where will all of this information, and the people we spoke to, be twenty or thirty years from now? How do we give Johto Times the best possible opportunity to live on and ensure people have access to this resource? While this is a problem for the future, it is sensible to make preparations now.
Closing
As the fireworks and celebrations bring 2023 to a close, I wish to take this opportunity to raise a glass of Moo Moo Milk to the special guests and collaborators for taking the time to respond to my questions and help me set up some great pieces of content. My thanks also go out to the media who promoted our content, and to our readers: whether you subscribed or not, you took the time to read what I shared, and you’ve made this little passion project worth investing my spare time and energy into.
An extra special thanks must also go out to Roy, Josh, Dragonfree and Renan, the editors who proofread every issue and suggest improvements to help give the best possible experience, and people who I am proud to call my friends. They’ve been patient, flexible, hard-working and supportive from the moment they joined the team, and I am thankful to have their help. I hope they will continue to feel valued, and acknowledge how much their help has benefitted the Johto Times this year.
Finally, I would like to ask our readers a question. If you truly enjoyed and appreciated what you have read this year, would you please consider sharing it with your friends and encouraging them to subscribe? Reaching more Pokémon fans who grew up with and/or appreciate the early history of Pokémon is super important to me, and I hope that we can gain even more subscribers throughout 2024.
Happy New Year! I hope to see you in the second volume of our newsletter every Thursday, starting on January 4th 2024 at 14:00 UTC!
It really is awesome how many people you've connected with in just this year to tell and preserve the pokémon history that they're privy to, and I say that particularly as someone who is a much more recent fan. I hope you feel as invigorated as ever to continue in 2024 - best wishes.