David Tennes - The Book of Mars • Collecting General

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David Tennes - The Book of Mars
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mbassoc2003
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:11 am

Brief History

The Book of Mars appears to have been written and published by David Tennes in 1981 under his own company, The Image Game Company. Later that year, he either went to work for FASA, or was bought out by FASA, and FASA republished The Book of Mars (classic white cover) also in 1981.

Curiously though, FASA compressed the book and deleted the last five chapters, so the text within the book references chapetrs that no longer exist.

Chapters 17 through 22 appear in the first version (116pp Image Game Company) but not in the second (84pp FASA).

Info Request

Does anyone have an address for FASA Corporation circa 1980's?
Does anyone know what role David Tennes played in the organisation? Was FASA already aroung in 1980, or was David a founding member?
Does anyone know anything about The Image Game Company?
Any titbits on David Tennes, where he's gone. what else he did?

This week I've been mostly eating . . . chicken and wild rice soup.

dtennes
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Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 5:25 pm

I was doing a search on Google, and discovered this site. If anyone wants any info on the BOM, I will do my best to answer.

General reply to the chat board questions:

BOM was indeed an independent work at first.

FASA offices were originally located just west of the Chicago business core (i.e. the Loop) and north of the UofI campus, on Van Buren Street.

Jordan Weisman and Ross Babcock were the two founders (as I recall), and I signed rights to the copyright material in exchange for royalties. I was an independent author and had no tangible relationship to the business of FASA at any time. FASA was already around at the time, specializing in Star Trek and Star Wars (which was very new at the time) RPG stuff.

I cannot recall the rationale for the final edition that eliminated several chapters.

FormCritic
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Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 1:54 am

Welcome Mr. Tennes. Always nice to have the authors sign on and join in.

Mark

"But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world."

dtennes
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Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 10:31 am

I have started to scan the original manuscript, and will run the results through a character reader. It's rather nostaglic to look at this again after all these years.

If anyone has any questions, I will do my best to answer them.

I appreciate the formality, but please just call me Dave.

mbassoc2003
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Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 10:49 am

Hi Dave,

I sent you a PM (messages in title bar above), looking for a little history for the Afterglow2 website.

This week I've been mostly eating . . . chicken and wild rice soup.

copycat
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:48 pm

What is the book valued at? I just got a FASA version, which, I suppose, makes it less spectacular.

Those who can, don't. Those who should not, do.

Mars
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 12:11 am

Neither version is particularly valuable - probably in the $5-$10 range.

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