“It's Tommy this, and Tommy that, and 'chuck 'im out, the brute,'
But it's 'Savior of his Country,' When the guns begin to shoot!”

If Rudyard Kipling had played ASL, he might well have applied these words to Multi-Man Publishing, the one-time third party publisher.  Always the first to be picked on when products are late or errata is found, always the first to get unsolicited advice on how to run their company, and ever possessing a large group of fair-weather friends waiting to desert it at the first moment, Multi-Man Publishing is always Punching Bag #1 for irate ASLers of any stripe.  And yet even the grumbliest, begrudgingest, curmudgeonly ASLer will have to admit that Multi-Man Publishing "saved" ASL from a probable slow death.  In 1998, the official publisher of ASL, Avalon Hill, gave up the ghost.  Its parent company, Monarch Avalon, sold Avalon Hill to toy giant Hasbro, a large corporation that had no interest in ASL, but might well hang on to the rights and prevent others from keeping it alive.  The future of ASL was distinctly in doubt.  To the rescue, however, came Multi-Man Publishing.  For the past several years, they had contracted with Avalon Hill to manage the ASL line, reviving it after a fairly disastrous slump in the mid-1990s.  Now, thanks to the deep pockets of professional baseball player Curt Schilling, they could afford to reach a deal with Hasbro.  MMP became the new "official" ASL publishers in 1999, and gave it a new lease on life.

But in the beginning, lo those many years ago, MMP was not official and it had no deep pockets.  It was, gasp, a third party publisher, and not the most important one, either, not by a long shot.  What were those thrilling days of yesteryear like?  What?  What did you say, Grandpa?  Backblast?  What was Backblast, Grandpa?

Commentary:  Before MMP began publishing "official" ASL material (under arrangement with and on behalf of Avalon Hill), its one and only claim to fame was an ASL magazine, Backblast, which lasted for just two short issues in 1994-1995.

Those dates are significant because 1994 was a year deep in the "Dark Ages" of ASL.  The ASL Dark Ages were a period from roughly late 1993 to early 1996 when the future of ASL seemed very much in doubt.  Much of this uncertainty was due to the incompetence of the Avalon Hill Game Company, a company that was always able, whenever one thought it had reached the limits of its incompetence, to reach deep into itself and find some more incompetence in some dark recess.  Squad Leader had been one of the company's most successful games ever and Advanced Squad Leader had become a very successful game series on its own--so successful, in fact, that the only regular gaming publication published by Avalon Hill other than its house magazine The General was the ASL Annual.  In 1993, the ASL Annual even went to a twice-yearly schedule.  Abruptly, however, the Annual disappeared, with Avalon Hill announcing that its ASL content would be folded back into The General.  Exactly what ASL content there would be, however, was an open question, because many of Avalon Hill's employees left the company during this time period, including several who had been key to ASL, such as Robert McNamara and Charlie Kibler (who both went to computer game company TalonSoft) and Rex Martin.  Planned ASL projects such as Kampfgruppe Peiper, the "Third Bridge" Arnhem module and Solitaire ASL were put on hold.

It was during these dark days that many ASLers came to the rather logical conclusion that ASL would likely only survive if the players themselves kept it alive.  From the ranks of the ASL players rose new third party publishers, people willing to go beyond mere xeroxing of newsletters and produce magazines, scenario packs, and even modules.  Magazines like Time on Target and Critical Hit Magazine appeared at this time.  And so too did a magazine called Backblast, published by a new entity, Multi-Man Publishing. 

Multi-Man Publishing was formed by five East Coast ASLers:  Brian Youse, Perry Cocke, Chuck Goetz, J.D. Frazer and Steve Peterson (its principals evolved over time, with some, such as Chuck Goetz, leaving, and others, such as Russ Bunten and Curt Schilling joining, but the two key figures have always been Brian Youse and Perry Cocke).  The people who formed MMP knew that ASL had hit some hard times.  "Obviously, though," Backblast stated in its first issue, "[Avalon Hill] is not all that interested in ASL."  MMP concluded, though, that "ASL will survive, despite being deemphasized by [Avalon Hill], due to the dedication of the ASL community."  Backblast, its publication, was designed to support ASL in just such a way, with the mission of promoting ASL "through the publication of quality articles and scenarios." 

In format, Backblast basically emulated the ASL Annual.  It had similar types of articles (often written by the same people who had written ASL articles for Avalon Hill) and featured a number of scenarios, as did each issue of the ASL Annual.  In physical quality, of course, it couldn't match the Annual (it was just a black and white publication, for example), but the quality of its writing was unusually high for a third party publication.  It was not, though, just an Annual clone, but had its own personality (it concentrated on gameplay articles rather than historical articles, for example, and never saw a rules article it didn't like).

Eventually, Avalon Hill did make an effort to keep ASL alive by bringing Texas ASL Gary Fortenberry, editor of the ASL newsletter ASLUG, into the fold to handle their ASL line.  Unfortunately, the products released during his tenure, such as the ASL Annual 95 and Kampfgruppe Peiper I tended to be full of flaws and errata.  Fortenberry did not stay with Avalon Hill long.  With his departure, Avalon Hill looked around and noticed nearby MMP.  Here were "local" ASLers, and more than one of them, who had on their own published a high-quality publication very similar in nature to the ASL Annual.  In a rare moment of clarity, Avalon Hill reached out to MMP to produce ASL content for it.  As a result, MMP stopped publishing Backblast after only two issues and began publishing the revived ASL Journal (which, surprise surprise, took on a very Backblasty feel).  This put MMP in place, a couple of years down the road, to make a pitch (no Curt Schilling reference intended) to Hasbro for ASL. 

Backblast did live on, in one sense.  Over the years, MMP assiduously dusted off as many of its dried bones as they could find, reprinting scenarios and articles with abandon.  Thus BB3 (Point of the Sword), BB4 (A Desperate Affair), BB5 (Going to Church),  and BB11 (Kangaroo Hop) appeared in For King and Country; BB6 (Shattering the Line) and BB10 (Surrender or Die) appeared in Out of the Attic, as did several Backblast articles; BB7 (The Pinnacle) appeared in the ASL Journal; and BB16 (Ambitious Plans) appeared in Operation Watchtower.  One hopes the remaining content will be allowed to rest in peace.

Issues