A Pre-History of Fanfiction V: Fandom Drama, More Zines, and Conclusion
Zines existed out of the K/S bubble, of course. Our old friend Sherlock Holmes laid claim to many staple pages often crossing over with the Doctor, Lovecraft’s monsters, and Count Dracula like in the pages of the SH-SF Fanthology edited by Ruth Berman. Zines like the Holmesian Federation edited by Signe Landon and written by Dana Martin Batory, Ruth Berman, John C. Bunnel, and Tina Rhea explored Holmes’ world in both fiction and non-fiction. When Lord of the Rings was republished in paperback in the 60s, zines like Bernie Zuber’s Mytholore explored Tolkein and other fantasy works.
Duh duh duh DUN DA DUN DUN DA DUN. The premier of Star Wars in 1977 inspired many zines. B. Clark published the first Star Wars fanzine, Skywalker in 1978. Others included Empire Stars by JJ Adamson and the Mos Eisley Chronicle by Doborah Rubin. The first sexual SW content appeared in the pages of Guardian #3 edited by Linda Deneroff and Cynthia Levine. Han/Luke slash filled the pages of zine to the point where the director of the Official Star Wars Fan Club sent Guardian and other publications a letter that demanded that they stop publishing porn along with a series of guidelines for zines.
Another fandom that comes up quite a lot in zine culture is Blake’s 7, a British SF tv show that shared many producers, writers, editors, and actors with Doctor Who (I guess that’s true of most British shows). The fandom was huge, especially for one that is not super active today. The creator, writers, and actors were uniquely involved in the fandom. The creator, Terry Nation, told zine editor Carl Hiles that he didn’t want Blakes 7 fanworks to appear in any zine that weren’t solely dedicated to Blakes. It wasn’t all negative, Nation also supplied a very kind introduction to a fanfiction titled Reflections in a Shattered Glass by Joe Nazzaro. Actor Gareth Thomas read a fan poem by Mary G T Weber out loud at a con, embracing her after.
Blake’s 7 was not without its troubles though. The fandom split in the late 80s when a fan revealed to Blake actor Paul Darrow the names of three fans slash producing fans, a writer, editor, and artist, who were operating under pseudonyms. Darrow sent a letter to these fans demanding them to stop publishing anything involving ‘his character or his likeness’. This caused a rift in the fandom between those who supported Darrow and those supporting the three targeted fans. (Fanlore - The Blake’s 7 War) It is speculated that Darrow was using slash as a scapegoat to obfuscate criticism he was receiving for participating in for-profit cons. This is a common theme in fandom, the disconnect between fans and those that make the show. For example, Jensen Ackles of Supernatural fame has made it clear that he does not like to answer questions about shipping his character with Castiel.
Slash became such a huge part of fandom that zine dedicated entirely to slash without a home fandom appeared in the 80s. One such zine was Dyad edited by Divya Blacque. Dyad used a far reaching amount of derivative works including Man from Uncle, Simon and Simon, Quantum Leap, Startsky and Hutch, Lethal Weapon 2, and China Beach. Slash developed its own genre conventions and language. In this case, not only is the author decentralized but the derivative work is as well. This marks another evolution of fandom from where organizing around a particular work or works is most important to where engaging in fannish behaviors is central.
For a time in the 80s and 90s, zines coexisted with online fan forums like alt.tv.x files.creative and The Aquiter Files for Blake’s 7. However, the ease, accessibility, and ubiquity of the internet won out and have pushed zines to the fringes of fandom. That is not to say that zines do not exist but they are most certainly not the main medium of fanfiction today.
So much has changed since the days of Gulliver and Pamela.
Fanfiction now exists on online archives like AO3 and fandom discourse lurks on Tumblr, available to a wider amount of people than a zine would ever be able to service. Fanfiction has increased in popularity and visibility in the past two decades. Fic has even transformed into multi-media franchises like EL James’ 50 Shades of Gray and Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments. The increasing acceptance of LQBTQ+ people has made the secrecy around slash all but obsolete.
Though there are endless problems within fandom and fandom behavior, I want to encourage you all to keep engaging with communities you love whether that be centered around a fictional work, a hobby, or anything else that piques your fancy. Keep putting your art and your words out there, you don’t need a middleman or a gatekeeper or a publisher to give you permission. Your little tumblr blog might set a precedence if you let it.
This is not an overarching explanation of fandom and is limited to a few works, places, and time periods. If you want to know more, I’ll link my sources in other post
I would like to give a very special thank you to Fanlore, a spectacular and far-reaching wiki with thousands of pages of amazing rabbit holes. I would also like to thank those fans that wrote their own histories like Mickela Ecks and Writer’s University, Jenna Sinclair, Alec Nevala-Lee, and Gloria Comandini. Though I used academic journals, these personal histories were the most elucidating.
