Hey everyone I’m here to publish the result of my latest scientific research project: hidden Jimbert AU story.
I was looking at materials about エロイカより愛をこめて (From Eroica with Love), a Japanese manga series since 1976 about aristocratic art thief Eroica/Dorian Red Gloria who fell for his nemesis, NATO major Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach. We all know the connection between Eroica and Robert Plant (not just the art thief part, HA).
So I dig a fanzine paper out of dusted internet corner: The Eroica Connection by Kay Reynolds (1993), a 40-page article full of pictures published on Eroica fanzine Companions in Chaos, in which Reynold discussed the reference to Led Zeppelin (not just Robert Plant) in Eroica. The PDF is here.
Then I found this webpage: an introduction to Eroica fandom, published in 1998.
The author was Jean Lorrah, one of the early Star Trek fanfic writers who contributed to the development of this whole fandom culture. I didn’t know that she was also a Zephead and a fan of Eroica until now: She wrote another article about connection between Eroica and Led Zeppelin in Companions in Chaos Issue. 2 (I am still in search of this one).
And you can tell her love of LZ in her personal page. Much to my regret, “Led Zeppelin and J.R.R. Tolkien” page was lost because of Yahoo group closure. But read the page “100 Top Led Zeppelin Moments”, it was wholesome.
Jean is a prolific writer who published multiple novels, long and short, mostly in fantasy genre. Since 1980 she has been writing stories in Sime~Gen Universe, a sci-fi universe created by Jacqueline Lichtenberg in 1969 about two future human subspecies seeking coexistence. In one of the webpages Jean wrote: “If you like Led Zeppelin and Eroica, you are likely to enjoy the story "Reflection of a Dream" by Jean Lorrah, soon available in the Crossroads Sampler.”
Reflection of a Dream is one of the three short stories in Sime~Gen Universe that involves characters based on Led Zeppelin members, collected in The Story Untold and Other Sime~Gen Stories, in which Tonyo Logan and Zhag Paget (spot the connection to FATGD here) are a pair of musicians from opposite subspecies who seek to reunite humanity with music. Just finished the book and the stories are fantastic. The whole Sime~Gen Universe definitely is worth a read!
And here is more character study on Tonyo and Zhag, by Jean Lorrah and Mary Lou Mendum. It’s just tremendous to see how fanfic writers develop a full universe, these life trajectories, based on inspirations from good ol’ times. Jean wrote Tonyo and Zhag’s concert so brilliantly I really want to attend them…
