The Way We Were.........Slash Fandom 101
I put myself up on the auction block at mctabby's ‘friending frenzy' and I've been gleefully stalking perusing a number of new LJ's lately. There's so much variety I hardly know where to begin. *rubs hands together* Since I don't think I ever properly introduced myself, I'm going to do something I rarely do in my LJ - talk about myself and my experiences in fandom. If reading about some of the early days of fandom (1980's) bores you, you'll probably want to skip this post (though there will be porn under the cut). I'm sure I'll be back to discussing my endless devotion to Snape Harry Potter in the next post.
I originally created my own LJ because I was told it was impolite to post comments anonymously and I needed some way for people to identify me. I honestly never intended to post anything. One hundred and twenty-nine...um, well, one hundred and thirty posts later, it finally occurred to me that yet another new benchmark in my fandom history has begun.
I've been a slash fan for about 25 years. I say this a lot because I still can't believe it's been that long. Slash fandom has been a part of my life longer than many other things that define who I am. I was a slasher long before I was a college graduate, a mother, a wife, a social worker, or a therapist. Though the way slash has been distributed has changed, at least for me, fandom has remained the same. I have never had a bad fandom experience. I've been told I'm lucky and I probably am. But I have always had the good fortune to meet interesting and exciting people from all over the world. They have become friends as well as fellow fans. I sincerely hope this never changes.
My first fandom was Star Trek and I read both slash and gen, though I didn't discover slash until 1981. I just happened to be 18 at the time but would have felt absolutely no guilt whatsoever in lying about my age if I had been younger. Though at the time it would have been a great deal more difficult to get away with than it is now. I vividly remember having to mail a photocopy of my driver's license along with every order for a slash ‘zine to prove I was of legal age. A signed statement reading, "Honest guys, I'm really 18" didn't cut it as an age statement. The vast majority of the people I knew didn't write or draw under a pseudonym. We used our real names and people sent LOC's (letters of comment. Um, feedback) to real home addresses. I published about a dozen ‘zines under my own name before I started using the name ‘Linn Thomas' for my fics. Even the people who did use a pseudonym for their work were still widely known by their real names. I believe the majority of them did this because they felt it made their work more ‘professional' rather than for any desire for secrecy. In general, artists were more likely to use a pseudonym than an author.
Fan fiction wasn't nearly as accessible then as it is today. You really had to hunt for it and know what and where to look. One thing that existed then but I don't really see today was a letterzine. There were many kinds of letterzines with a variety of content, but the one I was most active in had a very specific format. It had reviews of popular fanzines, editorial content, a classified section for buying and selling used ‘zines, paperbacks, and other ST merchandise, and a round-robin fic. If you received this letterzine, you had to write part of a fic. There were no lurkers. The letterzine was printed on mimeograph paper and several originals had to be made so that everyone could get a legible copy. There was usually a subscription fee to defray costs.
A more common way to get fan fiction was to buy a fanzine. Slash fanzines were usually available at cons under a dealers table and you had to ask if they carried them. I think the average cost of a slash ‘zine back then was $15 and usually contained a collection of short stories by several authors. I went to cons and picked up as many 'zines as I could afford on a student budget (who needs groceries?). And buying ‘zines and meeting other fans was the sole reason to attend a con. I've been to dozens of cons where I never once saw any of the organized programming.
A simpler, though less reliable, way to get a fanzine was to order it through the mail. This wasn't done the way it is today. I know that in some fandoms (Starsky & Hutch for example), I can go to a place that has a selection of ‘zines for sale. Ordering a ‘zine from there is similar to ordering from a catalog. They have the books in stock, you order from them, and they ship you the ‘zine. End of story. But when I was new to fandom there was a ‘magazine' (more like a big pamphlet) called ‘Forum' (no relation to the Penthouse Forum) where people advertised their ‘zines for sale. They just posted a brief summary, a price, and an address where you could send your money. And, hopefully, you would actually get a fanzine in return. Sometimes I never got a ‘zine at all. Several times I received the ‘zine years after I paid for it. The editors of Forum had nothing to do with either collecting money or shipping ‘zines. It was just a place where you could advertise. Like most magazines, ‘Forum' charged a subscription fee. It was relatively expensive at the time, but well worth the money. People also posted ideas for ‘zines they *planned* to write and asked for pre-orders to help defray the cost of printing it. And by pre-order, I mean you needed to send them the money up front. Seriously.
Printing a ‘zine was expensive and time consuming. That's one of the reasons it was so easy to find outstanding authors willing to give you their fics so long as you took on the work of having it printed. And by ‘printed' I mean either mimeographed or photocopied. Many of the early ‘zines were pretty generic. No borders, fancy type-face, or pictures because all of that had to be done by hand. When I put a border around my ‘zine pages I had to: photocopy several pages of borders from a clip art book; cut out and then resize four of the borders because the top and bottom borders were always smaller than the sides; glue each border on a blank page (hopefully straight); then use white-out to cover the white parts surrounding the black borders because white-out doesn't show up when you photocopy it. I usually ran all the blank pages through a copier to see if I needed to use more white-out in case I missed a spot. At that point, I had a blank piece of paper ready for the text to be typed onto it. On average, my ‘zines were 132 pages long and it took me about three weeks to make them ready to be photocopied if I worked non-stop. We made no money on any of the ‘zines and authors were paid with a free copy of the ‘zine (a trib copy).
Also of note, for the most part slash was *considerably* less graphic in those days. There were some *major* exceptions to this, but on the whole slash was pretty mild. Usually once the main characters thought about kissing each other in a less than brotherly way, the scene would fade to black. One early slash story had this titillating sex scene:
"Be sure," he said, choosing his words with as much care as he could muster. "Are you certain you know where this is going? Will you...follow all the way to the end? Spock, do you want to make love?"
The vulnerable eyes never flinched. "Yes," he said. "Yes, I will. Yes."
That was exactly what they did...three times that night and again in the morning.
The End.
Just try to get away with that today. ;D But at the time we were shocked by such bold work. The 'zines "Naked Times" (published by Pon Farr Press) and "First Times" (which is still being published today by Merry Men Press editor Robin Hood - yes, that's her real name *g*) were probably the first 'zines that I read that had explicit sex scenes and, OMG yea!, pictures.
If you've never seen an older ‘zine:
"Inevitable Love" - This ‘zine has no copyright date, but was published in England around 1980. The cover art is the best thing about this ‘zine. Make of that what you will. Though I admit the quality didn't affect the number of times I read it. I probably still could quote lines from it. I read more slash fic in one month now than I did in a year back then because it's so much more readily available. And yes, that is black duct tape binding those 'zine pages together.
This is a page of a flyer from the woman who published a series of K/S ‘zines called "Duet". The format she used for her flyer is similar to the format of ‘Forum'. Very no-frills. The flyer was originally printed in late 1979 or early 1980. Note the price of the 'zine is $15.50 for Americans.
"Naked Times Three" - published in 1979. The art is by the lovely Pat Stall. Slash 'zine covers usually were less obvious about their content, though it wasn't uncommon for gen or het art to be suggestive. I don't recall seeing any pictures of overt heterosexual sexual activity inside any 'zines. But then, I wasn't really looking for it either. Of interest is that the fic I quoted above comes from a story in this issue. Ah, the reason truth in advertizing laws are necessary. *g*
"The Renegades" - is the first ‘zine Sarah and I ever published. I'm surprised I kept it. Probably for nostalgic reasons. It certainly wasn't for the quality of the writing.
Later ‘zines were of much higher quality. Here's the porn I promised you. *IT IS NOT WORK SAFE*. Make sure you click on the picture to make it larger. I scanned it in black and white and it looks blurry at normal size. The same with the other pics. Page two of the porn. It's pretty much a two page graphic novel rather than just one pic. Oh, and because Spock is an alien, he has *two* ridges on his cock. It was pretty standard ST fanon, but I can't remember why. The originals were gift art from a very popular artist (and author), Gayle Feyrer. The final work was in color and was enormous. About the size of my desk. Here's another one she drew for me because I really wasn't all that fond of long hair on either Kirk or Spock. In retrospect, the long hair was much prettier. I ended up giving away all the explicit original art because I'm an idiot (and at the time I was a young single mother with a new job in Children's Protective Services). I only ever kept one piece of her art. But I did use copies of the art as stationery for years.
And last, this is one of the ‘editor's adventures' pages we put in the front of each of our fanzines. This one is hard to read, but is one of my favorites. The first panel is of me and Sarah trying to find a printer willing to print the aforementioned porn. Of interest is the blank sign above the desk. It originally read ‘KINKOS COPIES', but they refused to photocopy the ‘zine unless we agreed to white out their name. The panel itself is of an otherwise bored sales clerk who perked up immensely when I asked if they would print some erotic pictures. "How EROTIC are they???"
The second panel is me fighting with the typewriter. It's a bit of an exaggeration, but I was always having trouble with the ribbon. Sarah, who can fix anything with toothpaste and a fingernail file, was absolutely useless during times like this. I'm saying, "*Somebody* help the Editor!" which is supposed to be funny to ST fans since there is a very funny line on the blooper reels where Kirk says, "Somebody help the Captain." It's a serious line in the episodes. I notice that I look completely different in the two panels even though I really looked like both of them. I'm told I never look the same way twice. *shrugs*
The last panel still makes me laugh. Back in the old days when we walked uphill to school both ways and there were no computers, standard typewriters didn't have fancy fonts. If I wanted to show a character's thoughts by using italics, I had to change the font manually. IBM typewriters used a removable ball which made it very simple to change fonts. For this ‘zine we rented a typewriter for the weekend. Since we were so good at planning we thought we could zip over to Youngstown (a city neither of us had ever been to before) at 4 pm on a Friday and pick up the typewriter before closing time at 5 pm. We had directions, what could go wrong? Try rush hour traffic and a complete inability to pay attention. After circling the block for half an hour and with five minutes to spare, we finally got out of the car and used a pay phone to call IBM and complain about their crappy directions. Sarah was indignant when she called them. "Hello, IBM rentals? This is Miss Thompson. I inquired about a typewriter...yes, I'm lost. Yes - turn on Wick, then Commercial Street. Just turn around? You mean -? *OH, GOD!*. And I'm helpfully muttering, "*Very bad four letter word* How can anyone be lost in Youngstown???" Yes, the pay phone we used to call them was Right. In. Front. Of. The. Building. We. Were. Looking. For. I typed non-stop so the ‘zine would be finished before we had to return it.
And frankly, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.
I originally created my own LJ because I was told it was impolite to post comments anonymously and I needed some way for people to identify me. I honestly never intended to post anything. One hundred and twenty-nine...um, well, one hundred and thirty posts later, it finally occurred to me that yet another new benchmark in my fandom history has begun.
I've been a slash fan for about 25 years. I say this a lot because I still can't believe it's been that long. Slash fandom has been a part of my life longer than many other things that define who I am. I was a slasher long before I was a college graduate, a mother, a wife, a social worker, or a therapist. Though the way slash has been distributed has changed, at least for me, fandom has remained the same. I have never had a bad fandom experience. I've been told I'm lucky and I probably am. But I have always had the good fortune to meet interesting and exciting people from all over the world. They have become friends as well as fellow fans. I sincerely hope this never changes.
My first fandom was Star Trek and I read both slash and gen, though I didn't discover slash until 1981. I just happened to be 18 at the time but would have felt absolutely no guilt whatsoever in lying about my age if I had been younger. Though at the time it would have been a great deal more difficult to get away with than it is now. I vividly remember having to mail a photocopy of my driver's license along with every order for a slash ‘zine to prove I was of legal age. A signed statement reading, "Honest guys, I'm really 18" didn't cut it as an age statement. The vast majority of the people I knew didn't write or draw under a pseudonym. We used our real names and people sent LOC's (letters of comment. Um, feedback) to real home addresses. I published about a dozen ‘zines under my own name before I started using the name ‘Linn Thomas' for my fics. Even the people who did use a pseudonym for their work were still widely known by their real names. I believe the majority of them did this because they felt it made their work more ‘professional' rather than for any desire for secrecy. In general, artists were more likely to use a pseudonym than an author.
Fan fiction wasn't nearly as accessible then as it is today. You really had to hunt for it and know what and where to look. One thing that existed then but I don't really see today was a letterzine. There were many kinds of letterzines with a variety of content, but the one I was most active in had a very specific format. It had reviews of popular fanzines, editorial content, a classified section for buying and selling used ‘zines, paperbacks, and other ST merchandise, and a round-robin fic. If you received this letterzine, you had to write part of a fic. There were no lurkers. The letterzine was printed on mimeograph paper and several originals had to be made so that everyone could get a legible copy. There was usually a subscription fee to defray costs.
A more common way to get fan fiction was to buy a fanzine. Slash fanzines were usually available at cons under a dealers table and you had to ask if they carried them. I think the average cost of a slash ‘zine back then was $15 and usually contained a collection of short stories by several authors. I went to cons and picked up as many 'zines as I could afford on a student budget (who needs groceries?). And buying ‘zines and meeting other fans was the sole reason to attend a con. I've been to dozens of cons where I never once saw any of the organized programming.
A simpler, though less reliable, way to get a fanzine was to order it through the mail. This wasn't done the way it is today. I know that in some fandoms (Starsky & Hutch for example), I can go to a place that has a selection of ‘zines for sale. Ordering a ‘zine from there is similar to ordering from a catalog. They have the books in stock, you order from them, and they ship you the ‘zine. End of story. But when I was new to fandom there was a ‘magazine' (more like a big pamphlet) called ‘Forum' (no relation to the Penthouse Forum) where people advertised their ‘zines for sale. They just posted a brief summary, a price, and an address where you could send your money. And, hopefully, you would actually get a fanzine in return. Sometimes I never got a ‘zine at all. Several times I received the ‘zine years after I paid for it. The editors of Forum had nothing to do with either collecting money or shipping ‘zines. It was just a place where you could advertise. Like most magazines, ‘Forum' charged a subscription fee. It was relatively expensive at the time, but well worth the money. People also posted ideas for ‘zines they *planned* to write and asked for pre-orders to help defray the cost of printing it. And by pre-order, I mean you needed to send them the money up front. Seriously.
Printing a ‘zine was expensive and time consuming. That's one of the reasons it was so easy to find outstanding authors willing to give you their fics so long as you took on the work of having it printed. And by ‘printed' I mean either mimeographed or photocopied. Many of the early ‘zines were pretty generic. No borders, fancy type-face, or pictures because all of that had to be done by hand. When I put a border around my ‘zine pages I had to: photocopy several pages of borders from a clip art book; cut out and then resize four of the borders because the top and bottom borders were always smaller than the sides; glue each border on a blank page (hopefully straight); then use white-out to cover the white parts surrounding the black borders because white-out doesn't show up when you photocopy it. I usually ran all the blank pages through a copier to see if I needed to use more white-out in case I missed a spot. At that point, I had a blank piece of paper ready for the text to be typed onto it. On average, my ‘zines were 132 pages long and it took me about three weeks to make them ready to be photocopied if I worked non-stop. We made no money on any of the ‘zines and authors were paid with a free copy of the ‘zine (a trib copy).
Also of note, for the most part slash was *considerably* less graphic in those days. There were some *major* exceptions to this, but on the whole slash was pretty mild. Usually once the main characters thought about kissing each other in a less than brotherly way, the scene would fade to black. One early slash story had this titillating sex scene:
"Be sure," he said, choosing his words with as much care as he could muster. "Are you certain you know where this is going? Will you...follow all the way to the end? Spock, do you want to make love?"
The vulnerable eyes never flinched. "Yes," he said. "Yes, I will. Yes."
That was exactly what they did...three times that night and again in the morning.
The End.
Just try to get away with that today. ;D But at the time we were shocked by such bold work. The 'zines "Naked Times" (published by Pon Farr Press) and "First Times" (which is still being published today by Merry Men Press editor Robin Hood - yes, that's her real name *g*) were probably the first 'zines that I read that had explicit sex scenes and, OMG yea!, pictures.
If you've never seen an older ‘zine:
"Inevitable Love" - This ‘zine has no copyright date, but was published in England around 1980. The cover art is the best thing about this ‘zine. Make of that what you will. Though I admit the quality didn't affect the number of times I read it. I probably still could quote lines from it. I read more slash fic in one month now than I did in a year back then because it's so much more readily available. And yes, that is black duct tape binding those 'zine pages together.
This is a page of a flyer from the woman who published a series of K/S ‘zines called "Duet". The format she used for her flyer is similar to the format of ‘Forum'. Very no-frills. The flyer was originally printed in late 1979 or early 1980. Note the price of the 'zine is $15.50 for Americans.
"Naked Times Three" - published in 1979. The art is by the lovely Pat Stall. Slash 'zine covers usually were less obvious about their content, though it wasn't uncommon for gen or het art to be suggestive. I don't recall seeing any pictures of overt heterosexual sexual activity inside any 'zines. But then, I wasn't really looking for it either. Of interest is that the fic I quoted above comes from a story in this issue. Ah, the reason truth in advertizing laws are necessary. *g*
"The Renegades" - is the first ‘zine Sarah and I ever published. I'm surprised I kept it. Probably for nostalgic reasons. It certainly wasn't for the quality of the writing.
Later ‘zines were of much higher quality. Here's the porn I promised you. *IT IS NOT WORK SAFE*. Make sure you click on the picture to make it larger. I scanned it in black and white and it looks blurry at normal size. The same with the other pics. Page two of the porn. It's pretty much a two page graphic novel rather than just one pic. Oh, and because Spock is an alien, he has *two* ridges on his cock. It was pretty standard ST fanon, but I can't remember why. The originals were gift art from a very popular artist (and author), Gayle Feyrer. The final work was in color and was enormous. About the size of my desk. Here's another one she drew for me because I really wasn't all that fond of long hair on either Kirk or Spock. In retrospect, the long hair was much prettier. I ended up giving away all the explicit original art because I'm an idiot (and at the time I was a young single mother with a new job in Children's Protective Services). I only ever kept one piece of her art. But I did use copies of the art as stationery for years.
And last, this is one of the ‘editor's adventures' pages we put in the front of each of our fanzines. This one is hard to read, but is one of my favorites. The first panel is of me and Sarah trying to find a printer willing to print the aforementioned porn. Of interest is the blank sign above the desk. It originally read ‘KINKOS COPIES', but they refused to photocopy the ‘zine unless we agreed to white out their name. The panel itself is of an otherwise bored sales clerk who perked up immensely when I asked if they would print some erotic pictures. "How EROTIC are they???"
The second panel is me fighting with the typewriter. It's a bit of an exaggeration, but I was always having trouble with the ribbon. Sarah, who can fix anything with toothpaste and a fingernail file, was absolutely useless during times like this. I'm saying, "*Somebody* help the Editor!" which is supposed to be funny to ST fans since there is a very funny line on the blooper reels where Kirk says, "Somebody help the Captain." It's a serious line in the episodes. I notice that I look completely different in the two panels even though I really looked like both of them. I'm told I never look the same way twice. *shrugs*
The last panel still makes me laugh. Back in the old days when we walked uphill to school both ways and there were no computers, standard typewriters didn't have fancy fonts. If I wanted to show a character's thoughts by using italics, I had to change the font manually. IBM typewriters used a removable ball which made it very simple to change fonts. For this ‘zine we rented a typewriter for the weekend. Since we were so good at planning we thought we could zip over to Youngstown (a city neither of us had ever been to before) at 4 pm on a Friday and pick up the typewriter before closing time at 5 pm. We had directions, what could go wrong? Try rush hour traffic and a complete inability to pay attention. After circling the block for half an hour and with five minutes to spare, we finally got out of the car and used a pay phone to call IBM and complain about their crappy directions. Sarah was indignant when she called them. "Hello, IBM rentals? This is Miss Thompson. I inquired about a typewriter...yes, I'm lost. Yes - turn on Wick, then Commercial Street. Just turn around? You mean -? *OH, GOD!*. And I'm helpfully muttering, "*Very bad four letter word* How can anyone be lost in Youngstown???" Yes, the pay phone we used to call them was Right. In. Front. Of. The. Building. We. Were. Looking. For. I typed non-stop so the ‘zine would be finished before we had to return it.
And frankly, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.