A New POV: Bystander Stories

Zine
Title:	A New POV: Bystander Stories
Publisher:	X
Editor(s):
Date(s):	2003
Series?:
Medium:	fanzine, print, later online
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	multimedia
External Links:	(No link to X's website per her front page)
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A New POV: Bystander Stories is a concept-based anthology fanzine created by the fan artist X. X drew a series of illustrations of characters from various TV shows (ex. Highlander and Star Wars) and then solicited authors to write a story to go along with the picture telling a story about the characters from a 'bystander' POV. In most of the images, the "observed" character is shown in the far background and the "bystander" or POV character is shown in the foreground. To offer writers more choices, some pictures contained multiple POV or foreground characters.

Some images generated multiple stories from different authors, each offering their own take on the image. All proceeds from the limited run, hand crafted fanzine went to charity. After printing, the fanzine went online for a short period of time in pdf form. The stories and the accompanying illustrations can be found both on X's website as well as the websites of the original authors.[1], [2], [3], [4], [5]

Contents

Magnificent 7

• Watcher by Blackbird
• Jealousy by Maygra
• The Saloon by Tarlan
• Last One Standing, ^{Archived version} by Gwyneth
• Lodestone by SueN
• Voice of God by Stacie
• The Street by Killa
• The Street by Tarlan
• The Street by Maygra

Star Wars

• Small Stars, Falling by Marie Blackpool
• Red Shift, ^{Archived version} by Sasjah Miller
• The Stars Inside by Irene Heron
• Bird At The Window by Alex
• Jihad by Irene Heron

Harry Potter

• New Beginnings by Tarlan
• Letter Home by Rachael Sabotini

The Phantom Menace

• Sacrifice by Destina Fortunato
• Living the Code, ^{Archived version} by Lady Angel

Highlander

• Walking Home by Maygra
• Barfly by Sleeps With Coyotes
• By The Seine by Maygra
• The Playground by McGeorge
• Chill Wind by Cinel Durant
• Eternal by Maygra
• Tears Turned To Stone by Carson Kerans
• Rain by Maygra
• Guardian Angel by Rachael Sabotini
• Letter Home by McGeorge
• London by Maygra

X-Files

• Diner by Sleeps With Coyotes

Reactions and Reviews

I cannot recommend the zine highly enough. Its has some stupendous artwork in it all by the aforementioned X and some absolutely fabulous stories in the HL section by such notable fandom names as MacGeorge, Cinel Durant and Carson Kearns. I've actually run out of adjectives to successfully describe the stories, so just believe me when I say you will enjoy them and go read.

For those who might have gotten around to reading the HL stories in X's wonderful Bystander zine (see earlier announcement and link), I pose a question that has been bugging me for a year now, ever since I first read the stories when the zine was published. Each of the stories was written in isolation (okay, relative isolation since I helped beta a couple of them, but only after I had finished my own story), and *every single one of them* is a dark tale. No sweetness and light, here, at all. Yet the picture does not have any inherent "darkness" about it. Yes, Methos is hugging himself tightly and looking away, as we have seen him so often do, but that in itself isn't some clarion call for a dark story. Of course, HL is an inherently dark universe, but there are plenty of non-dark stories out there, and Duncan is standing in the sunshine amidst a crowd of people, a neutral expression on his face, and you can't see enough of Methos' face to tell what his expression is.