Promises to Keep (Beauty and the Beast zine)

Zine
Title:	Promises to Keep
Publisher:	Lynette Combs
Editor(s):
Date(s):	1990-1992
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Beauty and the Beast (TV)
Language:	English
External Links:
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Promises to Keep is a set of two gen Beauty and the Beast novels by Lynette Combs.

Be alert: You may be looking instead for the zine the second issue of "Castles in the Air," titled "Promises to Keep."

Issue 1

Promises to Keep 1 is subtitled, "A Children's Story." It was published in April 1990 and contains 263 pages.

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  cover issue #1, shows comb binding

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  cover of issue #1, Lynette Combs

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

Marvelous account of the intervention of Vincent and Catherine - particularly Vincent - in the life of Naomi, an abused street waif aged about five. This gentle, unsentimental, excellently written, and acutely perceived novel has excellent characterizations of all concerned (Father, Eric, and Geoffrey figure prominently) and much insight into the psychology of abused children - the suppressed rage, the fear, and the longing for love and trust. There are some romantic V/C moments but the novel's main focus is on Vincent and Naomi, whose adjustment to the tunnel world is anything but smooth. There's also suspense and excitement as Naomi tries to return to her mother, not quite admitting she knows her mother is dead, killed by the boyfriend who now seeks Naomi as the only witness. Illustrated not only with author's fine drawings but much silhouette art, as well. Moving, insightful, charming, this novel will enchant readers with a fondness for children's perspectives and for Vincent in his role of protector of injured children. Note: don't confuse this zine with Castles in the Air 2: Promises to Keep, an X-rated zine that's now out of print anyway.

One tends to enter the exciting world of B&TB zine reading with a certain amount of trepidation—hungry for more of the characters who have come to mean so much, but conscious that the deep, personal, often idiosyncratic responses the show tends to evoke are often reflected in an author's writing. It could not be otherwise, with this show. I would not have it otherwise. B&TB pulls for what is unarticulated in all of us, and gives it a safe place to be spoken. That's the whole point.

I have to admit, however, to a strong personal bias toward fanzines which organize their plot and character structure around what I saw portrayed in the show. Not that Vincent wouldn't travel to Spain with Catherine, or sit giggling with her over the cartoons in a MAD magazine. It's just that, for me. the magic is most potent when it is a written continuation of what I saw on the screen. It's too important to leave to chance. I need zine authors to keep the Dream alive for me. I need them to take me there, to that world where love and authenticity matter, where people mean what they say and say what they mean.

"Promises to Keep" by Lynette Combs preserves this Dream so beautifully that it often reduces the reader to tears. It is like stumbling onto a forgotten episode, filmed and never aired, and plunging it excitedly into your VCR. All your friends are there, exactly as you remember them — Father, feisty and tender by turns; Pascal, quiet and dedicated; Geoffrey, sensitive and compassionate. Vincent is there, steadfast as a mountain, unable to see another's pain without feeling an unyielding desire to assuage it. Catherine is there, by his side, shining with inner and outer beauty. And their love is there, running like a glittering, metallic thread through the woven fabric of the story which, like their love, focuses outward to others to others instead of inward to themselves.

Described as a children's story, the novel is yet imbued with that timelessness and agelessness which hold appeal for children young and old. Like Engle's A Wrinkle in Time or Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, it is a story which appeals not only to the innocent and vulnerable, but also to those who see the enormous need for protecting innocence and vulnerability, wherever they are found. The story's protagonist, Naomi, is an abused, precocious waif whose deep attachment to Vincent and the tunnel world is complicated by a driven urge to return Above, seeking her dead mother. All the crushing fear and the terrible fragility of the abused childhood are accurately sketched by Combs—the shrinking away, the mistrust. But this is a child who is patiently, carefully nurtured by Vincent, and the beautiful unfolding of the fable focuses on the person she comes to be. We love the defiant and unruly Naomi, before she even begins to love herself. And we feel again the magic of a story which lifts us above who we are, into people who are better and finer and nobler, somehow, for having experienced it.

Promises to Keep is a zine to be read and reread, when the hurts and fears of the world around you send you running headlong for the tunnels. I put it at the top of my stack, along with Cynthia Hatch's Kaleidoscope series and Barbara Storey's short story What My Heart Will Be (TUNNELS Vol.1). I sat up into the midnight hours to finish it, because I could not bear to leave the place Combs showed such talent in depicting so movingly. And I thought what I always do when something in fandom touches me deeply—that only some one with a heart like Vincent's could write a zine like this.

When I used to teach elementary music, I would always have my kindergarten class be the Nativity scene for the Christmas program. As the twenty or so little 'uns tripped up to the stage, swaddled in sheets and altered robes, cardboard wings and tinsel halos, the entire crowd of parents in the audience would collectively go "Awww..."because five year olds are just so darn cute dressed up at that age.

Well, I just read a sine that made me go "Awww." It's Promises to Keep: A 'Children's Story' by Lynette Combs. When you read it, you might discover a warm glow beginning to grow in the pit of your stomach. And when you finally finish it, you just might hug it to your chest like the picture on the front cover.

Lynette does her own illos. Great ones, too. But I especially like the 'silhouettes' - a new and different approach that is fresh and lends a unique flavor to the zine.

The story basically revolved around Vincent finding a small child named Naomi and bringing her down into the safety of the tunnels. Naomi turns out to be quite a precocious handful, while every one else gets caught up in the adventure of her background.

It's touching, it's rollicking and you'll feel SO good after you're through. Where else can you get a warm fuzzy for $20?

Issue 2

Promises to Keep 2 is subtitled, "Promises Fulfilled." It was published in June 1992 and contains 404 pages.

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  cover of issue #2, Lynette Combs

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  flyer for issue #2

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

In this long followup to Combs' excellent Promises to Keep (which see), on a forbidden excursion Above, young new tunnel resident Naomi is accidentally injured Above, taken to a hospital, then transferred to a holding facility, pending placement in a foster home. Nobody Below has any idea where she is: a feverish hunt is mounted. Most anxious is V. Meanwhile, the investigation of the death of the killer/boyfriend of Naomi's mother (dramatized in PTK-1) continues and the police also seek Naomi as a possible witness to the man's death. Both searches converge on the holding facility and frightened Naomi. All comes out OK. This book has the strength of its predecessor-V's special relationship with children-and also has more moments of tenderness and romance between V & C (compared to PTK-1). There is much of the author's excellent art, both full portraits and her fine, distinctive silhouette drawings.