The Road to K/S: The Hurt/Comfort Zine Contact

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Title:	The Road to K/S: The Hurt/Comfort Zine Contact
Creator:	Nancy Kippax
Date(s):	July 2007
Medium:	print, CD
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Topic:	Contact
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The Road to K/S: The Hurt/Comfort Zine Contact is an article by Nancy Kippax that was published in Legacy #1.

In it, Kippax describes the beginning of the influential zine Contact.

Excerpt

After Feb Con in ‘75, we [Nancy Kippax and Bev Volker, who were sisters] came home and continued writing our stories (I think there were 3 or 4 we were working on) and reading the zines we’d found at the con. There was very little in them that we were looking for—i.e., Kirk and Spock stories. One day out of the clear blue, Bev said to me, why don’t we do our own zine. (BTW, we initially pronounced them “zy-nes”, to rhyme with “fines”—I’m not sure why!) We concluded that there were none which devoted themselves exclusively to the Kirk-Spock relationship, and wouldn’t it be a fine thing if we could pluck up all the best stories in that genre and print them under one cover! We would publish our own stories plus anything we could get from anyone else, but even if we got no submissions, we had enough material at that point to go with just our own. The fact that we knew absolutely nothing about printing, distributing or anything else connected with getting out a zine did not detract from our enthusiasm. Bev’s husband, Russ, had access to a copier at work, and he could print the pages. He also liked to draw, so he could do some artwork for us. Having seen the meager offerings that were mimeoed and poorly printed, we felt we could do at least as well as that. Having purchased Connie F.’s stunning first issue of Interphase, which was the first zine to be printed by an offset printer, which was loaded with amazing artwork, with a layout to die for, we knew we weren’t skilled enough for something on that level. So we decided to aim somewhere in the middle. Better than the poorer-quality zines, but not as good as Interphase. We decided to call it Contact—because that’s what we intended to do, to contact other fen and try to tap into what we suspected was a subsection of this immense fandom—those who were essentially fans of the Kirk-Spock relationship.

Bev and I did everything together. We both edited. We both did layout. I was the only typist, though. I did all the final copy typing. I started with an old Royal portable typewriter and later graduated to renting a Selectric for a month each time a new issue was ready to come out. Being sisters, and having shared a love for male/male relationship all our lives, there was very little we ever argued about or disagreed over. With Contact 1, we initially printed 50 copies (printed on only one side of the paper, because Russ didn’t know how to make double-sided copies on his machine) and we sold out within the first month or so. It was aimed for December but I believe we got it out in November of that year. It soon went to a second printing (this time on both sides). Everything in it was our own, except for Connie’s story and a word search puzzle that had been sent to us early on by some guy. We included a “writing contest” with an obscure snippet that Bev wrote, challenging writers to do a vignette around it. This was an attempt to get other people to submit to the zine. It worked, and we had a wonderful assortment of submissions, including one from the award-winning Jean Lorrah, who was one of our two winners. (The other was British writer Sheila Clark.)

Reactions and Reviews

It was great reading about how they just decided one day to do their own zine, even though they had no idea how to go about, from printing to distribution. These were the days when everything had to be typed and copied. Nancy did all the typing, and Beverly’s husband had access to a copier. They sent flyers out to advertise. Despite all the trouble they had to go through, this sister team put out 9 zines in total, 1 through 8 (5/6 was a combined issue), and 2 Contact Christmas. The Contact series were gen zines, with the focus on the relationship between Kirk and Spock, and many of the stories were of the h/c nature. These stories really were just a step away from K/S. I’ve had lots of people tell me they consider them ‘pre-K/S’ stories, what happened right before they became lovers. There’s no doubt Contact made a big contribution in helping to establish K/S, and one of the most popular themes (my own particular favorite as well) of K/S: hurt/comfort.