A Little B & D
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A Little B & D |
| Publisher: | No Name No City Press, then LionHeart Distribution |
| Editor(s): | Jenn M. Glass |
| Date(s): | 2003-2004 |
| Series?: | |
| Medium: | |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Professionals |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
A Little B & D is a two-issue slash anthology in the Professionals fandom.
A Submission Request Mystery
In May 1994, there was a submission request for a zine by this title to be published by Kari Masoner and Rainbow Dragon Press. It is unknown if this is related to the zines below:
Yes folks! This is the zine your mother warned you about! I'm looking for graphic, kinky, bondage and dominance stories with lots of leather and whips (chains optional)! Mercenary games, orgies, role playing and capture stories are especially sought. Any type of story (except death) will be considered. Let your imagination and libido run wild! Any length of story is acceptable, but the longer (and bigger!) the better! Art is also needed — Bodie and Doyle entwined in erotic splendor is wildly solicited!
Deadline: September 1, 1994
Issue 1
A Little B & D 1 was published in October 2003 and contains 210 pages.
The color cover is by Sekhmet, the color interior illos by Tauna and the black-and-white illos by Suzan Lovett, Tauna, and Sekhmet.
Some stories include loving bdsm, some graphic violence, and one 'love after death' with a positive ending.
- It's All in the Acronym by Karen Klinck (The Acronym Series) (1)
- Under the Laughter: illo by Sekhmet (7)
- When Correctly Viewed by Karen Klinck (The Acronym Series) (8)
- If It's Done for Love by Alanna (10)
- Weekend Warriors by Karen Klinck (The Acronym Series) (14)
- Lashes: illo by Tauna (29)
- Peaches and Cream by Tauna (The Acronym Series) (31)
- With This Ring... by Karen Klinck (35)
- The Motorcycle Gang That Tried to Eat Brighton, and The Valiant CI5 Agents Who Stopped Them by Karen Klinck (The Acronym Series) (37)
- Wall: illo by Tauna (57)
- Contemplation: illo by Tauna (113)
- Stakeout by Tauna (114)
- The Stakeout Was Called Off: illo by Suzan Lovett (123)
- Lucky Charms by Shorts (125)
- Can Life Go On? by Darby Brennan (137)
- Time to Heal by Karen Klinck (The Acronym Series) (158)
- Concentration: illo by Tauna (159)
- Leaning: illo by Tauna (185)
- The Things I Do for You, Sunshine by Darby Brennan (186)
- The Lads: illo by Sekhmet (205)
- Warnings Page (206)
from issue #1, title page
from issue #1, "Under the Laughter": illo by Sekhmet
from issue #1, "The Stakeout Was Called Off": illo by Suzan Lovett
from issue #1, "Contemplation": illo by Tauna
from issue #1, "The Lads": ill by Sekhmet
Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1
[Lucky Charms]: The story opens with Bodie and Doyle in the middle of a fire fight, and then leads into an interrogation scene. Feels like it could come straight from the show.Characterisation is spot on. The aftermath, with Doyle being annoyed at Bodie for putting himself in the line of fire *again*is also very real. It's just the boys getting on with life. Something I've not seen that much of in Pros fandom. The sex also feels realistic.Doyle is rougher (but with Bodie's full consent) then they usually are in the relationship established in the fic, and his guilt trip and Bodie's unconcern are perfectly in character. Shorts shows all the trust and love between them without ever slipping into sap. Really enjoyable read. [1]
[zine]:This is a bit of a strange zine, in my humble opinion... There are 204 pages, most of them containing stories with some sort of BDSM kink, which I'm generally all for, except... I'm not sure that the authors of these stories really get BDSM, the whole psychology of desire, the whole point of it, because I came away from most of them fairly cold - or at the very best wonder wtf..?
Maybe the most "famous" (notorious?) of these stories is "The Motorcycle Gang That Tried to Eat Brighton, And the Valiant CI5 Agents Who Stopped Them." At first glance I thought this was bound to be some kind of comedy-fic, or at least a pastiche, but... it really doesn't seem to be. The premise is interesting enough - a gay biker gang with a penchant for BDSM terrorising Brighton (very a la Mad Max I thought at first), but ...again with the but. Bodie and Doyle are also not only gay but into BDSM, and they set up the bikers in various ways to make their cover of Bodie as dom and Doyle as sub seem realistic. On paper, in the words that you read, they enjoy themselves on the way, but... the sex scenes come across as incredibly mechanical, and despite the various explanations that the lads give each other for liking BDSM, and to justify what they're doing, they all seem to culminate in "Bodie put it in Doyle until they both came and then they went and had some dinner". Almost in those words - there's no passion there that I could see at all, let alone any kind of understanding of the darker, seamier sides of sexuality. I was given a similar impression by "The Acronym" series of stories, by the same author in this zine. And the lads are about as English as the American flag, as well as very strangely (for me) characterised. Much talking, much explanation, and much beating of chests and agonising - as well as some very odd ideas about how to get over being violently gang-raped...
"If It's Done For Love Then It Can't Be Wrong", despite the ponderous title, wasn't as mechanical at least and gave Bodie a fairly rarely-written kink (!), although there was a little too much gushing at the end for me (sorry, really didn't intend that pun... *g*). "Peaches and Cream" and "Stakeout" by Tauna were both good - but both are available at the online Circuit Archive, so there's no reason to get hold of the zine to read them. Two other stories were rather sentimental for my taste - and one, bizarrely enough, was a death fic, which just seemed out of place with all the kinky sex going on elsewhere!
There are some illustrations - the fab and playful "The Stakeout Was Called Off" by Suzanne Lovett, which can also be seen online, and then various computer-generated images, which are effective but wouldn't justify my spending money on the zine.
I'm glad I read it - if nothing else to see what all the fuss was about re: "The Motorcycle Gang..." but for the vast majority of pages the lads were just way too American (another big turn off for me - they're not!) and both unrecognisable and fairly unsexy... It was a bit like eating muktuk, or snails - I'm glad I tried it once for the experience, but I can't imagine that it's something that'll go down well for most people... [2]
[zine]:What I did appreciate about this zine was the cover and some of the illustrations which included Suzan Lovett's 'The Stakeout was Called Off...', two interesting face studies by Tauna 'Lashes'- Bodie and 'Concentration'- Doyle, plus a nice wallpaper by Sekhmet called 'The Lads'.
However, what I failed to take account of when ordering this zine were the words, 'Some stories include loving bdsm, some graphic violence...'
The stories referred to were the six stories of The Acronym Series by Karen Klinck. As one of them, snappily entitled The Motorcycle Gang That Tried To Eat Brighton And The Valiant CI5 Agents Who Stopped Them, and its follow up Time To Heal are the longest stories in the zine you actually get rather a lot of bdsm. I have to admit that I can stand just so much before I start screaming with boredom as I find it tedious and formulaic at the best of times. As to the Acronym Series, the characterization seemed off, the longer stories lacked credibility and the bdsm and violence felt excessive and somewhat gratuitous. I really struggled to see Bodie and Doyle acting as they did. I struggled to believe that Cowley would have sanctioned such an undercover operation. I struggled to believe in the premise of a gay s&m motorcycle gang terrorizing Brighton, and I found it very hard to accept that Bodie needed to hurt Doyle as much as he did even if he was trying to keep up their undercover personas. Also, Bodie and Doyle might have been engaging in consensual bdsm, but most of the rest of the gang were just engaged in graphic violence and rape! The follow up story Time To Heal was more of the same with Doyle in the leading role and I'd quite honestly had more than my fill and skimmed it quickly.
The rest of the stories, If it's done for love by Alanna, Peaches and Cream and Stakeout by Tauna, Lucky Charm by Shorts and The Things I Do For You, Sunshine by Darby Brennan were mainly very short and sweet relationship ones that tended to include a lot of sex, plus one first time one. The odd one out was a death story Can life go on by Darby Brennan that was at variance with the mood and tone of the rest of the zine.
Unfortunately, many of the stories in this zine were not to my taste and I did not really enjoy it. On a more positive note, I got a refund from Lionheart for $8.00 because they'd posted two zines together and reduced the postage costs. I certainly appreciated that. [3]
Issue 2
A Little B & D 2 was published in March 2004 and contains 150 pages. The cover and interior illos are by Tauna.
From the publisher:
Love and angst with the Lads. Ray is taken hostage in a story by Karen Klinck. Three stories centered around All Hallow's Eve, Christmas, and Easter, add a bit of romance and humor, all by Karen Klinck. The second half of the zine is a long story by Darby Brennan. Set immediately after 'Mixed Doubles' Bodie and Doyle have one more thing to resolve whether their partnership can survive the events of the last few days. They take off for a holiday in Somerset, but before things can be rectified, Bodie is captured, leaving Doyle to apprehend the villain, save his partner, and come to terms with what happened during the Parsali affair.
- Hostage by Karen Klinck (4)
- All Hallow's Eve by Karen Klinck (13)
- Your Goose is Cooked by Karen Klinck (41)
- Make Like a Bunny by Karen Klinck (57)
- Not for England by Darby Brennan (Author's notes: "When I first saw (or I should say re-saw, as I first saw it in 1980) Mixed Doubles, one thing in particular screamed out at me from the scene at the end where Ray is crouched down by the lake, after having killed one of the would-be assassins. This story is about that revelation. It is also, my explanation of several things post-Mixed Doubles, including the Louise reference. For the purposes of this story, events happen in the order in which the episodes were first aired, not in the order in which they were filmed:It is the story that, apparently, has taken me several years to write as I started it in August 2001, put it away and finally came back to it in January 2004. My heartfelt thanks go to Bast for all the hard work she did in helping me to finish this story.") (68)
from issue #2, sample text
from issue #2, illo by Tauna
from issue #2, illo by Tauna
References
- ^ Lucky Charms by Shorts (NC-17): crack_van, Archived version
- ^ byslantedlight. "A Little B & D".
- ^ A Little B and D, Archived version, review by Alison, April 2010