Comfort (Blake's 7 story by M.C.)
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Comfort |
| Author(s): | the two stories were by M.C. K.F., and the last three stories solely by M.C. |
| Date(s): | 1983-1984 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | Blake's 7 |
| External Links: | |
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Comfort is a slash Blake's 7 series of stories. The first two are by M.C. and K.F. and the last three are solely by M.C.
It was published in five parts in three issues of the first Blake's 7 all-slash fiction zine, E-Man-Uelle between 1983 and 1984. These five parts were gathered and published together in an E-Man-U-Elle Special Issue at an unknown date.
This story is perhaps the first mpreg in media fanfic.
Response Fanworks
- E-Man-Uelle's Revenge (1985)
- Duet for Emmanuelle (1994)
Had the Attention of the Actors?
... will the rest of fandom lynch me for [this zine]? Will the actors concerned read it and feel I'm violating the characters they in essence created and lynch me? I’ve heard that a couple of them have indeed picked this zine up from somewhere but I'm still alive to tell you all about it, so I guess it’s OK.
As you can see M.C. has excelled herself with a lovely long part of COMFORT and I warn you now, get out your hankies, you've no idea, how difficult it’s been to type it without seeing the pages blur and wiping the eyes so frequently! It’s a lovely story and even before you all read it and ask it there’s going to be more, well.... that’d be telling wouldn't it. [1]
Fan Comments
1985
Part II of "Comfort. Full of daring little scenes such as Avon slapping Vila's stomach while Tarrant is sitting on the bed with then. If it were possible, I'd say it had gone down hill since part I. In short, it's boring.[2]
Part III of "Comfort" is set post-"Blake". No real explanation (apart from some mumbling about a clone) is given as to how all of them except Soolin survived, nor how the real Blake came riding to the rescue just in time, you're supposed to enjoy the slush and forget the fact that it's almost the worst-written story I have ever read. Oh yes - and Vila gets raped and Avon doesn't and one can hardly suppress a yawn.[3]
Part IV of "Comfort", or "The Sounds of Silence". A better alternative title might have been "Let's Feminise Vila". Back on Earth and the revolution is accomplished in two or three days, to let Avon and Vila get on with the sexual aerobics. (Incidentally, the single position they use is physically impossible for two men. One is tempted to wonder if M.C. had ever heard of anything but the missionary position.) Vila becomes pregnant with Avon's child, Avon and Vila get married, the baby is born, and Vila dies. Avon is very upset, but manages to cheer up after listening to a 26th Century pop song. (Guess.) (This is the worst—written story I have ever read.) [4]
Part V of "Comfort". I never could make out whether this one was boring or hilarious. Vila returns from the dead in time to stop Avon from joining him, Jenna reappears with Vila's father - who is naturally, a thoroughly nasty Alpha - homophobic, wife-beater, child abuser, and who eventually ran off abandoning Vila, Vila's mother, and Vila's younger sister (now Blake's live-in girlfriend) to one of the non-aligned planets. Confused? Good, because so was I, when I wasn't hating every paragraph. equally bad and boring but a trifle soggier. (Too much sherry in the sponge.) Impossible to take seriously, thank Goddess.[5]
But I equally hope the writer of "Comfort" kills 'em both off in the next issue - for good this time. There's one bit, I think it's in that particular saga, where one of the characters innocently remarks that Avon is a completely different person since he fell in love with Vila. That accorded with my opinion exactly, because I'd just been thinking that the character named Avon bore not the slightest resemblance to the Avon I remembered...
Poor old E-man-uelle. At least it tried. At least it was published, and proved that at least some people are interested in A/V stories. [6]
1993
I do recall the occasional romantic B7 piece--but they never really struck me as in any way believably B7! Love-conquers-all and happily-ever-after are just not compatible with the B7 universe! Any time I see them saying, "Now that I know you love me too, all the rest is just a bad dream", I start gagging and retching and trying to figure out what they've done with the characters I know (and love?...). There's one really dreadful classic in Eman-u-elle in which Vila gets an artificial womb so he can have Avon's baby... (Awwwwww...) [7]
The story with Vila bearing Avon's child (urk) appeared in E-Man-Uelle #1-3, an early and extremely primitive, in all senses, B7 zine from Britain. I gave my copies away, they were that bad.[8]
1994
There WAS an A/V novella issue of "Emmanuel" that involved an awful courtship, retching marriage, and the eventual pregnancy of Vila! (One of the worst parts: when Avon and Vila actually argue over who will get to be the one to be pregnant! Rivaled the previous scene that involved their marriage and an argument over who would get to take the other's last name! Since I don't want to leave you hanging, I believe they settled for Avon-Restal. The things we read for a fandom!) [9]
1997
...this concept [mpreg] *always* reminds me of the truly horrid A/V novella which was an issue of E-MAN-U-ELLE (which was a truly horrid B7 zine). While the different parts of the story will probably haunt me the rest of my days (Avon rapes Vila after "Orbit", then apologises for it and "Orbit"--which Vila just sort of p-shaws--and then they settled down together. Eventually, not only do they get married, first arguing over who gets to take whose name and then settling on some hyphenated hybrid "Avon-Restal" or "Restal-Avon", can't remember which and then finally they find out that there is technology available for them to have a child together and proceed to *argue* over who gets to carry the other's child!), the very idea of a pregnant Avon (even though Vila somehow tricks Avon and gets pregnant himself) fills me with such terror, I feel like going to some of those cloning experts, shaking them and screaming, "Do you have any concept of where this could lead?!" [10]
> You know, I keep hearing E-MAN-U-ELLE mentioned in such terms of awed loathing by longtime B7 fans that I may have to track down a copy someday and see if it really *was* that bad. It's hard to believe anything could achieve the level of awfulness this one seems to be credited with, but after reading the description of that story I'm beginning to understand.
Believe me, it was worse. It's probably enjoyable as a pure turkey read -- if it weren't for that the author (and editor, presumably) had an interesting take on punctuation. Apparently, they didn't believe in it. Or they felt that they were rationed, could only have a couple of periods and commas to a page and rather than make the other sentences jealous, they just randomly chose where to place them. I also seem to remember Incredible Spontaneous Capitalisation. ("he went to the door, but Before he could open it...")
I never actually owned a copy of the zine, just borrowed it, and I have only very occasionally seen copies of it in used zine boxes -- but I have seen them including this novella. Yech. [11]
1999
I remember when the one B7 story where one of the guys became pregnant (I no longer remember if it was Avon or Vila, and I fear someone out there is going to remind me) was enough to taint the zine it came in as one of the worst of all time. ...it was ungodly bad. Probably the worst story I had ever read, back then. [12]
References
- ^ from issue #2
- ^ from "touched" #6
- ^ from "touched" #6
- ^ from "touched" #6
- ^ from "touched" #6
- ^ comments by Sebastian in "touched" #6
- ^ comments on Virgule-L, quoted anonymously (December 4, 1993)
- ^ from Strange Bedfellows #3 (August 1993)
- ^ Michelle Christian, quoted with permission from Virgule-L (Sep 10, 1994)
- ^ comments by Michelle Christian at Virgule-L, quoted with permission (December 4, 1997)
- ^ December 5, 1997, Michelle Christian, at Virgule-L, quoted with permission
- ^ Sandy Herrold, from Virgule-L, quoted with permission (Jul 9, 1999)