Crossfire
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You may be looking for Crossfire Zone, a Star Wars zine.
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Crossfire |
| Publisher: | Polaris Press |
| Editor: | |
| Author(s): | Lorraine Bartlett |
| Cover Artist(s): | Mike Wood |
| Illustrator(s): | |
| Date(s): | September 1979 |
| Medium: | |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Starsky and Hutch |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: |  cover by Mike Wood -- "I recall its stylish black and silver cover design, simple and very effective. Some of my favourite covers have been plain and simple ..." -- from Frienz #26 |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Crossfire is a gen Starsky and Hutch 118-page novel by Lorraine Bartlett.
The front cover is by Mike Wood. The editor was Paula Smith.
The story is set between the third and fourth season.
From the Editor
About the official reprints, the author notes:
From the editorial:
Crossfire' has been with me since Starsky & Hutch's second season. The original idea came to me about the same time as Wilderness, but until I was 'persuaded' by Barbara [last name redacted ] and Carolanne [last name redacted] to continue working on the story over a year ago, it remained shelved. 'Crossfire' is not everybody's interpretation of the televised characters, but it is a possible interpretation, and therefore, a viable interpretation. It has been commented upon that the end of this story is incomplete. That all the loose ends aren't neatly clipped and tied. That Hutch's life is still fragmented, his relationship with Starsky still somewhat in limbo. My only explanation to this is that I wanted to preserve a feeling of reality to the story. Life doesn't always hand you a happy ending.
Summaries
- ' Starsky is critically wounded in a wild shootout with terrorists. At the same time, Hutch is trying to cope with a demanding ghost from his past. Then, Internal Affairs discovers that the bullet removed from Starsky's body came from Hutch's Magnum." [1]
- "When Starsky is hurt in a shootout, and it's Hutch's fault, the older cop [sic] is torn between staying with his comatose partner and being pulled back into the middle of his cold, controlling, manipulative family, which has more money than God and knows how to use it." [2]
Reactions and Reviews
A hostage situation and shootout leave Starsky gravely injured, shot by Hutch. Hutch's chronic guilt trip is compounded by the untimely arrival of Sondra, the woman who bore and abandoned him, and ultimately by Starsky's apparent, though momentary death. What follows, Hutch contemplation of suicide; his attempts to lose himself in whiskey and women; his becoming a firefighter is the bulk of Bartlett's first solo novel. The reading is complicated by messy mimeo, thought the striking cover leads one to expect a higher quality of printing. Somewhat distracting are the occasional errors in grammar and spelling, and the facts established by the aired episodes. (Starsky's gun is a S&W model 59, not a Beretta; Hutch's Colt revolver doesn't have a safety.) The writing is uneven, ranging from sensitive, extremely visual scenes to sometimes plodding exposition. There is no art except for the rising phoenix of the cover, though there are many illo-able passages. The story is fairly predictable, and the climax is barely discernible from the development and the denouement. However, there is something to the story, subliminal perhaps, that made me want to read it through in one sitting, and straight through again the following morning. An understanding of Hutch's basic motivations and his chronic guilt can be sensed in Bartlett's writing: the inner monologues and surfacing memories while Hutch tries to come to terms with being alone. Bartlett's Starsky is more consistently drawn than her Hutch. His reactions to having been shot and abandoned by his best friend are described with unerring fidelity of character. The device of Hutch's mother (and it is a device) gives him additional stress under which he reacts and more problems with which to comes to terms. This is recommended reading for the Starsky and Hutch fan. Bartlett's interpretations of the characters are basically consistent and most deviations are well-founded. It does serve to increase the understanding of the characters and the evolution of their personalities. 'Crossfire', if considered in its stated chronological place, between third and fourth seasons, does offer an acceptable rationalization for the obvious changes and the relationship between him and Starsky. [3]
What would happen,’ queried the advance ads for this S&H novella, ‘if Detective Sergeant K. Hutchinson thought he had shot his partner to death?’ The answer is, he becomes a fireman in Northern California. How this may seem to make as little sense as the current world situation, but in truth Bartlett makes a consistently interesting, if choppy tale dealing with the loss and recovery of a man’s mental balance, and how it is helped put right the friends he finds despite his despair. The difficulty here, as in any S&H or indeed K&S, Alex & Hephastion or whoever, a story is the author can’t really knock off one of the dyad to cause and observe the changes in the survivor, and still play be the respective rules of this genre. Starsky isn’t dead, and we know it, we just like to see the both suffer. That’s the theme. The plotlines vary with each story in this substream, and here in ‘Crossfire,’ Hutch’s mother comes back to bug him, his new friends are obstinately obtuse would-be lovers, Starsky inhabits Venice Place chewing the curtains but doing little else, etc. Unfortunately, all these lines don’t come to a focus, and what depth there is in ‘Crossfire’ is an illusion. It falls short of an honest and arresting (no pun intended) portrayal of a man’s passage thru a private hell, but as it has also avoided being merely a Clutch-Hutch piece, ‘Crossfire’ will probably not please the yahoos either. A pity. The utterly most disappointing thing about this zine, though, is its reproduction, which is abysmal. The bleed-thru and back-printing make the pages nearly unreadable. This should not have been tolerated. [4]
This zine is basically the story of the emotional conflict in the life of Ken Hutchinson. Hutch and his partner, Dave Starsky, go after a group of terrorists, and the hunt ends in a shoot-out which leaves Starsky seriously wounded -- by a deflected bullet from Hutch's gun. While struggling with the guilt he feels, Hutch must face the mother who left him as a child and his confused feelings for her. Sound a bit like a soap opera? You bet! And that's not bad! I like soap operas... and I liked this zine! So what happens? Well, due to the misinterpretation of an emergency situation in the hospital, Hutch believes Starsky has died from his wound, and in a moment of panic, he runs... and runs... and runs... until he finds himself in upstate California fighting forest fires. Here he meets Kate and Doug, two other firefighters who become his friends and help him through the rough times until he can go back to LA where he is delighted to find Starsky alive and well. In the process he learns a few things about himself, his feelings, and his parter. The story premise is interesting, although not exactly original, and the story is definitely well-written. The style is fresh and sufficiently descriptive without dragging. And the end of the story which leaves a few things in limbo is interesting; perhaps this is an invitation to a sequel. I'd love to read it! [5]
References
- ^ from Universal Translator #1
- ^ from Agent With Style
- ^ from S and H #3
- ^ from S and H #6
- ^ from Datazine #4