Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2019: Week 4

Horizon Fan Club's 1999 Discussion Regarding Adult Fanworks

In 1999, ten years after The Blake's 7 Wars, some fans continued their war on, among other things, the prevalence of adult fanworks in the Blake's 7 fandom.

Horizon Fan Club was one of the largest Blake's 7 fan clubs and was an important hub of the fandom. Diane Gies, the club's president, sent a message to the staff of the club proposing that the advertisers in their fan publications, Horizon Newsletter and Horizon Letterzine, had to sign a statement vowing that they did not produce, or agent for others, any B7 fan fiction containing 'adult' artwork. The editors themselves would decide what was explicit:

We would obviously have to advise them what we considered 'explicit', eg. no nudity, and no portraits that would look out of place in a PG rated zine and cause anyone to think "ey-up... bet they're going to be having a **** any minute now".

The fan club and newsletter would also refuse to advertise any convention with actor guests unless they too they confirmed in writing that there would be a ban on dealers selling adult B7 fiction with explicit art content. Fanzines with no art could not be openly displayed on the sales table and had to be hidden away. Nothing on the table could be marked "adult" because this would "create a knowledge that such things exist in the person passing by."