Furball Express

Zine
Title:	Furball Express
Publisher:	Poncho Press
Editor(s):	Melody Rondeau
Date(s):	September 1981
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	multimedia
Language:	English
External Links:
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front cover, Leah Rosenthal

back cover, Leah Rosenthal

Furball Express is a gen multi-media 70-page fanzine by Melody Rondeau that pairs an original character (Snorty) with characters from the following fandoms: Little House on the Prairie, Star Wars, Bad Company, Man With No Name, Alias Smith & Jones.

The art is by Leah Rosenthal, Michael Barry Smith, Ruth Kurz, Lana Fahey, C.S. Millan, Betsy Hatcher, Elena Andrews, Shona Jackson, and Dave McCoy.

It is a sister zine to Echo.

Description

"Wide Open Spaces Presents! 5 tales of Comedy, Pukkas, tragedy, adventure, Star Wars, Alias Smith and Jones, The Bad Company Universe, tons of art, fantasy, Little House on the Prairie, and we've combined it with the 'Fandom Coloring Book.' A one-shot special that's REALLY something different! Snorty finally gets his own zine!." -- from Datazine #16

From the Editorial

Hello, adventurous person! You are venturing into a brand new universe of characters and we applaud your Indy Jones instinct for the untried and undescovered [sic]. Within these pages you will find five storys based on the Bad Company creation 'Snorty' and the people around him, in various times and places.

To give you a background on what you will be reading, allow me to give you a capsule history.

Snorty was 'born' as a literary creation on Washington's Birthday Weekend at the New York Star Trek Space Expo Con 1979 in room 640 of the Statler Hilton Hotel. We were messing around with a Ouija board to gain story ideas for WIDE OPEN SPACES, and in that incredibly productive weekend, a sad little critter came to light. He has steadily developed 'behind the Zines' and this is a venture designed to expose you to some of the results.

For further background on Bad Company Universe characters like Noname, Jenny, Doc Bell and Western TV Series characters like Smith & Jones, you would have to read WIDE OPEN SPACES... I did say this will be short. To orient you about where Snorty will fit in to the Bad Company timeline, the answer is he doesn't; he passed away shortly after birth, the circumstances of which will be revealed in an upcoming story in WIDE OPEN SPACES. A lot of Bad Company members were upset at the event, however, so we decided to allow Snorty to survive in a sort of alternate universe, and the contents of this zine are the results. The storys [sic] herein take place shortly after the storys [sic] currently running in WIDE OPEN SPACES (#6, #7, #8), starting in the 1880's and continuing until the last one that starts in the year 1952 and ends a long time ago, in a galaxy fur, fur away...

First off, the answer is yes, dang it, "Prarie Fantasy" is deliberately misspelled... to resemble faerie, for reasons which will be hopefully evident. The storys are in roughly chronological order, and the next one, "Dirty Hairy," was meant to establish relationships more definitely. The third and forth tales, "The Good, The Bad & The Fuzzy" and "Mess Call" are alternate universe sequels a that take place after an upcoming WOS story called "Return Encounter" by Donna Chisholm, wherein Heyes and Curry finally confront Noname and Jenny on a professional basis. The reason why it hasn't been printed yet is because the relationship between the two bounty hunters hasn't progressed that far, yet, and there are a couple of storys that have to be told first before this sequel to "Reunited" can appear. "Reunited" was printed in WIDE OPEN SPACES #5, is an excellent story by Donna. Finally, far in the future (or is it the past?) is "Duh Udder", which tells us something about the final fate of Snorty and how he ends up one of the luckiest beings alive...able to enjoy both the Old West and the Universe of the Star Wars Saga within his long lifespan.

As to whether there will be further tales of the golden gunslinger, it is strictly up in the air (i.e. demand and success of the WOS line). This is all mostly in fun, but please keep one thing in mind. SNORTY is a fannish conceived creation and is the sole property of the editor. You may print any number of storys with the author's permission...but if you take him pro with out it, I will NOT be merciful, no matter what you change his name to. Got it?

Contents

• Fuffery, editorial (2)
• Dedication Page (3)
• Prarie Fantasy (Little House on the Prairie) (4)
• Dirty Hairy (Bad Company) (10)
• The Good, The Bad, and the Fuzzy (Alias Smith and Jones) (17)
• Mess Call (Alias Smith and Jones) (25)
• Duh "Udder" (Star Wars) (30)
• twenty-six "coloring book" pages that were to have appeared in Wide Open Spaces, but because there weren't enough submissions, they are printed here (the artists are: Leah Rosenthal, Michael Barry Smith, Ruth Kurz, Lana Fahey, C.S. Millan, Betsy Hatcher, Elena Andrews, Shona Jackson, and Dave McCoy) (many fandoms) (44)

Sample Interior

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  Leah Rosenthal

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  sample text

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  Leah Rosenthal (Snorty and Laura Ingalls Wilder)

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  Leah Rosenthal

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  Leah Rosenthal

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  Leah Rosenthal

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  Leah Rosenthal

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  Ruth Kurz?

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  Dave McCoy

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  Michael Barry Smith: "Snort Remembering Father"

Reactions and Reviews

I was thoroughly taken with Snorty, so of the zines I got at HOVACON, FURBALL EXPRESS and ECHO I are by far my favorites. I suppose FE should come first, as that has most of our favorite little furballs early experiences. So be it, then.

I truly like and admire Jenny, but with Snorty it is something quite else. He is not just fuzzy, funny, furry, lovable, cute, sweet, adorable and one of the most truly original characters I have ever found in a fanzine (not that I have read very many, but just the same, I have got this feeling that the figures appearing either are the fan-objects or some sort of copies of persons the fan-object has already met). He also has charm or charisma or 'it' or whatever you call it when a character has something that really captures your heart and imagination. I really loved FURBALL EXPRESS but there just wasn't enough of it! Please write Mr. Lucas and tell him to remake THE RETURN OF THE JEDI with a nice, large role for Snorty in it. Thanks to you, I will be looking for him next time I see that movie even if I know that I have seen it twice before and that he just isn't there.

FURBALL EXPRESS was fantastic... I was saddened and shocked by Snorty's birth and death, but I still enjoyed the story. Keep up the fantastic, amazing, awesome etc work...we need our Western zines!