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Leah Rosenthal

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Fan
Name: Leah Rosenthal
Alias(es): Fish Bates, CeleBates, Jail Bates, London Beets, Linden Boats, Flatbush Bates, Repro Bate, Adele Pates, London Boots, Bundon Lates, Undone Grate, London Grapes (all take-offs on London Bates)

possibly Scorpio

Rosenthal and Wortham claimed not to be "A. Toynten Bankes and Louisiana Bailey" [1], but it probably was
Type: Fan Writer, Fan Artist Cartoonist, Filker
Fandoms: Star Wars, Highlander, Blake's 7, Stargate SG-1, Beauty and the Beast, Alias Smith & Jones, multimedia, many, many others
Communities:
Other:
URL: Cartoons and Art by Leah Rosenthal, also [Cartoons and Artwork by Leah Rosenthal, Archived version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Leah Rosenthal was a fan writer and a prolific and popular cartoonist in many fandoms, winning multiple Fan Quality Awards for her fan art.

Paul Darrow, who potrayed Kerr Avon in Blake's 7 and one of Rosenthal's illos, at Scorpio con in 1986. Also see another one

Her work was usually displayed in the art show at MediaWest*Con.

One of her cartoons was included in 1992 in Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture.

Rosenthal is known for her many collaborations with Ann Wortham, her partner. They wrote fiction together, as well as running Ashton Press. In 1987, Deb Walsh joked and referred to the pair as "Worthenthal." [2]

Rosenthal was one of the major players in the Blake's 7 Wars, as well as the 1990s piracy letters, see Zine Piracy Letter to Candace Pulleine by Leah Rosenthal.

Rosenthal passed away in April 2024.[3]

Awards

The Bizarro Universe

Rosenthal and Wortham were the creators of the comedic Blake's 7 universe.

The characters became one of Rosenthal's specialties, and it was one way that she and Wortham interacted with the actors and showrunners of Blake's 7.

See more at Bizarro Universe.

In the editorial of the first issue of The Bizarro Zine (1988), Rosenthal wrote of how and why the Bizarro universe got started and of how TPTB were aware and involved in these fanwork:

Back in 1985 Annie and I had just discovered the joys of BLAKE'S 7 and were reading every zine we could lay hands on that had a B7 story in it. Unfortunately, back in '85 the vast majority of B7 stories were very grim. I'm talking GRIM. This made sense, given the general overtone of the show, but it got a bit ridiculous. I guess a lot of the original B7 fen perceived the show's ending as some kind of unavoidable karma that was to be faithfully adhered to, no matter what. There were exceptions, like the superbly funny GOOD CLEAN FUN that appeared in an early issue of B7 Complex, but in general, you could count the good B7 comedy stories on the fingers of one Space Commander's hand. Well, unrelenting karma is all fine and good, but as a steady diet, too much of anything sometimes causes an allergic reaction. In the case of Annie and me, we reacted with BIZARRO....

[...]

If it were not for the fact that we have numerous witnesses, I'm sure it often looks as If we've taken their behavior in public as a model for many of the BIZARRO premises. The plain fact is that the opposite is true...we wrote most of these tales before, and ever since it's been an eerie case of life imitating BIZARRO, not the other way around.

[...]

To make matters worse, some of them have started writing B7 stories too (and I suspect at least one of them is putting Americans he's met into his literary effort, as models for characters. Better watch out, kiddies. It's all well and good to write 'get Avon' stories, but what the heck are you supposed to do when Avon starts writing 'get Avon' stories—?! I mean, gee whiz. For the record, although the actors are unaware of BIZARRO in general (which we prefer, for purposes of longevity), they have suggested ideas for actual stories. This makes perfect sense when you realize how brilliant most of them are at comedic portrayal.

Fanac

Zine Publisher

Rosenthal's early press was Poncho Press.

Rosenthal and Ann Wortham ran Ashton Press which published an immense amount of print het, gen, and slash zines in many fandoms.

Sample Fiction

Sample Filks

Fanart

Rosenthal was a very prolific fanartist, specializing in cartoons and comic illustrations, as well as 'traditional' art and portraits.

Sample Gallery

1978

1979

1981

1982

1983

  • "What I Did for Love" from Southern Comfort #7.5, a humorous story that includes some commentary on the controversial Nearly Beloved) -- "Alas, it was a passion doomed to die unflowered. Vila was adamantly against any relationship, no matter how Avon pleaded and begged. 'No slash," he cruelly sneered at Avon, savoring the sound of an Alpha heart breaking. "After London completely ignored me in 'Rogue', I've sworn off men forever.'"

    "What I Did for Love" from Southern Comfort #7.5, a humorous story that includes some commentary on the controversial Nearly Beloved) -- "Alas, it was a passion doomed to die unflowered. Vila was adamantly against any relationship, no matter how Avon pleaded and begged. 'No slash," he cruelly sneered at Avon, savoring the sound of an Alpha heart breaking. "After London completely ignored me in 'Rogue', I've sworn off men forever.'"

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

  • from Blakes Doubles #3

    from Blakes Doubles #3

  • from Blake, Rabble and Roll #1 -- "Um….okay, if I had to guess, Jenna is pissed that Avon stole Blake away from her. And Cally is either stoned or has gotten so used to this argument that she’s just tuning it all out. Obviously, I need to read this one when I have a moment. Since this picture also appears inside the ‘zine, I’m guessing it’s actually illustrating a scene.... #one of these days avon....pow!#don't think she won't deck you#she once teleported a dude into space#and laughed about it" [6]

    from Blake, Rabble and Roll #1 -- "Um….okay, if I had to guess, Jenna is pissed that Avon stole Blake away from her. And Cally is either stoned or has gotten so used to this argument that she’s just tuning it all out. Obviously, I need to read this one when I have a moment. Since this picture also appears inside the ‘zine, I’m guessing it’s actually illustrating a scene.... #one of these days avon....pow!#don't think she won't deck you#she once teleported a dude into space#and laughed about it" [6]

  • in which one of the characters from Blake's 7 is auctioning off his drawing of fan artist Karen River (from Gambit progress report #2)

    in which one of the characters from Blake's 7 is auctioning off his drawing of fan artist Karen River (from Gambit progress report #2)

  • from Before & After -- "There's a nice Leah Rosenthal Avon+Blake+Tiger that's going on my jaguars pinboard." [7]

    from Before & After -- "There's a nice Leah Rosenthal Avon+Blake+Tiger that's going on my jaguars pinboard." [7]

1990

1991

  • from Liaisons #1

    from Liaisons #1

  • from Destiny -- "Title page to Destiny 1... And the cartoon is, of course, by Leah Rosenthal. I have accepted that every third to fifth fanzine I read is going to contain something by her, which is AWESOME, because I love her stuff." [8]

    from Destiny -- "Title page to Destiny 1... And the cartoon is, of course, by Leah Rosenthal. I have accepted that every third to fifth fanzine I read is going to contain something by her, which is AWESOME, because I love her stuff." [8]

1996

1998

2005

2006

Zine Contributions: As Artist or Writer

The zines below are ones using Rosenthal's actual name. They do not include her many pseuds.

The A-Team

Blake's 7

Filk Songbooks

Harry & Johnny

Highlander

Misc

Single fandom zines:

Multimedia

Star Trek

Star Wars

Stargate

Supernatural

Westerns (US)

References

  1. ^ "A number of people seem to be under the impression that we have written under the pseudonyms of A. Toynten Bankes and Louisiana Bailey. It ain’t us, folks. We’re too stupid to ever use pseudonyms. Editor." -- Ann Wortham from Southern Seven #2
  2. ^ from comments in B7 Complex #11
  3. ^ In Memoriam, MediaWest*Con, 20 April 2024.
  4. ^ About B7 Complex, Archived version.
  5. ^ from a letter of comment in Gamibt #4
  6. ^ "bruinhilda.tumblr". Archived from the original on 2018-12-04.
  7. ^ scroll down for comments by aralias at Blake-focused zines - Procrastination Central, Archived version, June 9, 2016
  8. ^ bruinhilda.tumblr, April 14, 2016
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