Leather and Blue Jeans

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You may be looking for the Starsky and Hutch zine, Blue Eyes and Blue Jeans.

Zine
Title: Leather and Blue Jeans
Publisher: PAL Press
Editor(s): Gale Good
Date(s): 1993-1995
Series?:
Medium: print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom: Professionals
Language: English
External Links: additional zine details
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Leather and Blue Jeans is a slash Professionals anthology.

Submission Request

A new PROFESSIONALS zine based on the magnificent Suzan Lovett artwork called, of course, "Leather and Blue Jeans," is now in the works. PAL PRESS is calling for submissions based on, or inspired by this artwork. If you are interested, please write to the addresses above for a xerox copy of the drawing. Writers are encouraged to submit stories that answer the question posed by this picture, or asks new ones. What has or is happening here, and why? How would you get Bodie into a pair of blue jeans? (very carefully?) Are they part of CI5 and undercover, in an alternate universe or, (fill in the blank). While we personally like romantic, feel-good stories, submissions of all varieties: slash or straight, serious or humorous, novellas, short stories and poetry are equally welcomed. We want it all! (Greedy bastards!)

Contributions should be at least five full pages. There is no maximum length restriction and submissions must be in no later than June 15, 1993, with a possible debut at Zebracon 1993. That's months and months away! No deadline pressure! This should give everyone plenty of time to do their thing—us included. We'd like to avoid that rushing-from-the- printer-to-the plane feeling many publishers get just before a convention. There is a possibility of more 'leather and blue jeans' art being included, and it will printed offset to best display the beautiful Lovett artistry. The text will be xeroxed.

This may be a new press but it's committed to producing a quality product. Ye old editorial policy is thus: spelling, punctuation, and other grammatical errors will be corrected, and (and hopefully no new ones added). Editorial changes will not be made without full consultation and approval of the author.

It you are interested in contributing or have any questions, please drop us a line. [1]

Issue 1

front cover of issue #1, by Suzan Lovett
The back cover cartoon on issue #1 is by Karen Eaton parodying the front cover.

Leather and Blue Jeans 1 was published in September 1993 and contains 232 pages.

The front cover is a black-and-white drawing by Suzan Lovett and the content of the zine is based on it with the artist's permission.

This zine won the 1994 FanQ award for best Professionals slash fanzine.

From the editorial:

How many people wonder about the evolution of a zine? This one certainly needed a few helpful nudges along the way. Doing one may look easy, but having once worked for a in-house print shop, I was all too familiar with the amount of work that went into producing any finished manual or booklet First, you gather or solicit materials and submissions, then you input the data, format, edit, have the copy approved, do the final layout/design, print bind, and finally advertise its release. Editors who do this on a regular basis are either very brave or very crazy (or a little of both).

Because of this, I have never been tempted to brave the deep waters of fan publishing before last year. At one of our local fan group get tbgethers, a friend suggested doing a zine based on a piece of art I had just purchased. It seemed I was fated to do this zine. When I returned home that night, the artist was on the phone, and with her gracious consent to use the drawing as cover and inspiration, the trap was sprung. So, after many long hours, weeks and months of anxious moments, bouts of laughter (some typos I made were hilarious), and running around in circles, you now have the results in your hands. I listened to suggestions and complaints about what fans did and didn’t like about various zines, managed to avoid many pitfalls due. to die knowledge and experience of fellow editors who were willing to help a newcomer, and solicited active feedback from the authors. As stated in my initial flyer, I want this to be a feel-good experience for all involved: writers, readers and ye ol' editor. Any errors or typos are my responsibility, not the authors, and should you like to comment on any story or the zine in general, please feel free to write a LoC and I’ll pass it on.

LEATHER AND BLUE JEANS is impressive not only in its size—232 pages and 153,900+ words—but also in its variety of excellent stories, limericks and sonnets. There are submissions from three different continents and by both fans of the ’old guard’ and some relatively new talent to the fandom. These stories reflect the interesting and myriad ways people have viewed this picture.

Special thanks go to DVS, who sent her story in seven months before the deadline and gave me a wee taste of what was to come, and to Pat, for announcing the zine’s birth pangs in ON THE DOUBLE. This is as close to motherhood as I’m likely to get, and it will probably be an only child, too. I can’t think of anything that might tempt me into this insanity again...unless more "Leather and Blue Jeans" art comes along.

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

See reactions and reviews for Nothing Left to Lose.

[Swept Away]: "Leather and Blue Jeans" -- I'll confess to having read only one story in it--my own, which I thought was pretty good, though it could have used a bit more conflict right before the "it's love, not sex" admission scene. I was going to read the rest, honest, but [S] kept bursting out laughing while reading her copy at Zebracon, and that kind of put me off it. [3]

[zine]: BLUE JEANS AND BLACK LEATHER is my favorite all time Lovett drawing, but the zine was a major disappointment for me. I will admit, though, that given a choice between a zine that has a mediocre to bad cover illo and a zine with no cover illo at all, almost every time I'll pick the no picture [4]

[zine]: Comments/Spoilers:

"Rude Awakening" by HG is a CI5-based, established-relationship story.

"Clemency" by Dee is a post-Wild Justice story.

"Partners" by Nina Boal is an alternate universe story in which Doyle is a tough, high-class whore and Bodie is a downtrodden rent-boy on the run.

"In for a Penny, In for a Pound" by Baravan has Peter Skellen of the movie Who Dares, Wins (played by LC) on an SAS mission involving CI5 and his looklike Bodie.

"As Far As Is Appropriate" by Jane Mailander is a death story.

"Clarke's Third Law" by Wally is an AU with fantastical elements in which Bodie and Doyle run afoul of a mad scientist who has concocted an immortality drug.

"See How It Goes" by C. A. Rien is about unrequited love.

"Nothing Left to Lose" by Jane is set in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by a comet, in which Bodie is a Protection Office in a frontier town and Doyle a gunfighter. The sequel, "Bounty" by Jane, is in Other Times and Places V. [5]

This zine has my "Bodie the cunt" story, PARTNERS. There is more to the story than I described last time, believe me — I didn't want to "spoil" it.

As for the rest, several of the stories didn't really fit the Suzan Lovett print except in vague, thematic ways. I always thought that "Art Print Theme" zines were literally supposed to use the art as an illo to fit a specific scene in the various stories.

I haven't read all of the stories; especially I haven't yet the Jane/Kathy Keegan novella — I've been told that it is excellent and that a reading treat awaits me.

Baravan's IN FOR A PENNY, IN FOR A POUND is a nice interweaving of Bodie, Doyle, and Skellen (Lewis Collins character from one of his mere movies, I forget which one).

LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER by Lily Fulford is not really about Bodie and/or Doyle as much as it is about an original character named Kevin Lamb. I don't know if the piece was intended to be an S/M work, but it read very similarly to the sorts of S/M works in John Preston's anthologies of gay male porn. I can enjoy S/M porn, though this wasn't the best-written porn and almost seemed to be trying to be H/C rather than S/M — it wasn't clear. Plus, I really would rather read about Bodie and Doyle in a zine which is proportedly centering on these two.

RUDE AWAKENING had a plot quite similar to many other slash plots I've seen. But H.G. did her usual masterful telling, so I enjoyed it muchly.

I do also want to say that Gale Good, the editor, was very thorough and exact in her editing, and I enjoyed working with her very much on my story; her edits and suggestions for change were quite reasonable and reminded me again how valuable a good editor can be. [6]

Issue 2

Leather and Blue Jeans 2 was published in October 1995 and contains 124 pages.

front cover issue #2, Suzan Lovett, -- winner of a 1995 Huggy Award -- Keeper of the Key. The title is a play on the fact that Doyle is wearing a key on a chain around his neck. The key is the one that will open Bodie's handcuffs (back cover) and his heart. This illo channels a bit of Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, and was a nod as well to Tris/Alex.
back cover issue #2, Suzan Lovett, Prisoner of Love. Many fans point to the back cover as one of the examples of Lovett using gay ads as body doubles for the characters. This image used a photo ad for "The Dungeon" from The Advocate, a gay newspaper out of Los Angeles, as its photo reference.

The front and back covers by Suzan Lovett won a 1995 STIFfie Award. The cartoons are by Karen Eaton and Jane Mailander.

"This issue is dedicated to SnoWhite who lent me her encouragement, her support, and her Macintosh."

From the editorial:

... after production finally got started on this zine, it came together rather smoothly with little or no fanfare. I had offered to do another zine if a certain writer needed a place to send her story (different fandom). She didn't, but then the word somehow spread — Gale's doing another zine — and when I received a wonderfully unique "first time" story from Dee, rumor became fact.

So, with no effort (on my part, at least), stories began to trickle in from the various corners of the earth to be assembled here for your enjoyment.

The Leather and Blue Jeans #1 consumed nearly a year of my life and I wasn't willing to have another zine do the same. There have been many changes in both my personal and professional life, therefore this zine had to be more manageable. I think I can truthfully say that, without sacrificing quality, #2 is a smaller, tightly-written package at 124 pages (85,673 words).

Yet, even with the addition of TWO Suzan Lovett covers, we've managed to keep the costs down and hope you feel you're getting value for money.

This time around Leather and Blue Jeans is not be a "theme zine". Surprisingly, or not, some writers said they had trouble writing within such parameters. No problem. I'm willing to explore new arenas and hope you'll find a diverse group of stories covering many areas of interest.

  • Editorial by Gale Good
  • Citadel by HG (1)
  • Leather and Blue Jeans, poem by Vonne Shepard (5)
  • Lawson Legacy by DVS (6)
  • Hiding, poem by Vonne Shepard (10)
  • Rough Patch by Alex T. MacKenzie (11)
  • Prisoner of Love, sonnet by Jane Mailander (18)
  • Keeper of the Key, sonnet by Jane Mailander (19)
  • Prisoner of Stupidity, visual satire by Jane Mailander (20)
  • Keeper of the Locks, visual satire by Jane Mailander (21)
  • Clan of the Aurochs by Dee (22)
  • The First Time, poem by Vonne Shepard (70)
  • See Me, Hear Me, Feel Me by Jane Mailander (The third story in the "Bodie & Doyle (Deceased)" series. The first two were "Wave Goodbye Already and Marley, published in Brit Shriek! and Holiday Shriek. "In the two years between [Chalk and Cheese #13 and #14], I finished the third story, "See Me, Hear Me, Feel Me." For those interested, yes, I do answer the question, "How do ghosts 'do it'?" [7]) (72)
  • Words Without Form by K. Ann Yost (93)
  • In God's Country by Kitty Fisher (101)
  • Morning Wake Up Call by Lisa Summerling (124)

  • from issue #2, aloseup of Bodie's nipple ring in "Prisoner of Love". Leather outfits and body piercings were not typical fanart subjects but BDSM imagery does crop up from time to time.

  • from issue #2, Karen Eaton parodying the covers

  • from issue #2, Jane Mailander

  • from issue #2, Karen Eaton

  • from issue #2, Karen Eaton

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

See reactions and reviews for In God's Country.

[front and back cover art]: .... the matching Pros pictures. The Bodie will long live in my mind: Beautiful face, beautiful hair, beautiful nipples, beautiful nipple ring...Even finding the photo ref for this piece didn't lessen its power for me. Incredible piece. Then there is the corresponding Doyle. Um, well, Doyleish/Robertish kind of guy. We were calling it Ray Plant and Robert Doyle all weekend. If it sincerely was an attempt to meld the sexiest features of two of the sexiest guys in fandom, I applaud the effort (if not the result). If, as is more likely, it is just Robert's hair and shoulders erupting accidentally onto little Ray's flesh, well, ewuoeueuowu. [8]

[zine]: Comments/Spoilers:

"Citadel" by HG is told through Doyle's pov as he reflects on his life and Bodie.

"Rough Patch" by Alexandra has new lovers Bodie and Doyle experiencing their first tiff.

"Clan of the Aurochs" by Dee is an alternate universe story in which Bodie and Doyle are prehistoric cavemen in a tribe with Cow-lee as shaman.

"See Me, Hear Me, Feel Me" by Jane Mailander is the third in her trilogy called Bodie and Doyle (DECEASED). The first story in the sequence is "Wave Goodbye Already!" by Jane Mailander in Brit Shriek!, which was written as a sequel to Cathy Bryson's "Nobody Waves Goodbye" in Chalk and Cheese 4. The second story is "Marley" by Jane Mailander in Holiday Shrieks!

"Words Without Form" by K. Ann Yost is a hurt/comfort story in which both Bodie and Doyle are injured in a bomb blast and Murphy helps out.

"In God's Country" by Kitty Fisher is a CI5-based first-time story. [9]

[zine]: Adored that back cover. The front cover turned me off with Doyle in his fake looking wig, but boy did Bodie in handcuffs catch my eye. I not only bought the zine, but later bought an art print at a convention and had it transfered to a t-shirt. This was at a time when you had to do things in person and at the local level, but I managed to keep a straight face throughout it all. I loved the t-shirt so much that I would only hand wash it and allow it to air dry so as to not ruin the transfer. Now that the time has come for me to downsize my fannish collection, I am lovingly handing it on (for free) to the next fan. I hope you get as much enjoyment as I did from owning and wearing it. [10]

[zine]: Well, this was a disappointment. Has some nice short stuff by HG and DVS and our own Karen Yost (okay, I've got one in there, too), but the major chunk of the zine is taken up by this thing called "Clan of the Aurochs" - I started reading, got past "The People" "The Cold", the foraging, "matelings" and other Extreme AU Stuff, and then ran smack into "the Cow-lee", who was busy casting ceremonial bones... um, thanks, but no thanks. The cover art has that awful Ray Plant/Robert Doyle drawing and the back has the Bodie with handcuffs, but the repro quality is so poor that you can't see the nipple ring in his rather oversized breasts. Oh, well. [11]

[zine]: I remember fans talking about seeing the covers for the first time while walking through the dealer's room. When they saw Bodie on the back cover, they begin running up to people stammering out incoherently, "Ooh, ooh, where, where, there, look, there!!!" with many wild gesticulations. Needless to say, as soon as they calmed down and located their wallets (and their verbal skills), they ran right over and bought copies. [12]

[zine]: I tried to crack "Leather and Blue Jeans 2", which I got for free 'cause of a blatant "toss-off for the trib" story, but couldn't get past that long AU thing with "The Cow-lee". Yikes. [13]

References

  1. ^ from On the Double #25
  2. ^ Windrage by Mel Keegan; from a post at Seeking Pros list makers and readers of Mel Keegan's books, Archived version
  3. ^ September 9, 1994, comment by Alexfandra, Virgule-l, quoted with permission
  4. ^ Michelle Christian's zine review posted to the Virgule-L mailing list in 1994, quoted with permission.
  5. ^ from The Hatstand
  6. ^ from a fan in Strange Bedfellows APA #3 (1993)
  7. ^ from a LoC by Mailander in "Chalk and Cheese" #15
  8. ^ comments by Sandy Herrold at Virgule-L, quoted with permission (March 15, 1994)
  9. ^ from The Hatstand
  10. ^ Private email sent 2008, quoted anonymously with permission; accessed August 30, 2012.
  11. ^ Alexfandra posted a brief review of the zine as part of her 1995 ZCon convention report and sent to the Virgule mailing list. It is reposted here with permission.
  12. ^ Morgan Dawn's personal notes, accessed August 30, 2012.
  13. ^ comments by Alexfandra on Virgule-L, quoted with permission (November 21, 1996)
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