Magnificent Tails

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Zine
Title: Magnificent Tails
Publisher: Pony Press Ltd
Editor(s): Helig Benedict
Date(s): February 1988-February 1989 (reprinted with permission by Bill Hupe)
Series?:
Medium: fanzine, print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom: Blake's 7
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.
cover by "Salmacis" (Dover clip art)

Magnificent Tails is a het and slash Blake's 7 anthology.

flyer with story summaries

Issue 1

Magnificent Tails 1 was published in February 1988 and contains 237 pages. Original copies had silver or gold trim. The Bill Hupe reprints did not.

The art/graphics are by Salmacis (cover and borders: Dover Clip Art?) and Helig Benedict (cartoons).

"Dedication: to all the tribbers and helpers, who are really responsible for this zine's existence, and to my mother, may it never fall into her hands!"

"Some pseudonyms courtesy of Genesis, believe it or not."

From the editorial:

Welcome to the very first (and only?) issue of Magnificent Tails. It's been put on hold and cancelled so many times, that I really can't believe we finally got it done. And with no sweat... it borned itself.

The first of December there was absolutely no intention of going through with it. By New Years' there were 203 pages of stories! The people behind the pseudonyms of this fanzine are responsible for the zine's existence. That is true of every fanzine in existence, but it is especially so of Magnificent Tails. ...like a Cosmic Consciousness coming together in December.

When an 'adult' zine was first proposed to me, I laughed. Me? I didn't even care for adult, much less slash. But since I am an avaricious, indiscriminate reader of B7, I continued reading that stuff, and started to realize ... some of that stuff is good ... and getting better. (Or else my high arrogant moral ideals have been totally corrupted!) Ok. so there was good adult B7 fiction. I'd do an adult zine, but no slash. Nothing came in. I'd discovered some excellent slash stories. Ok, so I'd do an adult zine, and it can have slash. Nothing came in. Oh well, there are too many projects going on anyway. No adult zine.

They came in. And what came in surprised me. I haven't had to turn a story down or ask for heavy revisions (except for one, guess which) ... I loved each and every one of them. They met my standards, which were that more important than being just vehicles for steamy adjectives, they had to be real stories, with characterizations and plots. They had to tell a story first. And every single one does.

Magnificent Tails took it on itself to be born, and I'm glad. I'm glad the contributors sent their material 'anyway, just in case.' I'm proud of it. which I didn't really expect to be. The whole thing was fun to type and put together, and using pseudonyms is fun. I hope you have fun with it, too.

  • Celebrate Life, fiction by Jill Grundfest (B/oc, B/J), fiction (54)
  • Expectations, poem by Dyana (A/B) (62)
  • Possession, poem by Dyana(A/B) (63)
  • Flash (Take Two), fiction by Helig Benedict (64)
  • A Favor from an Enemy, fiction by Lilith (A/B) (68)
  • Repercussion, poem by Dyana (A/B) (148)
  • Flash (Take Three), fiction by Helig Benedict (149)
  • Force and Deception, fiction by Caroline Dare (A/Se, A/B) (150)
  • Menage a Trois, fiction by Samy Rue (Mary Sue, humor) (181)
  • A Little Hope, fiction by Salmacis (A/V) (183)
  • Decisions, Decisions, fiction by Kim Wigmore (Mary Sue, humor) (201)
  • Mixed Emotions, poem by Dyana (A/B) (204)
  • A Little Tryst Between Friends, fiction by Tenaya(So/V) (205)
  • Simplicity, poem by Dyana (222)
  • When the Barriers Break, fiction by Anon W.A.W. (Anonymous Was a Woman) (A/V) (223)
  • from issue #1, Helig Benedict

    from issue #1, Helig Benedict

  • from issue #1, Helig Benedict

    from issue #1, Helig Benedict

  • from issue #1, Helig Benedict

    from issue #1, Helig Benedict

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

On the whole, this zine positions itself at the light-hearted end of B7 slash and adult fiction, sandwiching limericks and parody snippets in between the longer pieces.

Although it seems to be a multi-author zine, the basic approach of the stories is remarkably consistent. Most of them are heavily dialogue-based and written in a fairly breezy style, even though rape, either actual or potential, is crucial to all but two of the longer stories. I found this aspect of the zine a bit off-putting - while I'm not opposed to rape stories in principle, the breeziness seemed inappropriate - and at the same time, despite being an out-and-out romantic, I found the more romantic episodes in the stories too sugary for my taste.

Pandora LeCarre - "Dressed to Kill." (A/C) A charming romance, full of back rubs and yearning flirtation and a magic shimmer dress that intensifies emotion and, in the process, renders Cally and Avon completely unrecognisable. (To this reader, at any rate.)

Jill Grundfest - "Celebrate Life." (B/J) Blake, drugged and imprisoned, rapes a young woman, who forgives him. He then confesses this to Jenna, who forgives him too. A story that raises serious issues but never really engages with them.

Lilith - "A Favour from an Enemy." (A/B) Avon, conditioned by Servalan to fall for the next person who walks through the door, is rescued by Blake. As he follows Blake round the Liberator, the author comments, "Not only had Blake never seen this shy, innocent side of Avon before, he'd never even suspected that it existed." Neither had I - and Lilith's extended account of their idyllic relationship left me unconvinced.

Caroline Dare - "Force and Deception." (A/B) A reworking of Terminal, where Servalan rapes Avon while programming him to believe that he is being raped by Blake. This story, by one of the Oblaque writers, came closer to my sense of the series characters, although Dare's Avon is uncharacteristically keen on expressing his feelings and a potentially fraught situation seems to sort itself out rather too easily.

Salmacis - "A Little Hope." (A/V) Avon and Vila in a prison cell, fending off rapists, escaping and forging a new alliance. Tougher and more psychologically complex than the rest of the zine.

Tenaya - "A Little Tryst Between Friends." (V/So) Soolin rescues Vila from a beating and gets the traditional knight errant's reward. A gender bender, which is nice, but the sex mostly takes place off-stage, which seemed a pity ...

Anon W.A.W. (Anonyomous Was A Woman) - "When the Barriers Break." (A/V) Avon has sex with Vila in a drugged state and is furious about it afterwards, until Vila draws out Avon's memories of being raped by a prison guard. An unexpected and refreshingly downbeat ending, although I wished the story had been placed earlier in the zine, because by this time I was yearning to read a story that wasn't centred around rape. [1]

This adult adjunct to the MAGNIFICENT 7 series echoes its sister zines in neat but not gaudy presentation , stories chosen for plots constructed to include theme and characterization, and a leavening of short, humorous offings sprinkled through the zine. The near lack of interior art does not mean the zine is all plain; the nouveau-ish art on the cover and some prettily bordered poetry add a few visual flourishes. The adult label means here that the storylines include sex when that is part of how the characters are likely to act within the plot. (Please take as given a brief diatribe about this common bit of terminology that suggests sex is the only activity intellectually mature beings can engage in that the immature cannot.) For the information of readers who may be wary of such inclusions, the sexual depictions range from the vague to explicit, but only one can strikes me as offensive at the time; it's appropriate in context. (The way may also wish to know that I'm not easily offended by plain, if explicit sex.) The characters who are paired do include same-sex in some stories and opposite sex in several others. [2]

Issue 2

cover of issue #2, Tiresisas (Dover clip art): "Oh, and the silver or gold trim on these zines? It's not to prevent bootlegging. We thought it made the zines pretty. Please feel free to copy them. The covers should copy all right as well. The silver or gold pens come from office supply stores, and cost a couple dollars. Careful, they can be messy."

Magnificent Tails 2 ("Magnificent tails too") was published in February 1989 and contains 205 pages.

The art is by Tiresisas (cover, Dover clip art), Adrian Morgan (p. 126, 131), and Helig Benedict (p. 44, 45, 205).

It includes some lengthy commentary regarding The Blake's 7 Wars.

In issue #2 the editor announced: "Copying of this zine in its entirety by amateurs for the purpose of sharing is encouraged".

Word Processing: Harriet, Dempsey, and Daredevil, Proofing, spiralling, titles, socially acceptable fizzy water, encouragement, California Coolers, mayhem, artbooks, ideas and general silliness" Conscripted Blondes.

Perspective: Dragon Lady.

Toe-Licking; Justin.

From the editorial:

Hi and welcome to the second Magnificent Tails! Never suspected the first one would get off the ground, much less a second...

First, many thanks to "Erica Leonard" for typing this up and getting it done. Yes, yes, if we sat around waiting for me to get over the trauma of finals, you'd still be reading cereal boxes. (Well, that's what I read, anyway.)

Also wanted to warn you guys that this issue is, as Erica puts it, an "Avon Does Everyone" issue. A lot of those everyones are female, so if you're looking for slash only, you're going to find a lot of Cally and Jenna and Dayna and Servalan... you get the picture.

From the editorial, regarding slash, explicit fanworks, and the difference between pornography and erotica:

I was chastised for not making my "adult" zine explicit enough. This is as explicit as it's going to get, folks! I have to read these while I type them (or plan to type them), and if they aren't fun, I can't do it. If something embarrasses me too much, I can't do it, sorry. I also cannot do zines that ultimately put down or degrade the characters. I love them too much for that.

On that note, I want to say I'm really rather torn about doing adult zines, or doing adult zines that include slash. Part of me still has trouble with the concept, especially when I know that it may fall into the hands of some people I very much admire who might not appreciate the work that's been done here. (Hi, Ma!)

Someone who's helped me keep a lot of things in perspective lately, told me this: Pornography degrades people. Erotica stimulates the reader without degrading the people depicted. It is valuable to have feminist (or at least, written-by-women) erotica around. There isn't much of it, and it is not generally available to women, and it should be considered a valuable service of mind-broadening entertainment for women.

Women. We're mostly women writing and putting this thing together, and because we're women, when it features slash, it features the males. Males are the ones interesting to us. Avon, Blake and Vila are the most interesting, so they get the most stories. Straight stories might satisfy one fantasy; slash satisfies two for the price of one. I assumed it was understood that it is fantasy only, and bears no relation to the premise of the actual series. Consider it now said.

From the editorial, regarding pseudonyms: Women also write these under pseudonyms. Until recently, I thought that was some kind of rule or custom. Only recently has it been pointed out that some writers may be hiding under these names. I thought making up names was half the fun, and that readers enjoyed trying to figure out who wrote what. Since I have four psueds in the genzines, I figured a couple more wouldn't hurt. I have so many psueds because I'm schizo, and my shrink says it's okay.

Speaking of people trying to figure out psueds... we gave you guys a red herring! Caroline Dare, in Magnificent Tails One, is borrowed from a Genna Eccles' story [and is] the name of a breed of dog, but they are not the same writer. Genna has enough trouble writing two people kissing, much less slash! We'll tell you if you guess right!}}

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

[Private Amusements]: I'm not sure what you'd classify Tashery Shannon's "Private Amusements" (MAGNIFICENT TAILS TOO) as, but I liked it. I wouldn't have thought autoerotica would be that interesting, it's definitely a PWP, and the ending sort of stopped me dead, but it's sexy and has some very nice Avon descriptions. [3]

References

  1. ^ by Nova at Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 site
  2. ^ Pressure Point no.6
  3. ^ Lysator, Pat Nussman, August 31, 1994.
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