Magnificent Tails

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Zine
Title: Magnificent Tails
Publisher: Pony Press Ltd
Editor(s): Helig Benedict
Date(s): February 1988 (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

  • from issue #1

  • from issue #1

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 )

Magnificent Tails 2 ("Magnificent Tails Too") was published in February 1988 and contains 205 pages. The art is by Tiresisas (cover), Adrian Morgan (p. 126, 131), Helig Benedict (p. 44, 45, 205).

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."

Fiction:

Poetry:

  • Dyana, "Chains" (A/B)
  • Dyana, "Notions" (A/B)
  • Dyana, "Tempting Fate" (A/B)
  • Dyana, "There Be Dragons"
  • Dyana, "Precognition"
  • Dyana, "Speechless" (A/B)
  • Dyana, "Seduction-- Seduced" (A/B)
  • Dyana, "Don't Touch" (A/B)
  • Limericks (Erica Leonard)

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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