Me and Thee (Starsky and Hutch anthology by various authors)

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Zine
Title: Me and Thee
Publisher: Rafferty Press
Editor(s): Judy Maricevic
Date(s): 1979-1981
Series?:
Medium: print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom: Starsky & Hutch
Language: English
External Links:
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Me and Thee is a gen Starsky & Hutch fanzine.


Issue 1

front cover #1, Beth Browne
back cover of issue #1, Gee Moaven
a 1979 flyer
a 1979 flyer

Me and Thee 1 was published in 1979 and is 142 pages long.

The cover is by Beth Browne. The interior art is by Paulie Gilmore, Kathi Lynn Higley, Marian Kelly, Sherry Miller, Gee Moaven, Gloria-Ann Rovelstad, and Linda Walter.

  • Together Again for the First Time by Patricia M. White and Peggy A. Kerrigan (an amnesia story where Hutch falls in with bad guys) (5)
  • The Still Not Quite Complete Trivia Test by D.C. Black (29)
  • Vanessa, poem by Shirley Passman (31)
  • Long Night, poem by Shirley Passman (32)
  • Murder Ward, Missing Scene by Lorraine Bartlett (34)
  • Dearly Beloved, story by Melanie R. (a story about two people's (Johnny and Jennifer) wedding ceremony, stream of consciousness, Starsky's thoughts on marriage as he and Hutch witness the event) (39)
  • Ruins, story by D. C. Black (Hutch has to identify a body at the morgue. He's told it's Starsky.) (42)
  • Desk Thoughts, poem by Laurie Haldeman (67)
  • Opposites, poem by Merlin Thomas (69)
  • The Berserker, story by Jan Lindner (71)
  • Welcome to My Morning, poem by Patricia M. White (79)
  • Spaghetti Murder One, story by Judy Maricevic (80)
  • Just Desserts, story by Lorraine Bartlett (136)
  • Any Last Words (142)

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

An excellent first effort. Judy has broken violently with fannish tradition -- not only is her zine legible, it is a real pleasure to read and look at. There are three major stories, a number of poems and vignettes, a trivia quiz, a word search puzzle and the standard ad page. I sat up until 2:30 reading the zine and was so engrossed in "Spaghetti Murder One" and wouldn't turn the light off... Judy's story is a tense, traditional detective/espionage story with a fast-moving plot, well drawn characters and a believable denouement. "Ruins" is a get'em and a good one, and the third major story, "Together Again for the First Time" is quite different from your typical S&H story. Hutch gets amnesia (for real) and an old enemy uses him to get revenge on both of them. The story, though well written, leaves several loose ends. ... The poetry is very well-written... Artwork consists of electrostenciled photographs, drawings and cartoons. In almost all cases the artwork is excellent... Buy it, buy it, buy it. It's worth every penny. [1]

Issue 2

front cover #2, Sherry Milleer-MacSkimming
back cover of issue #2, Cheryl Newsome
an ad

Me and Thee 2 was published in 1981 (sometime after July) and contains 174 pages.

The covers are by Sherry Miller-MacSkimming. The interior art is by Greg Franklin, Betty de Gabriele, Cheryl Newsome, Linda Walter, Susan Wyllie, DeAnn Lloyd, Julian Thompson, Beth Browne, Connie Faddis, and Merlin Thomas.

The zine's dedication:

...what the hell is this, 'get it in on time'?...Even if they paid me staggering sums of money, I owe allegiance only to the work...if I give them shit on time, then I have cheated them. If I take six months longer than they expected, or five years, or ten years longer, and give them something that no one else could have given them, then I've honored the obligation..."

Harlan Ellison
The Comics Journal
Winter, 1980

From the editorial:

It's been a good two years, a crazy two years. A lot of great zines have been printed in that time. And a lot of letters have passed between D.C. and myself in which we were POSITIVE the zine would be done by (fill in your own date). Ouch! But, like the Space Shuttle Columbia, we may be a bit late, but we are finally GO FOR LAUNCH!

The next question is, will there be a ME & THEE III? And the answer is -- I dunno. A great big part of the reason this issue took so long is that we weren't exactly overwhelmed by the number of submissions we got. So we did a good chunk of this issue all by ourselves. I mean, the people who sell me my typewriter ribbons are about ready to plant a tree in my honor because they're doing such great business, but let's face it, writing -- and especially collaborating -- takes time. We need your help. Your POETRY. Your STORIES. You get the idea. WRITE.

We do definitely have the media-zine itch, and so plans for a zine to be called LATE NIGHT are forming. Anything and everything is eligible, and I'd love to read whatever you'd like to send for consideration. Don't be shy. Yes, this is another hint. WRITE!!!!!!

  • Vegas Downer by Lorraine Bartlett (tag for "The Las Vegas Strangler") (6)
  • Surviving the Life by Patricia M. White, poem (8)
  • Spaghetti Murder Two by D.C. Black (10)
  • Kriss Kross (14)
  • Bulletin Board by DeAnn Lloyd (15)
  • Inside Looking Out by Shirley Passman, poem (16)
  • Outside Looking In by Shirley Passman, poem (18)
  • A Moment in Time by Lorraine Bartlett (missing scene for "Murder Ward") (20)
  • Survival by Lizabeth S. Tucker, poem (26)
  • Checkmate by Jan Lindner (28)
  • The Quest of the White Knight by Becky Howard (poem) (34)
  • The Nature of Promises by Ashley McConnell (missing scene for "The Snitch") (36)
  • Lament of a Lady Cop on Parttime Assignment by A.A. McConnell, poem (40)
  • Have a Happy by Lorraine Bartlett (42)
  • Help Save Our Space Program, flyer (47)
  • Glaser and Soul Supplement!, brought to you by SHO WEST (48)
    • a long listing of David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser's credits, plus a highly detailed run-down of what the two men are up to professionally, and sightings of them (in a car! on foot! at a restaurant! singing! wearing shorts! getting drunk! slugging out photographers!) (covers February 21, 1978-July 1981) (50)
    • Paul Michael Glaser Makes No Apologies, a reprint of an article in Valley News TV Weekly, November 1980 (70)
    • David Soul Plays Odds for Creative Freedom, reprint of an article in Variety, January 24, 1980 (73)
  • Season for Living by Shirley Passman, poem (76)
  • Riders on the Storm by D.C. Black and Judy Maricevic (a sequel to "Nightrun" in Zebra Three #5) (78)
  • Never Go Drinking With Starsky by Sheiler Nichols, winner of an Encore Award (161)
  • Haven by D. C. Black, poem (172)

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 2

This is not the worst zine fandom has ever produced. However, there is not much more good I can say about it. Most of the stories in it have either silly plots or incredible characterizations, and very little return for your reading. The best of the batch is Jan Lindner's "Checkmate". It offers a some what egregiously dramatic end to the James Gunther plot-thread in "Sweet Revenge", but Lindner's explanation of why he suicided out — "Sometimes you have to castle to get out of check" — does jibe with the character we saw. Aside from Gunther being so very certain his game was over, "Checkmate" works fine. But it's still just a vignette, not a story. Lorraine Bartlett’s "Vegas Downer", "Moment in Time", and "Have a Happy" are also vignettes, as sadly pointless as many of other recent works have been. "Have a Happy" is merely silly, while the other two coast on emotional reveries that never develop, and so never resolve. Shirley Passman's two pieces about a hypothetical marriage for Starsky show a bit of thought and are mildly interesting, but they are not poems, just rearranged and de-punctuated paragraphs. Quite a large part of the zine (28 pages) is devoted to a list of Glaser's and Soul's past film credits and a diary of what they've been doing since February 21, 1978. It's fine if you like that sort of thing, but pretty dull if you don't. Concerning Sheiler Nichols' 'Never Go Drinking with Starsky'; I'm sorry if I hurt her feelings, but this is the stupidest S&H story I've ever read, bar one about S&H turning into Simes and Gens. Drunks per se are not amusing to read about, and this story is the more cringe-making because Nichols can write description very well. Unfortunately she used a very bad plot and wrote a very bad vignette. There is in fact only one story in M&T2, "Riders on the Storm" by the authors, Judy Maricevic and D.C. Black, and it is poor. Theoretically the finish of Maricevic's excellent half-story, "Nightrun", in Zebra Three V, "Riders" barely mentions the previous piece, or any of its plotlines or themes. When it does get around to touching on Hutch's frustrations with copwork, the presentation is muddled. In the desert Hutch muses that he's held on as a cop only because of Starsky; his frustration is making him pull away from his partner, therefore, he'll quit the force and go raise horses in the boonies so he and Starsky can stay close. The sharper sense of his wiredness that we saw in "Nightrun" is missing, replaced by a sentimentalized attitude of ain't-it-awful. After a long and violently unbelievable night that would have convinced Serpico to leave the police force, Barstow local cop Glass resells Hutch on the idea of Hero andimmediately Hutch is ready to face the streets again. Apparently the only reason Hutch continues to fight for truth, justice, etc., is "the larger things...rules bent and broken for him... the breathing space." But the worst part of "Riders" is the huge Night-of-the-living-dead sequence, in which Starsky accidentally ingests a quantity of PCP that seems to work more like Muppet Lab's Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's Ultra-powerful Jekyll/Hyde Formula than any actual drug. PCP does not normally bring on a series of psychotic episodes and in the fraction of cases where it does, the effects don't arise and wear off totally within 18 hours. Moreover, the drug can't make someone a brutal, savage killer unless he is predisposed to brutality and savagery. Starsky kills, but he is not a killer. Maricevic's and Black's Starsky tries six times to shoot, hack, stab, burn, club, and blast Hutch, as well as to torment the man with slow death, because for some reason he's convinced Hutch is George Prudholm. Why Prudholm and not Simon Marcos, or Papa Theodore, or Gunther, or half a dozen other baddies, it not explained. Let me also mention that during these calisthenics Hutch is running around with a set of busted ribs. He knew they were broken but decided not to be driven the 60 miles to medical attention because "the injury didn't feel serious enough to justify wasting a day of his vacation". And later, while Starsky is perpetrating serious mayhem, Hutch is guiltily wondering what he did to set Starsky off, and hoping Starsky won't feel bad when he comes to and finds Hutch dead. Granted Hutch overdoes his white knighthood, but this is a tad far-fetched. There are moments of quite touching characterization in "Riders" — Hutch's love for the desert and its life, Starsky overcoming his distrust of horses enough to ride one and to settle them in the storm. But they don't compensate for the plot's lack of reality. This was a story written to exploit a goshwow thought; "goshwow, what if Starsky ever went after Hutch with a knife?" The same thing happened in "Playboy Island", but even Spelling- Goldberg knew you can't build a whole story on a goshwow thrill. Or a zine. [2]

Do the reviewers even realize what they are doing to anyone who might be tempting to write a story, or a fanzine? I don't think so. I feel, that they're probably scaring hell out of them. Many a fine story will never see light of day because of those harsh reviews. We don't need that! I read all the fanzines I can. I make my own comments, one on one. Believe it or not, word of mouth sells for folds fanzines.. To start a review as the one for M&T2: "This is not the worst zine fandom has ever produced. However, there is not nuch nore good I can say about it." Why not say, "this is not the best zine...etc..." — you're still making your point. It's your opinion and you're ontitled to it. As is each of us entitled to our own opinions. My gosh, I thought NGDWS was funny. (It was just a story not an advertisement for going out and getting drunk...lighten up.) After reading RIDERS the reader did need a lighter story. I read and enjoyed RIDERS. I couldn't put it down until I'd finished the whole thing. As for all the effects of certain drugs, I don't know them all. (Dumb ole me.) Ignorance can be a blessing at tines. I enjoyed the whole zine, and didn't feel that my money was wasted. As I said before,these opinions are mine and not meant to infringe on anyone else's. I just wanted anyone considering buying M6T2 to know that I for one enjoyed it. I don't really think I'm alone, either. [3]

I enjoyed your review of M&T2 even tho I didn't agree with it all. I haven't read very much S&H material, so I am not yet a connoisseur. I thought RIDERS ON THE STORM was pretty good — grim, but believable. What do I know about the effects of PCP vs LSD etc? I also laughed thru "Never Go Drinking with Starsky." The long detailed listings of what DS and PMG did over a period of time was not of interest to ME, but the compilation obviously took some time and effort and is probably of interest to some fans. To each his own opinions, ain't that so? [4]

This zine opens with a quote from Harlan Ellison on the subject of delays and deadlines; "...if I take six years, or ten years longer, and give them something that no one else could have given them, then I've honored the obligation..." The trouble is, Me and Thee consists entirely of things that not only could be given to fandom by others, but things which have been given to fandom by others. Given repeatedly, we've seen some of these tired old mathoms four and five times. There isn't two years' worth of work here; the obligation has not been honored. This lack is especially frustrating in Riders on the Storm. Maricevic's "Nightrun" was the single quality piece in Z3?5t and it gave promise of a fine and realistic psychological study in the sequel. Guess again, sports fans. What we've got instead is a hurt-comfort pastiche of cliches cribbed indiscriminately from fanfic and the aired series. The plot goes like this; After the events of "Nightrun", Hutch needs to get away from it all ("Satan's Witches") so he and Starsky take a trip into the desert ("Mojave Crossing"). There they encounter a pair of standard-issue — ie., not too bright — baddies, who drug Starsky with PCP ("Fix", "Coffin"). Hallucinating under its influence, Curly decides that Hutch is really that other S-IB, George Prudholm ("Pariah", "Revenge", "Reprise") and that he's made away with Blondie ("Fix", "Survival", "Bloodbath", "Bomb Scare", "One Small Corner"). In this non compos state, he attacks Hutch ("Playboy Island") and is in turn attacked by the genuine nasties. Starsky kills the First Villian, Hutch gets Ioose and is taken by the Second Villian, gets loose again ("Copkiller") and is reunited with his partner for an exchange of Real Communication and tender confessions ("Mojave", "Reprise"). Thus unburdened, he finds he can face his job after all ("One Man's Dream", "Targets"). And at long and boring last, we get to the punch line. All together, now; "Hey Hutch. I love you, pal." In a decent manly way, of course. It isn't that kind of first time. As if psychological dishonesty and total lack of originality weren't enough, the novel has several other mortal ailments. Most immediately serious, perhaps, is the manipulation of plot and character. The story's not only a set-up for that single supposedly heart-squeezing line, it's an obvious set up. The drug suppliers who flee S&H's rented ranch house can't dispose of their stash in the toilet became it's been stopped up since they arrived - but Starsky fixes it immediately with nothing more elaborate than a plunger. (Please note the point the authors are trying to make; Baddies are less fastidious than Goodies. We can't have Our Heroes using the bushes, after all, or making visits to the House of the Crescent Moon. Ever notice that no fanfictional gutshot ever results in a colostomy? Interruption termination. Onward) They put it into the sugar cannister instead; anyone who gets into it will be too freaked out to do anything about it - and presumably won't notice anything odd afterwards, either. Barry and Kitt attack S&H because they need an out-of-the-way spot for their lab - and a double murder, of course, would attract no attention to the house at all. Neither is there any recognition of the fact that PCP produces flashbacks, just as LSD does. A single dose can cause recurring psychotic episodes for the rest of the user's life. Once affected, Starsky would have to quit the force. On the technical level, there seems to be very little understanding of, or concern with, the way a story is built. For plot, see above. While the prose is reasonably literate, it's far from distinguished! it tells what happens, but can't make the reader feel the character's responses in heart and gut. And the POV, alas, is promiscuous as a rabbit. There are some good lines in the characterization of Barry and Kitt and includes some bright flashes. Unfortunately, it isn't enough. On the terms set by "Nightrun", Riders must be accounted a failure. The rest of the fictional offering consists of several vignettes, none of them much better or much worse than mediocre. Gunther falls on his sword and Hutch worries about Starsky in Lindner's "Checkmate". Bartlett's "Have A Happy" is a would-be humorous birthday story, while "Vegas Downer" is just that. For "A Moment in Time", Hutch stands beside Starsky's bed and thinks, this time at Cabrillo State, while in Ashley McConnell's "The Nature of Promises", Starsky sits in the Torino and thinks while watching Hutch stand on the beach and think, all in a style unpleasantly reminiscent of Contact. In "Never Go Drinking With Starsky", S&H get sloshed and paw each other. (Ahal you say. Nuh-uh, no way. The author is Sheiler Nichols, and all that groping is good straight fun, just like it is on the aired series. You know that.) Finally, we are subjected to almost thirty pages of "Glaser and Soul Supplement". Some of the items are reprints from Variety or other trade papers, but the bulk of the section (17 pages) consists of day-by-day clippings of the actors' inconsequential doings. The tone of these entries irritates as much as their irrelevance, eg., "Paul & David are nominated for Sour Apple Awards by the H'wood Women's Press Club! Poop on them!" It's juvenile, it's tasteless, it takes up about 15 pages of an already overpriced book. The perpetrator of this oooo-ga-ga (give it a French inflection, girls) asininity uses a pseudonym — moi can't imagine why. Moi can't recommend the zine. Give your $10.00 to Greenpeace instead. [5]

Maybe I've gotten old and bitchy -- no, definitely I've gotten old and bitchy. Frequently these days I find myself wishing that the writers would "make it better". This is not to say "make everything all right again" -- I mean "make the story better" either in style or content. To further refine, I am not looking for reflections of my own PoV or opinions in other people's work; if I want to read my ideas, I'll write them myself. Definitely I am getting old and bitchy.- But I do most sincerely wish that more chances were taken with these characters, that fewer standard plot devices were used, that writers would face up to the difficulties confronting post-SWEET REVENGE S&H and not back down simply because they don't want to see the street partnership end. I hasten to add that my objections *o-certain pieces do not take the form of wishing they had been written from an S/H perspective —I trust I may be acquitted of that particular idiocy. Frankly, I don't give a damn if they sleep with sheep -- just give me a good story, a brave story, one that doesn't walk away from important questions and isn't afraid of where it might lead or what we all might discover along the way. We can play it safe, or we can challenge ourselves and the characters to show us something new. [6]

References

  1. ^ from S and H #2
  2. ^ from S and H #28
  3. ^ from S and H #29
  4. ^ from S and H #29
  5. ^ from S and H #28
  6. ^ from an excerpt of a review in S and H #29
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