Merry Men Press

You may be looking for the Merry Men Press Catalog, a zine reference.

Zine Publisher
Name:	Merry Men Press
Contact:
Type:	fanfic
Fandoms:	mainly Star Trek: TOS (K/S), some multifandom
Status:	defunct
Other:	slash fanzine publisher
URL:	Merry Men Press (WayBack Machine link)
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Merry Men Press is a US-based publisher of fanzines since 1984.

Merry Men Press was set up by Robin Hood.

Her first publication was a K/S zine called First Time in which all the stories depicted the beginning of a romantic relationship between Kirk and Spock. The zines are well-known not just for the stories but also for the artwork, especially the cover illustrations. The latest edition of First Time (as of July 2011) is issue #64 and the latest issue of Within the Mirror is #16. Up until 2015, it was one of the few K/S zines still in publication.

The editor, Robin Hood, passed away on November 14, 2017.

Some 2007 Comments

There has been a lot of K/S enjoyed by a lot of readers because one eager fan in the early eighties got a teensy bit upset because she’d just lost some money: when she pre-ordered a zine, she lost her deposit when the zine was not published after all. But maybe I should let Robin say it in her own words:

I had been sending out “pre” orders and unluckily was stung by losing $3.00. Incensed, I pissed and moaned for a few months and with encouragement from Natasha Solten, I decided that a zine could be produced, not look too bad, and delivered on time. In 1984, I did just that.

Robin makes it sound so easy! Being a zine editor myself, I know that it’s not. And I shudder to think of the obstacles that zine editors/publishers faced back in the seventies and early eighties. Copying machines weren’t reliable, it must have been hard to reproduce art, not to mention the general climate of intolerance towards homosexuality. We have come a long, long way in the last thirty years, since the first K/S stand-alone zine was published in 1976, and thank goodness for it!... [snipped]...

One of the hallmarks of a Merry Men Press zine over the years has been the inclusion of lots of art. It’s not that other publishers don’t go after and present art, but Robin seems to appreciate it with a special zeal. She’s a K/S art collector (dare I say connoisseur?), and she frequently acts as an art auctioneer during K/S conventions or at The K/S Press party at Shore Leave.

Robin will also occasionally sell art for artists. (Have you read her First Time editorials, where she will sometimes say that the cover art has already been snatched up, so you are out of luck if you want to own it?) When I first got into K/S fandom, I had the extreme good fortune to buy some art from her portfolio. I still own both pieces, both of them works by Deeb: Spock playing his harp and a “pillow picture” of Kirk and Spock snuggled together in bed. Sigh.

Merry Men Zines

• Beside Myself
• Fetish
• First Light
• First Time
• Gambit
• Hearts of Fire
• Morpheus Rising
• Playfellows
• Portraits
• Scattered Stars
• Sharing the Sunlight
• Sleeping in Elysium
• Starry Knights
• Starry Nights
• To Catch a Unicorn
• Trusting the Spirit
• Where Angels Fear
• Within the Mirror