Omnibus (Blake's 7 zine)
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Omnibus |
| Publisher: | Star Tech and "Keith Black" |
| Editor(s): | |
| Date(s): | 1987 |
| Series?: | |
| Medium: | |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Blake's 7 |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Omnibus is a gen anthology from the UK.
They are bootlegs of two other zines. Both covers are lifted from Robert Frank's cover of Series 5: Trilogy 1.
See much more at The 1988 Blake's 7 Bootlegged Zines Discussion.
About the Bootleg
From Horizon Newsletter:
HORIZON 8 now being illegally called BLAKE'S 7 OMNIBUS: VOLUME ONE:
THE ORIGINAL! HORIZON 8 is our official club fanzine - with this issue first printed in spring 86 as an A4 duplicated zine, with 97 pages. It has 4 stories) 'Life Watch' by Pamela Wright; 'Possible Futures - Part 2' by Ros Williams (this is the 2nd part of this story, the first part appeared in HORIZON 7) 'Seeds of Legend' by Judith Seaman; and 'Deja-Vu' by Val Leibson. It was printed with a red cover, and front cover artwork was by Jo Blackie. Cost is £1.75 plus postage. Horizon was about to re-print this zine as a prof. printed A5 booklet together with HORIZON 1 this summer (thus making a double issue).
THE BOOTLEG: appears as a prof. printed AS booklet with glossy cover, with the 4th season B7 logo at the top (same cover as Omnibus Vol. 2. Why didn't they copy OUR artwork for Horizon 8 as they have done for everything else? Horizon 8 cover was printed DARK RED and thus cannot be copied!!) Inside are: 'Life Watch' by Pamela Wright; 'Possible Futures' by Ros Williams (but doesn't mention here that it is a continuation!), 'Seeds of Death' by Judith Seaman (note the title change from the original - without Judith's permission - although it is the same story) and 'Deja-Vu' by Val Leibson. 79 pages in length & again costing $5.95 + postage. There is no mention at all of where these stories originally came from, and no address to write to. Neither HORIZON nor the authors gave permission for this copy to be made.
BLAKE'S 7 OMNIBUS: VOLUME TWO:
THE ORIGINAL - The only one NOT a Horizon bootleg! In fact it is the FPS Series 5 Trilogy... The 3 stories are: 'Deathwish' by Patrick Chapman; 'In the Beginning' by David Metcalf; and 'Resurrection' by Kevin Taylor. I have spoken to Kevin Taylor about this, and he confirms that he never gave ANYONE permission to reproduce this fanzine, or the stories therein. FPS sell this for £1.75 incl. of UK postage.
THE ILLEGAL COPY - is printed as an A5 booklet, with the same artwork as on Volume 1. It is 68 pages, with 4 pages blank, and again costs $5.95 plus postage. Again, no address to write to. The cover artwork is copied from the FPS cover and is by Robert Franks. [1]
Other Directly Bootlegged Blake's 7 Zines
These are bootlegs that were specifically reprinted using a different "author," and sold for profit.
At least two of them were bootlegged by "Keith Black," and it is likely the other three were as well.
- Omnibus #1 (1987), is a bootleg of Horizon #8
- Omnibus #2 (1987), is a bootleg of Series 5 #1
- Sanction (1986), is a bootleg of story from Spacefall #5, and Best of Spacefall #1, by Linda Webb-Taylor
- Between Black and White (1986), is a bootleg of a story in Spacefall #4, and Spacefall #9, by Ann O'Neill
- Oracle by Carole Fairman
Issue 1
Omnibus 1 is a bootleg edition of Horizon 8. It contains 82-pages. This zine was published in 1987.
The pages are not numbered. There is no editorial or publication information.
At some point, a message was printed on a small piece of paper and inserted in each copy. This is very likely do to some maneuvering by the publisher in light of push back from fans and legal threats:
Dear Customer, The printer accidently ran one story twice in BLAKE'S 7 OMNIBUS VOLUME ONE. Only three stories should appear in this fanzine. Future reprints will have this matter corrected. Thank you. STAR TECH
- Life-Watch by Pamela Wright
- Possible Futures by Ros Williams
- Seeds of Legend by Judith Seaman
- Deja Vu by Val Leibson (The story Deja Vu has multiple crossovers. The intro to the story reads: "This piece started off life as a continuation of a private bit of writing, which (apologies to pedantic Blake's 7 fans) collected together not just the characters from B7 but from other shows, and from fantasy literature and history (ie a confrontation between Rasputin, Dr. Who and Dracula) I allowed another club newsletter to print the parts leading up to it that related mainly to B7 after modifying it a bit and it seems a shame for this part to go to waste. By the way, for the record my name's not Judith Seaman, I'm a desperate spinster of a very definite age, and I agree with her that Blake is dispensable. There are minorities in every camp.")
Issue 2
Omnibus 2 was published in 1987 and contains about 56 pages. It is a bootleg edition of Series 5: Trilogy 1.
- Deathwish, fiction by Patrick Chapman (5)
- In the Beginning, fiction by David Metcalfe (27)
- Resurrection, fiction by Kevin Taylor (47)
Some issues may contain:
- art is by Chris Cooper
- Introduction, by Kevin Taylor
- an ad for Universal Exports (F.P.S. newsletter)
References
- ^ Horizon Newsletter #21 (December 1988)