Passage to Arms

Zine
Title:	Passage to Arms
Publisher:	Deborah Laymon & Deborah Goldstein
Editor(s):
Date(s):	November 1982
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Wars
Language:	English
External Links:
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back cover by Kate Nuernberg

Passage To Arms is a Star Wars 142-page anthology published in 1982. There were 150 copies printed.

Front and back covers are by Kate Nuernberg.

From a flyer: "Also material by Roberta Brown, as well (hopefully) as material on magic and the Force ("God is Alive, Magic is Afoot") We have optimistically set WorldCon 1982 as apublishing date. Whether or not we can hold to this will depend on material recieved [sic] and work schedules. (And if my roommate moves to Seattle on me!)"

Editorial

From the editorial:

I guess I should say something about the stories herein Well - first of all, none of them are exactly your usual story. Pat's, right off the bat is weird. Of course, my tastes are peculiar, so who am I to complain? And Anne's "Kessel Syndrome" is not the usual Han-piece. And then for those of you (like me) who like comic books, Tim Eldred has drawn us a marvelously complete comic book in "The Littlest Bounty Hunter." Kate's "One Less Debt" has as its hero a Luke Skywalker that I like very much. And "A Tangled Web" is, well, tangled.

[snipped]

I don't think it was even a year ago when [Deb] said to me, "I want to do a Star Wars zine.'" From there it was discussions on why we didn't want to be all Rebel-oriented, finding a title, contacting authors we wanted in the 'zine, and finding artists, etcetera, etcetera.

Passage to Arms started as a one-shot. We were not going to do any more issues Just wanted to have our say in a zine that showed both sides of the question. Now, we're not so sure. We have at least two authors we want and who want to be in a second issue. And we're getting a pretty good pre-publication order list.

front cover by Kate Nuernberg

Contents

• Journey's End by Pat Nussman, art by June Edwards ("The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded. The strong-minded require a bit more effort...")(3)
• The Littlest Bounty Hunter by Tim Eldred, art also by Eldred (8)
• A Day in the Life...? by Yvonne Zan, Jan Boll (38)
• One Less Debt by Kathleen Nuernberg, art also by Nuernberg (39)
• A Tangled Web: Weaver (part one), Snare (part two) , Tangled Thread (part three) , Epilogue by L.C. Wells (part one, two and epilogue) and Chris Callahan (part three) ("As the Empire moves against the Jedi order, a list of hidden Jedi is sent to General Kenobi, but it doesn't reach its destination. The list's creator, Dyannis Carmathan, is caught by Imperial Colonel Tarkin and vanishes. Her cousin, the aristocratic Dacy Arean, (lover of Rupert Organa) finds the Empire closing in on her as Tarkin hunts for the list. Finally, Maeve Solo, a Corellian ex-friend of Carmathan, finds that old friendships can have dangerous consequences.") (The prequel to this story is in Contraband #1.) (71)
• Freedom, filk to the tune of "Me and Bobby McGee," by E.M. Weems, art by J.R. Dunster (99)
• Extreme Unction by Deborah J. Laymon and Deborah Goldstein, art by Cathye Faraci (101)
• The Highwayman, original poem by Alfred Noyes, from the ballad version by Phil Ochs, art by Raynette Dodge (119)
• A Day in the Life...? (part two) by Yvonne Zan and Sue Surls (120)
• The Kessel Syndrome by Anne Elizabeth Zeek, art by Anne Davenport (121)

Inside Sample

• 

  not credited

• 

  sample text

• 

  June Edwards

• 

  Tim Eldred

• 

  Tim Eldred

• 

  Tim Eldred

• 

  Kate Nuernberg

• 

  Kate Nuernberg

• 

  Kate Nuernberg

• 

  Leticia C. Wells

• 

  Raynette Dodge

• 

  Anne Davenport

• 

  Anne Davenport

• 

  Sue Surls

Reactions and Reviews

[Journey's End]: In Pat Nussman's chilling alternate, "Journey's End" (Passage to Arms), her inability to survive after Han's death leads her to vengeance and the Dark Side.

[Journey's End]:

In the post-Empire stories Leia remains with the Alliance, but now she is aware of her need for Han as a lover and Luke as a friend. In Zeek's "Queen's Gambit" (Pegasus 5) Leia can wait no longer and attempts to rescue Han her

self, but she only faces Vader's seductive offer to trade Han for Luke; this Leia is courageous and capable, but even she has her limits as her despair after her failed mission threatens to overwhelm her. I

[zine]: This zine contains generally acceptable stories. Unfortunately, the layout is so appallingly bad, with pages out of sequence, blank lines in the center of paragraphs, and repeated sentences, which negate the impact of the pieces. It's a shame... For my money, the best piece is 'The Littlest Bounty Hunter.' Done in the style of the Marvel comic book, it has Han, Luke and Chewie on a weapons run, whereupon a two-foot-tall bounty hunter, a nine-foot tall Wookiee, and about a million stormtroopers raise various objections. Great drawing, well-paced plot. A close second is 'The Kessel Syndrome,' a nicely charactarticed adventure yarn which ties together the spice mines of Kessel, the twelve-parsec Kessel Run, and why Han owed Jabba money. On a more ambitious, and deeper level, 'Extreme Unction' (from the 'Black Sabre' universe) tells the story of a psychopathic telepathic who finally gathers the strength to leae the circumstances -- interrogating and killing for the Empire's goals -- that were driving her over the edge. I'm not sure the piece succeeds, as I'm still not sure what d'Loren, now Peride Sjani, was trying to do, but the story holds the reader's attention and offers interesting scenes and phrases along the way. 'One Less Debt' also attempts some serious thought -- when Luke is forced to kill as part of his fighting-slave disguise, how does he reconcile the murders he must perform with the Forces? -- but stops short of actually tackling the dilemma in favor of getting on with the plot: Lando pits 'his' slavefighters Chewie and Luke against Jabba the Hut's in order to win the thawed Han back. Guess how Luke has to fight? Not so hot are 'Journey's End' in which Leia is tempted by the Dark Side to find peace, and 'A Tangled Web,' mostly because, though both are trying hard to be profound, neither succeeds in coming to any sort of a point...