Paladin

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For the Voltron zine, see PALADIN.
Zine
Title: Paladin
Publisher: David Lubkin
Editor(s): David Lubkin and Eileen Roy
Date(s): 1980, 1982
Series?:
Medium: print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom: multimedia
Language: English
External Links:
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Paladin is a gen multifandom anthology which preceded The Paladins Affair.

Issue 1

cover of issue #1, Susan Perry-Lewis
back cover of issue #1, Signe Landon

Paladin 1 was published in 1980 and is 116 pages. Cover art is by Susan Perry-Lewis and back cover by Signe Landon.

The art is by Susan Perry-Lewis, Signe Landon, Gordon Carleton, Elaine Tripp, Gina Martin, Patricia Munson, Allyson Whitfield, Harriet Stallings, Juanita Coulson, T.J. Burnside, David Lubkin, Marty Siegrist, and Paula Block.

[Editorial: Eileen Roy]:

Ladies and Germs,

David did all the work. Lord knows why I'm on the masthead, unless it was a ploy to get me to send stories (Little did he know —). Basically, anything you like about this zine — variety of universes, editorial policy, arrangement of written material and artwork, typing — you may attribute to David (Take a bow, Dave). Responsibility for anything you don't like we, of course, share equally.

You may notice that "Ash and Mist" : and "Ehez Mortll are the same story. Same pages, too. During a marathon editing session with Kathy, during which all three of us disagreed about most every thing, we came to the conclusion that there were two possible moods and endings to the story she outlined, both excellent. So she did one and I did the other, ran dom is an incestuous business.

Most of the Illya stories in the zine are part of a coherent (?) universe; more will appear in the second issue of Paladin, barring a successful hit team (And even then, I have left manuscripts with my solicitor). Stories to come will have somewhat more Napoleon included.(Napoleon. Remember him?). There will also, hope fully, be a novel in the same series for our third issue (Optimistic, aren't I?). Also in the second issue, we're looking forward to a great Paris-Dana (Mission: Impossible) story from Juanita Salicrup and Jean Stevenson. Also, a Man from U.N.C.L.E./Paper Chase sequel to "Ash and Mist" and "Chez Mort," a long U.N.C.L.E. story, Noel Harrison, "The Pardon Moi . . Affair," by Gordon Carleton (The Pig from U.N.C.L.E.), Doc Savage in drag ...

There's still lots of room left for submissions, though. I prefer spies, but cops are okay too. Submit material. Please. We promise, your superiors at the LAPD, CIA, Surrete, KGB, UNCLE or *ahem* higher agencies will never hear about it from us.

"Echoes through Time" is reprinted from Despatch 30/31, edited by Ruth Berman and Sharon Emily. "Promises and Maple Leaves" is reprinted from The Clipper Trade Ship [1], edited by Jim Rondeau. Both have been rewritten to some extent. I'd rather not reprint material, so please, send stuff?

Spring is more fun.

[Editorial: David Lubkin]:

Eileen may be right about the divvying of work (he says typing this Sam, taking 80 sheets to the printer tomorrow/today, to get back in time to collate Wednesday after Sue Perry and Keven Lewis's wedding so we can take it to Mos' Eastly on Thursday), but she has her uses. Cuts down on the rodent problem with that switchblade, and tumbles world-class. Even purrs on occasion.

If you've ever read a Crystal Singer (plug elsewhere unless I forget), you know I ramble; if not, you'll find out.

PALADIN is mostly dedicated to three of the dear people who died of late — Alfred Hitchcock, David Janssen, and David McDaniel. Thankfully they all left work behind them, for us to show the future what talents they bore.

But it's not entirely dedicated to them. For them our triumphs, but there would be no triumphs without the people who slaved over the bugger.

How can I dedicate a zine without remembering Carol making me layout pads over at Moon's, or Kathy's marathon long distance rewrite sessions with Eileen, or the breakneck speed at which TJ and Signe mailed in artwork (not to mention the twenty-plus pieces Gordon did, from the one he first promised for us), or Brenda, with no interest whatsoever in fandom, pasting-up for hours — for every name on the table of contents I have a story. You're great, guys, I love you all.

Enough with that. PALADIN 2 is coming one of these days. Accepting stuff now — dreaming for a Noreascon II release and hoping for Febcon. Ideally, we'd like PALADIN coming out every six months. Send stuff!

Artists: we are willing to experiment, and occasionally pour money into finer screens, two-color ... although we prefer plain pen-and-ink. Pack things well, with crisscrossed corrugated cardboard and big red letters.

Insure all art and keep a copy of all stories! Your work is valuable.

Don't forget to loc us.

  • art: Time After Time Machine by Gordon Carleton (5)
  • Charade by Donna Chisholm; art by Marty Siegrist (The Young Rebels) (6)
  • Night of the Blind Beggar by Ronni Sacksteder; art by Signe Landon (Wild, Wild West) (9)
  • Echoes Through Time by Eileen Roy; art by Marty Siegrist (Here Come the Brides/Star Trek: TOS) (reprinted from Despatch #26/27) (56)
  • Holmes, poem by Gina Martin (62)
  • art: Angelique by Susan Perry-Lewis (63)
  • November, 1940: Kiev by Eileen Roy; art by Harriet Stallings (Man from U.N.C.L.E.) (64)
  • A Time of Certain Solace by Eileen Roy; art by Signe Landon (M*A*S*H/Man from U.N.C.L.E.) (67)
  • Stand of the Honoured Dead by Signe Landon; art by Signe Landon (M*A*S*H) (76)
  • Snow Queen by Kathy Esselman & Eileen Roy; art by Juanita Coulson (Man from U.N.C.L.E.) (78)
  • art: Honey West by Patricia Munson (82)
  • Promises and Maple Leaves by Eileen Roy; art by TJ Burnside (The Questor Tapes) (also in The Vaslovik Archives #4) (83)
  • art: The Prisoner by Allyson Whitfield (95)
  • A Baby's Comfort by Jean Stevenson; art by David Lubkin (The Mod Squad) (96)
  • art: Illya by Signe Landon (98)
  • Behind Blue Eyes, poem by Allyson Whitfield (99)
  • Ash and Mist by Eileen Roy/Chez Mort by Kathy Esselman; art by Susan W. Perry-Lewis (Man from U.N.C.L.E.) (100)
  • art: Modesty Blaise by Patricia Munson
  • The Thorne Affair by Carol Lynn & Sandra Giraud; art by Gordon Carleton (Starsky & Hutch/Man from U.N.C.L.E.) (107)
  • James Bond and the Disposable Society, article by Sally A. Syrjala; art by Gordon Carleton ("[Bond] seeks the transitory, items that do not demand lasting commitments. Inter national affairs change with the rapidity of the wind — one who was 'friend' yesterday could well be tomorrow's 'foe'. Always changing sides in the international chess game. Bond must keep God and right firmly on his side. In such a climate, it is no wonder deep feelings are seldom formed. They would be an alien force detracting from the purpose of his profession. It is interesting to note that this is the hero we have picked. He duplicates our society. We employ his disposable relationships as we do disposable dishes — and with as much feeling. We live in an age of plastics and that commodity seems to have seeped into people as well as material things.") (James Bond meta) (112)
  • art by Paula Block (113)
  • The Smart Foreigner, article by Amy Hartman ("Over the past summer, I have discovered a strong and astonishing addiction to Dorothy Sayers' novels; astonishing be cause science fiction has always been my favorite genre. My response to the average mystery was, 'The nephew did it; so what?" But some detective stories delight me because of the character of the protagonists. This led me to try to analyze my favorite character in sf/spy/detective fiction. I call him the Smart Foreigner.") (114)
  • art: Honey West by Patricia Munson (115)

Gallery

Reactions and Reviews: Issue 1

Media fandom rides again. And like the Seventh Cavalry, ‘Paladin’ is a lifesaver. If you too have been starved for a taste of ‘Man from U.N.C.L.E.,’ or ‘M*A*S*H’ or ‘Mod Squad’ or the ‘Wild Wild West,’ not only do you get it in this zine, you enjoy it. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a zine whose contents are so uniformly good.

Much of the credit, because much of the writing, belongs to Eileen Roy. In four pieces, nominally unconnected but nevertheless covering a whole lift, Eileen, with help from Kathy Esselman, sketches a touching and even sad portrait of Kuryakin. Quite the most satisfying as well as the longest is ‘A Time of Certain Solace,’ in which Illya sees action in the Korean War and runs across this M*A*S*H unit…

In another cross-fertilization of universes, Eileen gives us the meeting of Aaron Stemple of ‘Here Comes the Brides’ and Sarek in ‘Echoes Through Time.’ ‘Promises and Maple Leaves,’ Roy’s ‘Questor Tapes’ piece, is not so lovingly done, but is still competent; if you are able to change anything in the world, who do you help, and how?... Basically a very long short story in structure, Ronnie Sacksteder’s ‘Wild Wild West’ story, ‘Night of the Blind Beggar,’ steals a march on nineteenth century psychiatric [missing word] when Jim Sest regresses to a five-year-old-hysteric, and his arch-antagonist, Dr. Miguel Loveless, is the only one who can help him…

A very short piece, but loads of fun, is Carol Lynn’s ‘The Thorne Affair,’ in which Starsky and Hutch unknowingly encounter THRUSH on Playboy Island. It makes sense out of that episode.

Highly recommended for the video freaks and others.

CONTENT-3 GRAPHICS-3 $ WORTH-4 [2]

I am suitably impressed with yer zine; PALADIN is the best of the batch acquired at Mos' Eastly, or for that matter, during most of this year. Some of your layout was a stumbling block -- notably the parallel stories in Ash & Mist/Chez Mort (would it have been better merely to append the one story after the other, as the structures were not parallel? This arrangement did more to point up the differences between the stories, such as Grummond/Blanc, Napoleon's death/survival , Leningrad/Po­ land, than to show how they are basically the same. Still, an intriguing comparison of the writers ' styles . ) and the fact that in "Night of the Blind Beggar, " page 31 follows page 22. ((Your copy will be repaired/replaced.)) I also get the im­pression you had more presstype than you knew what to do with, but sometimes this worked to quite good effect, as on pages 6, 56 and 76 (tho not page 78).

But the writing is so consistently good! Wow. Every piece in the zine works, and that's mighty rare, as you well know.

I personally liked best "A Time of Certain Solace," combining as it did M*A*S*H and MUNCLE. I know Eileen must have at least partly had in mind that bit from McDaniel's The Rainbow Affair, when Napoleon and Johnny Rainbow are exchanging war stories about the Korean-conflict, as Illya "looked uncomfortably from one to the other." Hell, all the UNCLE stuff is won­derful -- so great to get anything at all on the subject, but what a bonus when it's so sensitively written. Whose idea was it to juxtapose that lovely Illya portrait with Behind Blue Eyes? I might mention that Mel Rawn claims BBE as the theme for Starsky in her S/H universe. Strange how different interpretations of the lyrics arise, depending on who's referred to. None of them meant by Pete Townsend, either.

Was the contributors' portraits your idea? Rather neat; tho an alternative arrangement might have been to have a "whodunnit" page matching the face to the biogs.

In sum, excellent work. [3]

Oh, David! This has to be one of the most interesting and intriguing zines that I have read in awhile. ·Primarily, you get blue ribbons for the excellent story based on The Wild, Wild West. A pity that Michael Dunn is no longer with us, as I truly believe that this would make a fine script. I am strongly tempted to loan Bob Conrad my copy of PALADIN 1 when he arrives in town next week for a stage play in Atlanta. Here is my loc, whether you want it or not:

CHARADE: I never saw much of The Young Rebels as it wasn't carried often where I was living , but what I saw I liked. The same goes for this story.

NIGHT OF THE BLIND BEGGAR: Excellent story as I mentioned above, but I felt that the artwork wasn't up to Signe's usual fine standards. The only piece of artwork that resembled Jim West (Bob Conrad) was the on on p 52; the Dunn/ Loveless on p 14 had a hint of the man but wasn't quite right; the Gordons were well done and looked like Martin himself. The feelings that Artie and the other agents showed were done with just the right bit of restraint , with Artie's being the strongest . Miguel was priceless ! Dunn would have been pleased to see that others saw the human in the tyrant. My one real complaint was the fact that it seemed to end too soon, as if the story wasn't yet completed.

ECHOES THROUGH TIME: Probably the most disturbing of the stories. While I liked the style, I really didn't like the story. However, I have been out of ST zines for so long, that may be part of the problem. Marty's illustration on p 59 was excellent.

A TIME OF CERTAIN SOLACE: Nice combi­nation of my favorite series to date that is still on the air and an old favorite, Illya Kuryakin . Standard plot , but han­dled with the restraint that is common on the MASH series.

STAND OF THE HONORED DEAD: As B.J. is, to date, my favorite regular on MASH, this was a disturbing bit of work. Good style, like the letters to Hawk's dad usually are.

Pat Munson's style of artwork leaves me wanting more likeness to the characters, though she does show promise. I hope the Lt . continues practicing. I feel she could be a very good cartoonist without much work.

PROMISES AND MAPLE LEAVES: I am always very interested in Questor stories, yet I didn't like this one very much. I can't put my finger on it, but from Eileen's previous writing, I expected a stronger story.

A BABY'S COMFORT: Good ending revisit to the old Mod Squad.

ASH AND MIST/CHEZ MORT: The best MUNCLE stories in the zine, which is saying quite a bit. I would say the best of the two was ASH . . . though that was a hard choice.

THORNE AFFAIR: Ah, Pappa Theo­dore! Tee hee , Napoleon with a perma­nent? Zebra Three, drunk or sober is fine with me, thank you. I'll take those two cops over the slightly older spies almost any day of the week.

THE SMART FOREIGNER: Agreed with heartily, more could have been written.

All in all, your zine with such a wide variety of universes should be a fine addition to the soon-to-be SYNDI­ZINE series. I welcome the change from just a few specialized shows like ST, SW and S&H. More power to you, and find enclosed the sase for number 2. Lots of luck. [4]

Just wanted to let you know that PALADIN finally arrived. I enjoyed it muchly, tho some -- like "Charade" were from series I never followed. I did think Eileen's Illya stories were unnecessarily obscure, not to mention morbid as hell; but I'll read and enjoy anything on UNCLE!

My favorite was Amy Hartman's "The Smart Foreigner." All the characters she lists are among my favorites, too, and I can add quite a few other favorites who fit all or most of her list of characteristics: Francis Crawford of Lymond (Dorothy Dunnet's series), Kwai Chang Caine (KUNG FU), Steed (though not to as great an extent as some. Even, to some extent, Michael Moorcock's Elric. Now I know what they all have in common — if someone could just tell me WHY I like them!

Do count me in next ish... [5]

Sat down to read PALADIN, at the 'expense' of delaying work on my own poor little zine. It was very worthwhile. I particularly enjoyed the two points of view on "Chez Mort" and "Ash and Mist," and I enjoyed "The Thorne Affair," but I feel Thrush agents should hereafter bone up on their typing skills. "The Smart Foreigner" disturbed me. I don't approve of hero analysis, because classifying protagonists ruins further enjoyment of them. Such things benefit from laissez-faire. "Night of the Blind Beggar" was a bit protracted, and I still don't like the idea of taking a near-farce like "Wild, Wild West" so seriously on a turn like this. It's almost like doing a serious "F-Troop" story ... Still, it evoked some good moments.

"Echoes Through Time" was a bore ... not only was the end predictable, but the telepathic rapport between Sarek and Stemple was confusing, and even if THEY understood the messages, I was left out. Worse, I didn't much care. To her credit, however, Eileen did a fine job of lyrical description in the natural wonders department.

"A Time of Certain Solace" left me dissatisfied ... maybe because of Illya's single-mindedness of purpose. I don't see how anyone could experience MASH firsthand and not be moved, more than he was.

Special mention to Gina Martin's? Sherlock Holmes poem. I loved it!

Gordon's brilliant little portraits needed a better presentation structure, maybe right in the top corner of each story title. Scattered around and unframed, they lost all impact.

"Stand of the Honored Dead" was properly impressive ... I'm amazed at how easily Signe Landon recaptures Hawkeye's manner of character.

I was never a Questor fan, so I fore went the story. Sorry, folks, but when you do a Gen-Syndizine like this that'll happen, now and then. You can't hit 100% with all people.

By the same token (or quirk factor), I was never a "Mod Squad" fan, yet I liked "A Baby's comfort," perhaps because of the short length and writing quality of Stevenson.

All due honor to Signe Landon on her superb illo style. What can I say about Susan Perry­ Lewis artwork? Only something nice, that she's disproved the axiom that there's no such thing as a true artist. Marty Siegrist was honestly impressive. The nuances of facial expression made the portraits come to life! Also a mention of Harriet Stalling's pointalist style, a difficult thing to do properly, and done very well.

I'm keeping my PALADIN in the 'dis­tinguished zines' section on my shelf. I'm also leaving room there for an an­ticipated #2... hmm?[6]

I've finished reading PALADIN — this is a sort-of LoC. I liked most of the stories. The art-work was excellent.

"Night of the Blind Beggar" affected Miriam more than me — she was devastated by the idea of Jim West being brainwashed and left in a loony bin. I don't feel that strongly about it — I thought the story was terrific!

I read the Aaron Stemple/Sarek story before, so it came as no surprise.

The Illya Kuryakin/MUNCLE stuff was something else — I think you've missed some of the point of the series, which was pure spoof! The humour is missing from those stories — and from the M*A*S*H stuff, which is supposed to be at least somewhat comic — black comic, but sort of funny (I hereby enclose a story for PALADIN 2 that shows what I mean).

As a general rule, I don't care for side-by-side stuff — it's interesting, but tough to follow. And the "Smart Foreigner" can apply to Spock too — of course!

[Editor]: Opinions dearly differ on UNCLE and MASH -- see Paula's letter above. Roberta has a beautiful attitude -- rather than play the games everyone else has been playing in fandom (saying "This is not Star Wars, and it's disgusting," or bickering over Do They Or Don't They?), she simply wrote and submitted a story. Well done. Now, Roberta', about that rewrite ... [7]

Good luck on the zine. Sounds like a massive undertaking.

I'm increasingly fascinated by this 'borrowed universes' phenomenon. So far as I've been able to find, it didn't exist prior to ST, or certainly was kept well hidden. Old time fans either read other universes or con­cocted their own -- sometimes thinly veiled imitations of pro writers' worlds , but an attempt at originality nonetheless. ST came along and an explosion of amateur spinoff writing began. No end seems in sight, either. I'm an active consumer and loccer in the S&H spinoff fandom, and TENSPEED AND BROWNSHOE fandom is inevitably next on the inspiration list. I enjoy all this very much, but I'm bemused at the same time.

Some future sociologist/human behavio­rist is going to have an absolute orgy of doctorate papers analyzing this late 20th C media sub-event, I'll bet. [8]

I really enjoyed PALADIN 1. I think my favorite was "A Time of Certain So­lace." I liked "Stand of the Honored Dead," too.

(I'm not really a serious MASH fan, but the characters in both stories were so well done. I was choked up at the end of "Stand." Come to think of it, this zine did have a lot of de­ pressing stories in it! People seem to like to kill off the main characters. [9]

Ronni Sacksteder's "Night of the Blind Beggar" was my favorite. Wild, Wild West is one of my favorite shows (running a close third behind Star Trek and Starsky & Hutch) and I was delighted to be able to read an original story on it. It would have made a hell of a script (she even gave it the standard title format that the tv show had The Night of the...), much better than the recent movie.

The characterization was terrific and gave some intriguing insights into Jim West's past. I often thought while watching the show that Jim's overconfi­dence was gonna get him in a mess one day he couldn't get out of. Ronni's story showed it finally happen. As much as it galls me to admit it, I guess Loveless is to thank for saving Jim' s sanity.

Speaking of Jim's sanity, that matter is not quite yet resolved. Although he's cured as far as banishing 'Torry' is concerned, there is still the matter of the accident that DID happen when he was a child. Accident though it may have been, he'll still have to live with the guilt for what he'd done. The memory may have been returned to his subconscious, but for how long?

I was quite interested with Arty's evaluation of Jim's personality on p 23.

I agree that Jim is usually the more subdued of the duo, but it never occurred to me that he rarely displays excitement, anger or joy. If joy means laughter or amusement, Jim has shown it many times on the show. He has a mischievous and sometimes malicious sense of humor (usually at the expense of poor Arty). I was often amazed that they could exchange quips and jokes during their most dire predicaments on the show (too bad Arty couldn't see Jim's expression the moment he saw that his 'partner'/double was dead. I had never seen such pain in those bright green eyes in my life!).

Granted, in relationship to Arty, Jim is the more quiet of the two, but then Arty is the actor, the undercover agent. HE is SUPPOSED to express his emotions, especially when playing a role. Recruited from the theatre, he still has a dramatic flair. Jim West, on the other hand, usually has to take on an assignment 'head on'. He is in enemy territory long before Arty. HE'S the one usually face-to-face with the enemy and/or the business end of a gun. Under these circumstances, it's very natural to expect Jim to wear a 'poker face' so that his enemy won't know his thoughts. It's a safety measure which just might get him out of an unpleasant and dangerous situation alive.

Besides, where did Arty get the idea Jim didn't show anything when he 'came back from the dead' in the episode? I could have sworn that there was a good three seconds of stunned silence on Jim's part. 'Sides, there were the unconscious crooks to be tied up, not to mention the possibility o£ reinforcements showing up.

He hardly had time to rush up the stairs for a hug and a handshake. As far as I was concerned, Jim was delighted to see his friend even if he didn't show it much.

Back to the story. It took a lot of guts and skill for Arty to play the role of Jim's father. Many times on the show it was his acting skill that saved Jim' s life. This time it was to save his friend's sanity. And a very well done job it was, too.

All in all, "Night of the Blind Beggar" was a wonderful story, and I'm certain that Michael Dunn would have greatly appreciated the way Ronni portrayed his famous role of Dr. Loveless. (Too bad there's no way to get Bobby and Ross to see the story. I'm sure they wouldn've loved it too.)

Signe Landon's art was great. Made my version look like cave drawings. Nice to see that she has such a wide range of skills. Now onto the rest of the zine (thought I would never get there, didn't you?). Second favorite story was "A Time of Certain Solace." It's interesting to see the famous (infamous?) MASH unit through another's eyes. The eyes of a familiar character at that. (Although I was a bit angry with Illya for knocking out Radar.) Wouldn't it be something if Hawk sees Iliya again and finds out who he really was?

"Stand of the Honoured Dead" is the first story I've ever seen Signe write, and it's nice to see that she is as good a writer as an artist. Ah, BJ — poor gentle Beej — another casualty of a war none of them wanted to be in in the first place. It was a very gentle, sad story, and I couldn't help feeling a bit of Hawk's pain as I read his 'letter'. Thank God at least HE'LL make it home in one piece.

I'd read Eileen's Questor story when it was in Clipper Trade Ship, though the second time around was much better along with the illos.

I never watched Here Come the Brides or The Young Rebels that much so it was a bit difficult to follow the stories, but I did enjoy them. "The Thorne Affair" was very amusing (Always wondered how Poppa Theodore got out of that prison cell).

"A Baby's Comfort" was a nice ending for the team of no-longer teenagers.[10]

I thoroughly enjoyed PALADIN 1. There was nothing I didn't like. The story that bit me hardest was "Night of the Blind Beggar." Ronni Sacksteder wrote a very moving , gripping story I couldn't put down. I've seen several Wild, Wild West episodes, so I had an idea of the characterizations of Jim West, Artemus Gordon and Dr. Loveless. I'd say all three acted plausibly in this story. I could see bow Dr. Loveless could become a good friend instead of deadly enemy. I could also understand why Miguel had become a scheming doctor with so much anger and twisted visions. If I were in pain every minute of the day, I might be a less-than-pleasant person. We are shown here how Miguel could be a kind, useful person who'd use his great ta­lents for good instead of injurious schemes.

Certain scenes actually made me cry. To think of Jim West, a capable, confi­dent man being reduced to a helpless, fear-ridden child was heartbreaking. He was always so arrogant with confidence, so restrained and always so sure of him­ self that his total dependence on Miguel was sort of pathetic This story could've been condensed a little. Oh, my compliments to Signe for the illos to the story -- very nice and perfectly complimentary to the mood of the story.

As for "Snow Queen" ... well, it didn't impress me. I was uncomfortable with it, though I couldn't decide exactly why.

"Chez Mort"/"Ash and Mist" -- my initial confusion with this set-up was partly due to my not reading the edi­ torial notes at the beginning of the zine first and also due to the vague listing in the Table of Contents. I wasn't sure whether it was supposed to be one story written in parallel halves or two separate unrelated stories or what. An explanatory note· wit. h the stories would've been helpful.

Anyway, to the stories themselves: I think I preferred "Ash and Mist" to "Chez Mort." "Ash and Mist" had some very nice touches, like the Illya/Napoleon conversation, the internal thought scenes, 'the wolf sketch on the gun' bit, and the line, "If I must ignite the pyre with my own body, I will have him dead." I doubted, though, that Waverly would report Solo dead without more evidence. It was a nice story that might've been better with a little more detail as to Solo's doings in the 'affair.'

"Chez Mort" was a good companion to "Ash and Mist" but it didn't seem as clear. Napoleon's death and Illya's revenge 'felt' better in this version, though, Was it really necessary to have Illya's baby sister die a slow death squirming on a sword? And, while the umbrella assassination weapon was a good idea and the implementation of it well done, I thought Illya's death was a cop-out.

"The Thorne Affair" -- hysterical! Would you believe it even made some cock-eyed sense?! Loved the idea of Starsky being Napoleon with a perma­nent! Cute story!

As to the other fandom stories — "Night of the Blind Beggar" was a masterpiece in plotting and psychology, but it never felt like WILD WILD WEST. The names were used, but it just didn’t work for me. The only character I really believe was Dr. Loveless. I must say, his characterization was unique and sympathetic. Somehow this story reminded me of "Home is the Hunter" (printed in CONTACT 5/6) — good but long and torturous. (And I thought Illya suffered too much?!)

"Echoes through. Times" was good enough for its portrayal of Aaron as a believably sympathetic person. However, the time-meddling (and it seemed like meddling to me) bothered me.

"Stand of the Honored Dead" — no, I just didn't like it. Maybe I’m prejudiced since I have lost interest in MASH and have never really cared for Alan Alda (yes, there are a few of us out in the boondocks who don’t appreciate his ’talents.’).

"A Baby’s Comfort" — it was okay but I didn’t really see a purpose in it.

The articles were excellent, and enjoyable ’thinkers.’ Nice touch, having some nonfiction.

I can’t really comment on "Charade" and "Promises and Maple Leaves" as I never watched either THE YOUNG REBELS or QUESTOR TAPES.

Oh gee, I guess I’ve sounded overall pessimistic on PALADIN — didn’t mean to be so critical (guess it’s the cynic in me). T did like the zine ... but could #2 be a little lighter in story content? Bug me enough and maybe I’ll write something to fit. Well, out of room.

Thanks for PALADIN. "Ya done a good job!"

PS — Liked PALADIN’S front and back covers, especially the back one. Wasn't an Avengers cover a little misleading since there were no Avengers stories, though?

PPS — Forgot to comment on other art — overall quality very good and well- placed and mood-fitting. Special compliments to Signe.[11]

Issue 2

the wraparound front and back cover of issue #2, Signe Landon

Paladin 2 was published in 1982 and is 124 pages.

The art is by Signe Landon, Gordon Carleton, Harriet Stallings, Todd Hamilton, Patricia Munson-Siter, Marty Siegrist, Daphne Ann Hamilton, and T.J. Burnside.

The editor says there is a typo on page 41 "that I did not have the heart to correct."

Gallery

A Submission Request for the Proposed Third Issue

For a third issue in Universal Translator #22: "Contributions being accepted: art, stories, articles, calligraphy, songs, poetry, SASEs, money, Alaskan Malmutes... The issue is scheduled for MediaWest*Con IV."

This issue was ultimately not published.

References

  1. ^ It was not The Clipper Trade Ship but The Vaslovik Archives #4.
  2. ^ by Paula Smith in S and H #12 (summer 1980), reprinted for Bored of Review in Warped Space #45 (March 1981)
  3. ^ from a letter of comment by Paula Smith in "Paladin" #2
  4. ^ from a letter of comment by Liz Tucker in "Paladin" #2
  5. ^ from a letter of comment by Signe Landon in "Paladin" #2
  6. ^ from a letter of comment by Leah Rosenthal in "Paladin" #2
  7. ^ from a letter of comment by Roberta Rogow in "Paladin" #2
  8. ^ from a letter of comment by Juanita Coulson in "Paladin" #2
  9. ^ from a letter of comment by Dawna Snyder in "Paladin" #2
  10. ^ from a letter of comment by Cheri Tripp in "Paladin" #2
  11. ^ from a letter of comment by Jean Thrower in "Paladin" #2
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