Southern Comfort (multimedia zine)

You may be looking for the Star Trek TOS zine Southern Comfort.

Zine
Title:	Southern Comfort, Southern Lights, Southern Lights Specials
Publisher:	Ann Wortham
Editor(s):
Date(s):	August 1985-1999
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Blake's 7, multimedia
Language:	English
External Links:
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Southern Comfort (previously titled Southern Lights) was one of Blakes 7 fandom's longest running, continuously published adult zines, featuring both adult het and slash material. Early issues were multi-fandom.

Issue Content

Issues with whole numbers are gen or mild het.

Issues numbered "x.5" contain explicit het and slash, and non-explicit slash.

Issues numbered "x.75" contain all slash Avon/Vila stories.

Issues #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6 are multi-fandom.

Issue #1.5 is Man from U.N.C.L.E.

The Issues

See these subpages for details about individual issues, including quoted opinions and summaries of fannish views on topics current then, and now.

Southern Comfort Issues
Issues 001-001.5	Issues 002-002.5	Issues 003-003.75	Issues 004-004.75	Issues 005-005.5
Issues 006-006.5	Issue 7.5	Issues 008.5-008.75	Issue 009.5	Issues 010-10.5	Issue 11.5

Title Change

Earlier issues (up to issue #6) were titled Southern Lights (sometimes referred to as "Southern Lights Specials.") The word "Special" was last used in 1988 for issue #4.5.

In 1990, the titles of the issues that had sexual content became Southern Comfort.

In May 1993, the editor stated that because of zine piracy, this series of zines would no longer be published. See The Revelcon Zine Piracy Letters. However, the series did continue for another eleven issues. These later issues all had the title "Southern Comfort," perhaps as a way of discontinuing the the zine, but not discontinuing the zine...

Since the "Southern Comfort" issues lagged considerably behind the "Southern Lights" issues regarding their publication dates, this means the timeline appears to be a little out-out-of-whack starting around 1988. But the editor's statement and decision did mean all issues of the zine, moving forward, took the uniform title "Southern Comfort."

Submission Guidelines

From issue #5.5 (1991):

Remember to put your name on your submission!!!

Poetry should be typed and spaced exactly the way you want it to appear in the zine. Please realize that my use for filler such as poetry, filks, and very short vignettes is necessarily limited. Three pieces of poetry are necessary to obtain a contributor's copy. Less than three pieces will obtain you a reduction in price.

Unsolicited artwork is not usually accepted unless offered by an artist I regularly use. If you are interested in illustrating stories or submitting filler type art# please contact me first to find out my current needs. DO NOT FORGET TO ENCLOSE A SASE OR I WILL NOT REPLY. NO EXCEPTIONS. Be sure to let me know what you like to draw, your art "style" (portraiture, illustration or both), and the medium you usually work in. Pen and ink drawings are preferred although pencil, ink wash, and color work will be accepted on an individual basis. Please bear in mind that screening art is an expensive process and I'm no longer willing to do it unless the artwork can measure up to something by Suzi Lovett, Laura Virgil or Leah Rosenthal (all artists whose work I have agreed to screen in the past). If your art requires screening you will have to either A) have the art screened yourself or B) mail the original to me so that I may do it. The same goes for pen and ink work if you can't provide me with a good solid Xerox. If you don't want to send the original and you can't obtain a good dark photocopy, then at least take the time to darken down the copy yourself. I have often had to do this in the past and it makes me very nervous to do so — I am not an artist. My greatest needs currently are for artists capable of illustration and/or cartooning. Three pieces of artwork are necessary, in most cases, to qualify for a full contributors' copy of the zine. Less than three pieces will obtain you a reduction in price.

As to content, I accept stories based on any character(s) from any season of B7, including "fifth" and beyond. I do not do special "theme" issues and I like to see lots of variety in the issues. There seems to be a shortage of stories based before fifth season, especially stories of better than average length, so I am constantly on the lookout for these. I prefer stories of at least medium length with a discernible plot# although I will take shorter pieces as filler. Humorous and serious stories are both welcomed, but I am picky about what I think constitutes a funny story. I also much prefer stories with original and/or different ideas in them; I find stories that are basically another plain old "script" boring and rather useless. If all we're going to do is reqrite the same old hackneyed plots over and over again, what's the point of publishing a fanzine at all? In other words, I'm very happy to accept alternate universe stories, both what-if stories, etc. Your submission must run to approximately three pages (remember, I reduce the print) in order to earn you a contributor's copy. Anything less than three pages will obtain you a reduction in price.

Please don't send a submission if you're not willing to take no for an answer or willing to have your work edited. I think I should clarify this even further and point out that if I have invested the time in editing your work, I expect you to have the courtesy to at least make an attempt to conform to the changes...or to let me know you'd prefer not to make them and will be submitting your work elsewhere. Because of the influx of new writers who don't seem to take well to having their "golden" wards edited I'm going to have to take a tough stance on this: if you don't send sufficient return postage for the manuscript to be returned to you once edited, and I feel it needs an edit, it will simply be rejected. I can no longer afford to invest my time and money editing work for people who are not willing to listen. An editor generally edits.

Lately I've had numerous incidents of people sending me submissions that have appeared in other American zines or that were already scheduled to appear in other American zines. I am not interested in publishing something that has been previously published or is about to be published elsewhere unless the other zine in question is a foreign one. I do not demand foreign rights although I do prefer exclusive rights to a story. I've also had numerous cases of people submitting work for their friends. Please note: I do not accept third party submissions. If someone wants to submit something, they will have to contact me themselves. Also, if you send your submission to anyone besides me directly, chances are I won't get it, and if I do get it, I won't consider it. I am the sole editor and publisher of ASHTON PRESS zines and must be contacted directly. I realize that everyone is anxious to get a reply when they submit something, but sometimes it is impossible far me to read something right away, much less edit it. This is especially true when the submission is meant for a zine that isn't scheduled to appear for a while yet. I am constantly working on one zine or another and the current one must always take priority, of course. And my mundane life is what supports these zines so of course I mustn't neglect my job. Please allow a minimum of six to eight weeks far a reply to a submission, and sometimes even longer if it's close to a convention. REMEMBER TO ENCLOSE A SASE WITH YOUR SUBMISSION OR I WON'T BE ABLE TO ACKNOWLEDGE IT. I prefer not to have to return manuscripts unless they are being edited, so please never send your only copy. I won't be held responsible for lost manuscripts.

I am publishing several zines at this time and am always accepting material for upcoming issues of them. The zine(s) fill up very quickly and, in consequence, I must insist that the final decision as to which issue of which zine a submitted story will go into rest with me. I know what the mix of stories in each issue will be and each individual contributor does not. This means I am in a position to judge what should go where; that's why I'm the editor. In other wards, I'm always thrilled to look at any and all submissions but I will not be dictated to as to where a submitted story "must” go. If you've got your heart set on your story (or whatever) appearing in a certain zine or by a certain date and aren't willing to compromise, please don't bother to submit it to me.

As you've probably noticed above, I've had to change my contributor policy to require at least three submissions (or three pages, in the case of a story) to earn a complimentary copy of the zine. This is due to the continual large size of my zines. In the past, contributors were always very accommodating when I would write them back and remind them of the size of the issue and ask for more from them. Lately they have not been so willing to send more material. I suspect this is because they knew my policy allowed them a free copy regardless of the size of their contribution. I don't feel this is fair to those contributors who do contribute a great deal, especially folks like Laura Virgil, Dani Lane, Leah Rosenthal, and others who send large amounts of material, knowing full well they will only receive the one zine in payment.

General Reactions

1994

"One of the first 'adult' zines in B7 was Southern Lights (later Southern Comfort). This zine was gen sometimes, and adult other times (if it was a whole number: i.e., 1, 2, 3; then it was gen; if it was 1.5, 3.75. etc. then it was adult).

Unlike most, these zines published adult, male slash and female slash stories all together. There never were too many female slash stories, but they fit into the zine like all the other stories (and yes, they were written mostly by women (as is most fanfic of any type)).

The early numbers, especially 3.75 (warning, mostly A/V) and 4.5 (all pairings, including J/C) were very good. The last few have been bad and getting worse. Avoid the most recent (7.5) entirely."

"Why so? I must admit simple curiosity here, since I have the zine in question and there were several stories that I quite liked. There were some clunkers, yes, but all zines have clunkers. How about a review or two from folk Out There? (Maybe from differing points of view.) More entertaining than an off-the-cuff opinion, certainly.

1995

This is an off-the-top-of-my-head critical evaluation; I don't have the time to do the extended research that this topic obviously requires. But maybe the difference is that American stories tend to be glossier than the British? I don't mean production values; I mean a difference in emotional perception. The British writers tend to create dusty rather than sticky stories.

[...]

The good slash or almost-slash I had read had been drier, quieter, nastier; it wasn't until our Annie got going with Southern Comfort that I read lots of sloppy slushy stories that were, nevertheless, really quite good.

1996

I would respectfully beg to differ with your comments re Ashton Press and B/A in the SC 5's. I had always understood that the reason there wasn't much B/A in those zines was because the editor didn't care for that combination, being an admitted A/V (ick!) fan. Then she was puzzled as to why she wasn't getting B/A submissions? I'd rather see B/A published by someone who appreciates it and would know what works and what doesn't. In the couple of SC's I own or have read, the B/A tended to be of the 'brave stalwart Vila protecting poor helpless Avon from mean, vicious Blake' variety. Selfishly, I wouldn't want to have good B/A start turning up there because I don't want to (and won't) buy a $20 zine for just a couple of good stories. But I don't want to miss them either!