Suzan Lovett

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Fan
Name: Suzan Lovett
Alias(es):
Type: Fan Artist, Fan Writer
Fandoms: Star Trek, Blake's 7, Starsky and Hutch, The Professionals, Wiseguy, Man From UNCLE, Homicide: Life on the Streets, Harry Potter, Highlander, Sentinel, Stargate SG-1, Lord of the Rings, Smallville, Star Wars: TPM, House MD, Torchwood, Beauty and the Beast (TV)
Communities:
Other: Partners R More - Artwork by Suzan Lovett
Suzan Lovett - The Reading Room
URL: Suzan Lovett at AO3
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Suzan Lovett is best known in fandom as a prolific fan artist, and has also written slash and gen fanfiction.

Suzan started drawing for Star Trek in the early 80s, she has done hundreds of illustrations in many fandoms; het, gen and slash.

Her artwork has won dozens of awards, including Fan Q Awards, Huggy Awards, Stiffies, Surak Awards, SlaSHies and Screwz awards, in addition to art show awards at various conventions.

In 1997, she was the Fan Guest of Honor at the Farpoint convention.

Because Suzan began drawing in the 1980s and 1990s for fanzines and for sale at conventions, much of her work is not available on the internet. In the early 2000s, however, she sold prints of her art via the web, as seen in the Wayback archived sites squidge.org and kixxster.org (an incarnation of her old website). Some of her fantasy-based Blake's 7 art is currently archived at the Blake's 7 Guide and in a Blake's 7 Fan Art Gallery.[1]

Suzan's fanfiction is available at her new Partnersrmore site. In the mid 1990s, she was one of the first group of Starsky & Hutch slash fan writers who agreed to allow their fan fiction to be publicly posted online.[2]

Blanket Permission

In 2018, Suzan gave the following blanket permission: "Blanket permission for non-commercial remix, podfic, translation, art or fanvid creations or secondary fanwork creations of any of my fanworks EXCEPT my Star Trek fic. Please credit Suzan Lovett." [3]

1997 Bio

Lovett was the Fan Artist Guest of Honor, and this is from her bio in the program book:

Well known to zine readers in many fandoms, Suzan Lovett was born in Ankara, Turkey and married Grady Lovett, a U.S. Air Force colonel, in 1973. She attended at Kansas City Star Trek convention in 1973, went through the art show and got the idea to try her hand at illustration. She sent out samples to several zines and the first to accept her work was R&R. She created some art in pen and ink due to publication costs in those early days, but soon her pencil work found acceptance, too. Fans of the time will no doubt recall her powerfully emotional work first appearing in the well-remembered Baltimore-based zine, Contact. Other Baltimore zines followed suit, including Vault of Tomorrow, Mind Meld and Legend's End. As her skill grew, she became known as one of the best in the fan art field where not only is a good likeness appreciated, but an ability to capture the emotions of the characters is just as important. Suzan brings both qualities to her art. She followed up her work in Star Trek fandom with such diverse universes as Blake's 7, The Professionals, Starsky & Hutch, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and most recently, Wiseguy. Suzan is also a writer, proving you don't have to be a native speaker of English to employ the language to best effect.

Acafan Use

Suzan's work was used on the front cover of Enterprising Women

Suzan's art was used on the cover of Enterprising Women; it is an illo that she later said was not particularly well-done. [4] , See the original work at Nome #8 (1985).

There are also three of her illustrations used as full-page examples of fanart in Textual Poachers. One illo, however, an explicit slash one did not appear in the book, as per Suzan's request. [5]

Interviews

Her Fannish Firsts

Lovett's first con was Star TreKon in 1980.

Her art was printed for the first time in R&R #14 in February 1981.

the first published art was in R&R #14 (1981)

While Lovett has stated she doesn't remember what her first published fan fiction was, it may have been "Consequence" in Vault of Tomorrow #2 in January 1982. [6]

Lovett's comments in 2007:

1980, my very first con, Kansas City TreKon, where I saw my first fan Art Show and thought: Hmmm, I used to draw. I wonder...? I must admit that the real reason wasn’t so much for “art’s sake” as it was for sheer money, or rather, the lack thereof. The paycheck coming into the house at the time simply couldn’t cover too many indulgences, I’d just discovered zines, hankered for more and I thought contributors copies were a great idea. I put together a small portfolio, Xeroxed them and sent them to the editors of the zines I’d bought. I had all of three. Galactic Discourse, Contact — the editors of which both bounced back my drawings, Bev Volker & Nancy Kippax telling me they weren’t good enough to be in Contact, Laurie H. saying essentially the same thing about Galactic Discourse, but very gently... The third zine was R&R, and — well, Johanna Cantor kept it cheap mostly to give the new writers and artists a place where they had a chance of getting printed. She sent me two stories to illustrate, mentioning she’d prefer ink, but if I preferred otherwise, she was fine with that, as long as I understood she’d be simply Xeroxing them and I shouldn’t expect perfect quality. She’s the only reason I kept on drawing. She kept sending me stories and printing my drawings until I got better and the other zine editors started noticing and asking for work, accepting pencil work, until I had more and more reasons to improve. [7]

Lovett's comments in 2017:

[When I went to Star TreKon, I didn't know anybody in the fandom before then. I left my daughter with my husband and I just got on the bus and went by myself. I even had my own room. I was operating under people under the impressions people normally operate when they go off to things, you know, sharing rooms with other fans, all those things. They weren't on my radar at the time....

Lovett's illo portrays DeForest Kelley at Star TreKon in 1980, from Odyssey #5
Well it was very exciting just to have people to talk to that had the same interests and uh, people of all ages, colors, and even nationalities. It was a it was a melting pot. And I, and I absolutely loved it. In fact, be before the end of the convention. I, uh, I walked into the dealer's room absolutely shocked that there was so much stuff, professional stuff and fannish stuff. Until then I had read professional Star Trek books professionally published, and they weren't any good. So I looked at, in the amateur ones and I thought, well, if the professional ones were so bad, what do I want with the amateur was, but of course there was, you know, really pretty illos. So I bought a couple of them, read them in my room that night. I went, oh, wow. Now I want everything. I had , taken just enough money at the time, you know, there wasn't the kind of, you know, cards and things that we use today. So I had just taken some cash with me, just enough to go get through the convention. And, so I invited a lady I had met the day before and had gotten along with very nicely to share my room and let me put, and she would sign her meals to the room and I pay everything with my charge card so I can have the cash to go nuts in the dealer's room, which I did. And then I packed up my clothes and mailed them and put the zines in my bag so they wouldn't be hurt on the way back. [8]

More 2017 comments:

Pen and ink has always been extremely difficult for me because it's so unforgiving. That was one of my problems when I first started trying to get accepted into the zines. I would do them in pencil and charcoal or a pencil and it was a lot more expensive to get that printed pen and ink could be just be xeroxed, which is one of the reasons they wouldn't accept my artwork because it was going to be so expensive. To get it produced and it wasn't worth putting that kind of money in it.... Connie Faddis you know, they could certainly do that kind of work [for her] and the editors would happily put the money in, but not what I was able to do then. So I had a few pen and ink pieces, but mostly, I worked in charcoal and pencil for the longest time.... It has always been my favorite medium. I wasn't even doing color pencils at the time. It wasn't until I got, years later, I got into Starsky and Hutch, that's when I did my first color pieces. [9]

Awards

Some of the art and fiction awards Suzan Lovett has won:

  • Fan Qs: 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 2002, 2003, 2010, 2017
  • Huggy Awards: 1986, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007
  • Stiffies: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
  • Surak Awards: 1986, 1987, 1988, 1999
  • SlaSHies: 2006
  • Screwz: 2003, 2004, 2005

Other nominations:

  • Fan Q: 1983, 1987, 1999

Illustrator

Suzan's favorite medium is graphite pencil on cold-press pen&ink boards because of the way the pencil flows on smooth paper and the different results one can get just by simply layering and/or varying the pressure on the same tool,[10] but work as a fanartist in the past was often limited by what editors could reproduce. For Suzan it meant that "getting pencil work reproduced was expensive, so I was told to draw in ink if I wanted to be in a zine, and for a while I did.[11] It's an unforgiving medium, and my work needs a lot of forgiving, then and now, so I was really happy when I was finally able to get pencil drawings accepted."[12]

Her early work in 1980 was pretty erotic. When asked to explain her limits, she said that she had no qualms about drawing erotic art, but there were some subjects (S&M, etc.) she refused to do[13] and that she tried to capture love. "[I]n any case, though, I mostly want a drawing to give form to an idea and/or distill a story into an image."[14] When she was asked what inspired her to draw Kirk/Spock (TOS, she said that drawing K/S wasn't about expressing her own vision, but about giving life to someone else's alternate universe. Making a distinction between an artist and an illustrator, she explained: "I'm not an artist; I'm an illustrator, and illustrators are mainly story-tellers, in shapes and forms rather than words."[15]

In 2017, she commented:

It wasn't until I got into Professionals that I really got into thinking about writing slash probably because there was hardly anything else in that fandom.... I was doing slash illustrations because illustrations as when you're doing not the things I want to draw myself, but when you're illustrating a story, you're simply giving form to somebody else's ideas. So I was doing slash, illustrations [in Pros]. Yeah. From very early on because it was their ideas. I couldn't quite get a Spock and Kirk into slash in my own head, but as long as it was somebody else's story I was reading or ideas, it was fine.

MG: I would have a very hard time drawing something was not my taste or anything that I was interested in because there's so much labor that goes into it.

SL: It wasn't taste. I liked it. I liked reading slash. I liked slash stories. I just couldn't get it as a starting idea in my own head. When you're writing your story, you have to put in all the emotions and all the justification for it. And I couldn't come up with them on my own, but if somebody else came up with them, I thought the pictures that went with them should be quite beautiful because I thought the stories were quite beautiful. I never had any problem reading slash or drawing. Slash the idea was just fine to me. I just couldn't build a slash universe in my head and when you're only writing it has, it has to come from you. When you were drawing somebody else's story, you're just giving form to their ideas. I liked their ideas, I just couldn't come up with them myself.

MG: were you ever asked to do an illustration for a story that you turned down because you were not interested in the story?

SL: Yeah, I can't remember any specific instances, but there were times that I kind of demurred and said, oh, I don't have the time. Because I did not think a specific writer was really writing anything....

I do not like drawing S&M pictures. If the story went that way, I wasn't going to do it. That and also in later years there had been, there has been some brothers slash which I found a scruple and that's it.... There are a lot of fandoms and pairings that I'm simply not interested in. Even in the fandoms, I am very much interested in. I mean... I love Starsky and Hutch, but I don't want to draw a Huggy and Hutch, which I was asked once and politely turned that one down. [16]

The Use of Photo References

The use of live or photo reference models is a common technique among illustrators. Photos, advertisements, poses from gay porn zines, even drawings of gay artists like Tom of Finland have all been utilized by slash fan artists.

Many of the male figures that Suzan drew were based on professional photos and advertisements.

The back cover of Master of the Revels came from an ad for home pregnancy test kits in the 1990s. In Chalk and Cheese #18 there is a drawing of Bodie in a tux with his tie undone and Doyle, wearing blue jeans and a cut off top as he shoves Bodie up against the wall. [17] The photo reference was a 1990s ad for perfume. [18] The body of Bodie in handcuffs on the cover of Leather and Blue Jeans #2 was from an ad for The Advocate, a gay newspaper out of Los Angeles. Fans would often play "guess the ad" and would approach Suzan at conventions who would cheerfully confirm her sources.[19]

A fan in 1995 wrote:

I (and other people I know) tear out copies of pretty men (especially pretty men together in nice poses) and SEND them to my artist friends (Suzie, [Alexfandra] and others) in the hopes that they'll inspire future art. It never occurred to me that having fan artists draw from those pictures would be a bad thing.

I saw the beautiful gay ad in Advocate Men that Suzie turned into the "Bodie with nipple rings" and had *I* tried to copy it, it wouldn't have looked *anything* like that (or anything like art, either). I do have more problems with the almost exact same poses showing up in different fandoms, but I know that people come up to Suzie and beg, 'I *love* that pose, couldn't you please, please do it for *my* guys instead of the icky guys you already did it for?' [20]

Her Evolving Art Style and Fan Reactions To Her Art

As noted above, Suzan's early style was often limited by what fanzine publishers could easily reproduce. Her initial Star Trek ink illustrations are often spare and simple. In fact, as Suzan herself wryly points out, her first few art pieces were rejected by zine publishers:

Bev Volker & Nancy Kippax, the editors of ….Contact...both bounced back my drawings...telling me they weren’t good enough to be in Contact. Laurie H. saying essentially the same thing about Galactic Discourse, but very gently, and also suggesting that if I want to be printed in zines I might want to draw in ink rather than charcoal as I had done, since ink was cheap to print unlike charcoal/pencil work that required negatives & plates. The third zine was R&R, and—well, Johanna Cantor kept it cheap mostly to give the new writers and artists a place where they had a chance of getting printed. She sent me two stories to illustrate, mentioning she’d prefer ink, but if I preferred otherwise, she was fine with that, as long as I understood she’d be simply Xeroxing them and I shouldn’t expect perfect quality. She’s the only reason I kept on drawing. She kept sending me stories and printing my drawings until I got better and the other zine editors started noticing and asking for work, accepting pencil work, until I had more and more reasons to improve."[22]

Like many budding artists, it took a few years before her artwork began to appear on fanzine covers (samples of some of Suzan's interior art across the years have been labeled in the gallery below and can also be found on the individual zine pages). Once there, however, Suzan dominated zine covers for many decades. She even inspired a tongue in cheek cartoon in which one of the characters from Blake's 7 (Vila) can be seen with a coloring book for sale while another character (Avon) comments sarcastically "One pack of crayolas and he thinks he's Suzi Lovett--"

This 1991 ad for a fan coloring book [23] has Kerr Avon, a character from Blake's 7, commenting: "One pack of crayolas and he thinks he's Suzi Lovett--"

When fanzines began incorporating more pencil art, Suzan's characteristic style began to emerge. Her use of male models (and female models as stand ins for men) in their prime from magazine ads often elevated the physique of the actors to mirror the imaginations of readers and viewers. Many fans also preferred Suzan’s realistic style over the more surrealistic drawings of Gayle F or the strong line art of Gee Moaven. Among these, some expressed a preference for her black and white pencils, feeling that they captured more detail and nuanced emotions.

cover of Awakenings #2, 1996. The art shows typical elements of Suzan's art - multiple images and faces in backgrounds and intricate Celtic bordering.

As more and more color appeared on fanzine covers, Suzan’s style became more detailed and intricate. By the mid-1990s, Lovett's zine covers had a perceived track record of boosting zine sales. Zine publishers would often use her art to demand pre-orders (a practice that had fallen out of favor as zine publishing costs came down), ostensibly to determine the number of illos that the zine would support. For instance, 5 or 10 more pre-orders might persuade the publisher that the zine sales could cover the printing of one more B&W illo. More pre-orders would support a color cover. [24] Lovett would bury multiple images and faces in backgrounds, add ornate borders and build layers into each art piece. Fans would spend hours studying the zine covers trying to absorb and take in all the facets of her work. Viewing a Lovett drawing was, in many ways, like reading a story, with twists and turns and a narrative path. The interior artwork from Harlequin Airs is most often cited as an example of this multi-layered approach; however most, if not all of her zine covers eventually contained similar tableau elements.

The Celtic borders were, what Suzan described in a 2017 interview, a "survival value":

[ Jean Kluge and I] lived close and we got to know each other. She was the one into a decorated borders and Celtic knot work. If it weren't for her, I probably would never have gone into it. Watching her work on that, those things is what got me into it. We were always influencing one another all over the place. I was in St Louis Area for about 10 years, so we did a lot of stuff together. The borders and things came directly from her, the illustrations more than portraits. I called them a survival value because when I got in, there were so many fantastic portrait artists, so many fantastic artists that drew portrait work, and my likenesses were never ever that good. So I thought if I could illustrate a scene and maybe get the emotion of an important scene, I can survive alongside these much better artists, which is why I got into drawing illustrations. [25]

Not all fans responded to Suzan's lush art style. Some didn’t like the fact they could recognize the magazine ads and sources that the poses were taken from; others felt that the female model proportioning should have been changed to fit the fact that the characters were male. Others didn’t like borders or cluttered, multi-imaged backgrounds.

A fan in 1994 wrote about Lovett (and Gayle F's) choice of poses:

I don't feel threatened by male pinups who are staring directly into the camera. In slash art this is quite common, perhaps in imitation of cheesecake photos, where the women usually stare saucily or poutingly at the viewer.... [It] is interesting but doesn't do much for me emotionally -- for the same reason some fans don't care for Gayle F's or Suzan Lovett's art. The poses are too reminiscent of cheesecake photos, and thus make the subject seem overly effeminate. Yes, this attitude is politically incorrect, but I can't help my taste. I've been indoctrinated by society to prefer subjects who are less passive, less self-absorbed. (So why do the 'effeminate' qualities of [some mainstream erotic art] art bother me, while similar qualities in Suzan's and Gayle's art do not? I think it's because I know the subjects in fan art, while all I know of [mainstream erotic art] subjects is what [they] show me.) [26]

During a 2006 discussion about Harlequin Airs, one fan remarked:

I don't think the art was particularly them either, I just like Suzann's [sic] work on its own (except for the prominent penis thing ;) ) I can enjoy semi-lads art much the same as many readers can enjoy semi-lads stories. It's not so much a tendency to feminise Doyle as it is to morph him into Starsky... But that's a Suzann thing." [27]

The popularity of Lovett's art led some fans to feel that the art shows of the 1990s were blurring together, filled with Lovett-like art and lacking the raw sexuality and diversity of earlier art shows.[28]

In addition to complaints about her overshadowing art shows, some fans felt uncomfortable with a perceived disconnect between the pricing and the quality of her art. A fan wrote in 1994: "The art of Suzie Lovett, not counting the few prints on my walls, is overrated, overpriced, and overdue for some serious competition."[29] The majority of fans felt differently, seeing in Lovett's work a tenderness and emotional intimacy that mirrored their feelings for and love of the characters (and of the characters for one another).

Still other fans enthusiastically embraced what they saw as the lusty sensuality of her drawings: "Suzan Lovett's artwork," commented one fan, "should come with free vibrators."[30]

Several artists have pointed to Suzan's work as being influential on their fannish art development. For example, Suzan's artwork for "Timeless" (included in the gallery below) was one of the inspirations that led enednoviel to create her Starsky & Hutch Roman AU drawing The General and the Slave.[31] In her 2007 interview, Caren Parnes stated that "Suzan Lovett and I were roughly contemporary, and our styles were very different, but she had an influence on me (as she did on so many artists), with her intricate Celtic bordering and elaborate framing compositions—bringing decorative art and illustration together.” [32]

Reality? Or Suzan? In 1994, a fan commented:

And that threadbare area visible on the back of Avon's head in several episodes ("Star One," for example)? Mind you, I'm perfectly content to imagine that all of the characters really look like Suzie Lovett drawings (but with clothes on) and blame video technology for making it seem otherwise. 8-) [33]

Selling Fanart

Suzan sells art mostly at gen and slash cons; usually these are art prints, but she has also auctioned off some of the originals. Being able to afford a Lovett print or a Lovett original was considered by many fans to be the pinnacle of fannish collecting. While the originals would often sell for over $500 (one piece sold for $3,000), in later years unframed prints could be purchased for $20 a piece.[34] Because her art was popular and commanded such a high price, Suzan's work is sometimes mentioned as an example of fandom's inconsistent approach to profit: selling fanart and fanfic are often received quite differently.[35] Fanzine publishers were not unaware of the draw of Lovett's artwork, knowing that a Lovett cover could boost their zine sales. [36]

In 2002, one zine publisher briefly considered the idea of releasing some of Suzan's art (with her permission) in the form of an art book. While the art book was never published, the idea remained a popular one for many years.[37] Over the years, several of Suzan's Professionals, Lord of the Rings, Sentinel, Buffy and Smallville art prints have been turned into cross stitch patterns by admiring fans.[38] Fans can also buy her artwork printed on coffee mugs and t-shirts.[39]

Suzan sold her own fanworks at Partners R More, last updated in May 2007.

In 2017, Suzan commented on selling art in an interview:

SL I was selling artwork, and... just about every convention, every convention I attended to, apart from the first, I always had something up there to sell. And I also sent artwork to a lot of conventions I did not attend. I [accepted] just about every commission that came by that I was interested in, in a fandom... For the longest time I only did originals. I didn't start doing prints until a much later, like mid-nineties maybe.

MG: So all of your early work is in other people's hands now?

SL: Yes. Or in trash, one or the other.... you know, interests strayed. So, yeah, there are some early pictures because I did not do a prints then that every once in a while somebody will come up to me at a convention, say, "Hey, I got one of your very early pictures," and I look at it and I have absolutely no memory of having done it. I have even said at times that's not mine until they point a signature, I go, "Oh yeah, I guess that's mine." I mean, there's been thousands of pictures. I can't remember them all.

[snipped]

MG: I'm sure you were aware of the controversies and discussions around profit in fandom. Did you ever have conversations with other people about that or, what was your take on that discussion?

SL: Certainly, , as far as I'm concerned [fanfic] should be sold at cost, whatever it costs. I do realize that, and I also understand the fact that a lot of time goes into it, and the editor doesn't get paid for that time. But to me, that's part of fandom. You love it, you do it for the love of it. So as far as these are concerned, to me that should be at cost. Artwork on the other hand is different. For one thing by it, if you [don't want], don't buy it. ... as long as the choice is the buyers. It's my work and yes, it's derivative, but it is still original. I put it up at auction, and I put something on it that I can live with. From then on, it's the buyer's choice, so I don't see a problem.

MG: And what about when your illustrations get featured, got featured in [zines]? I understand that people or editors sought out your work because they knew that they could have charged a higher price?

front cover of the zine Timeless #1, the art that sold for $3000.
back cover of the zine Timeless #1

SL: No, no. Uh, I have never, ever charged anything for any illo in a zine except a copy of the zine because that was the conditions I came in I came into the fandom, and the thing was you contribute to a zine and you get a copy of the zine. And that was that. I have never charged anything for illo for a zine....Just as the editor puts her time, the writers put their time because they love it. I put my time into illustrations because I love it.

MG: you had a piece sell in auction in 2003 for several thousand dollars, which is pretty incredible. Were you, were you there for that sale?

SL: Which piece was that? I wonder. Oh, I think I know. Uh, at least I think, I know there's been a couple of pieces that went.... The what?

MG: It was an illustration for Timeless.

SL: Oh, yes. Yes. I was shocked. I was shocked. And one of the bidders was my friend who puts the Starsky and Hutch con on, and I was telling her to stop. Please stop. But she finally did. Thank you. Yeah. Yes. That was quite embarrassing, but as I was there.

MG: You found it embarrassing.

SL: Oh God, yes. I really do not like sitting at art auctions when my stuff is selling, but I usually have things I want to buy, so I'm stuck there. If there's nothing I want to buy, I'm not going. Because it, it really is embarrassing when they sell for reasonable amounts. I have no problem. Like when they go over the top like that. Oh, that's embarrassing.

[snipped]

Apart from that one piece, the highest pieces I ever sold, were at Blake's 7 convention. In fact, selling artwork at Blake's 7 conventions, put my daughter through college, and sent me to a number of England trips. They were incredibly lucrative, but this had nothing to do with me. It was the actors. They were [with my illos] on the stage, and if they liked the piece, they kept at it. And I know Paul kept at my pieces a lot, and people were literally paying Paul, not me, because they liked him so much. So Blake's 7 convention's art shows were incredibly lucrative, sometimes ridiculously lucrative. [40]

Parodies and Works Inspired by Lovett's Art and Writing

In 2017, Lovett commented on these artistic parodies:

Oh God, yes. And I love it. I adored it. I'm not going to be able to remember her name. Karen. She was a beautiful cartoonist. She took, I had a couple of novels that I illustrated in Professionals fandom. She took just about every illo that I have done and put them in caricature framing as satire. And she bound them all together and put it out as a zine. And I thought it was wonderful. Karen Eaton, that's her name. She was fabulous. Yes. Yes. It was so much fun.... When she came up to me and handed it to me at a convention... I thought it was wonderful. [43]

In 1999, a fan wrote an unauthorized sequel to Suzan Lovett's The Thousandth Man, something that ruffled feathers, but those feathers were not Suzan's. Lovett replied to the author of No Bull via another fan, Flamingo, and very graciously reassured the author that no harm was done, that Suzan herself had "borrowed" from the original show:

Safe to say if there's a sin here, mine far outnumbers yours. It's fan fiction. We're all using borrowed characters, situations, etc., and I see nothing that should make mine holier than, say, the first writer who went: two street cops, this Nordic type and his more ethnic partner.... I have never, not once, not *ever* refused anybody *any* creative follow-up on anything that was done by me. I also have to ask other writers permission to write sequels to their stories and I *know* how it feels to have these ideas that are churning but have to wait to be given outlet. 'Do unto others' is *still* a good operating procedure, far's I'm concerned. [44]

Notable Fiction

Some of Lovett's fic is here: at its original online site and at Starsky & Hutch Archive (2010) here.

  • While Lovett doesn't remember herself, her first fic published may have been "Consequence" in Vault of Tomorrow #2 in January 1982. [45]
  • Goliath, a gen h/c Starsky & Hutch novel, with great art by her and an even better story: an excellent exploration of Starsky and Hutch's relationship post-Sweet Revenge.
  • A Fine Storm, a Starsky & Hutch slash novella that appeared in Code 7 #4, built around a painfully believable misunderstanding plot.
  • The Road to Hell, a Blake's 7 story that was originally published in Powerplay #1 (1987) and later was reprinted together with Suzan's other four Blake's 7 stories (online versions available here or here) in the British edited The Road to Hell and Other Stories. The Road to Hell is a second season AU. Summary from the online version: "Blake is in desperate trouble, and it's up to Avon to rescue him. The rescue turns out to be far harder and takes much longer than Avon expected because Blake is not exactly himself." Many consider The Road to Hell, Lovett's first and longest story, one of the best Blake and Avon stories ever written.
"People think of her art when they think of [Suzan], which I think is almost too bad. She wrote one of my all time favorite B7 stories (A Road to Hell, .... and by far one of my fav Starsky and Hutch stories (A Fine Storm, Code 7, #4). I'm not a very visual person--if there is a line of text below an entire beautiful picture, I often read the line and turn the page hardly noticing the art--I would love to see her write more and draw less. She is definitely in the first rank of fan writers to me."[46]

Zines

Below is a list of zines Suzan contributed artwork and fiction to:

5th Season #5 | The Adult Kirk | All the Queen's Men | Angel in the Dark | Antinomy | Artforum | Avon Calling #1, #3 | Awakenings #1, #2 | Back to Back | Before the Glory | Brothers of Shadows... and Son of the Light | The Boys Are Back #2 | Catch a Fallen Star | Celebration | Chalk & Cheese | Classified Affairs | Code 7 #4 | Commitment | Continental B&D | Cross the Line | Crystal Blue Persuasion | Dangerous Lives, Dangerous Visions #1 | Dark Fantasies #2 | Distant Shores | Dyad #24 | Entr'Acte | Essential Sentinel #1, #2 | Favorite Things | | Final Frontier, inside art | First Principles #2, 3 | Goliath | Harlequin Airs | Heatwave | Heroes | A Hunting We Will Go | If Love is Real: Addiction | Indigo Boys #4 | Iron and Silk | Kaiidth | Leather and Blue Jeans #1 | Legend's End | Liaisons #2 | Master of the Revels | Mind Meld #1, 2, 3, 6 | Motet | Murder on San Carmelitas | Never Far Apart #1, #2 | Nightlight #1 | No Easy Answers | No Holds Barred #11, 12 | Odyssey #5, 6, 6.5, 7, 8 | The Pandora's Box Affair | Panning for Pyrites | Perestroika | A Place in the Sun | Powerplay #1, #6, #7 | Primal Instincts | Progressions | R & R | Race with Destiny | Raising Hell covers #1-4 | Reflections in a Shattered Glass | Return of the 7 #3 | Revolution | Sanctuary | Sardonac | Saurian Brandy Digest #32| The Sensual World #5| The Sleeping Beauty Affair | Sodality | Something... Unfriendly #1 | Songs of Experience | Songs of Innocence | Summer's End | Taemon's Cuckoos | Thank You Kindly | There Are Three | Those Who Favor Fire | The Thousandth Man | Timeless | Total Eclipse of the Heart | TREKisM at Length | Trilogy | Tunnels of Love #6 | Turned to Fire | Vault of Tomorrow #2, #4, #5, #7, #9, #11, #4, #10 | Warriors #2 | We Have Each Other | What If | Whisper of a Kill

Sample Gallery

Unknown Date

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2005

2006

2008

2010

2012

2014

References

  1. ^ WayBack link for th B7 fan art page.
  2. ^ Morgan Dawn's personal notes from approximately July 2000, accessed May 27, 2012.
  3. ^ Feb 4, 2018 email to Morgan Dawn.
  4. ^ "It wasn't all that good illustration either. MG: Oh, that's one you're not proud of it anymore? SL: Well, it was okay. It was all right. Nothing to shout about." -- See these comments and more at: Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Suzan Lovett
  5. ^ "He got in touch with me, certainly asked and in fact there were a couple of pieces he asked for, and I think I gave him permission for only one of them because one of them was a very explicit slash piece and uh, that was also supposed to be, uh, given to some colleges and I could just see the daughter or son of an actor opening the page and seeing her, his father. And I said, I really don't think that should be there." -- from Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Suzan Lovett
  6. ^ Meet your Starsky and Hutch fic writers/artists: Suzan Lovett (2016)
  7. ^ An excerpt from an interview with Suzan in Legacy #1, see Legacy Interview with Suzan Lovett
  8. ^ Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Suzan Lovett
  9. ^ Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Suzan Lovett
  10. ^ Liz Woledge. The Legacy of K/S in Art. Dribbling Scribbling Women: The History of Our Art, in: Legacy Vol. 3, 2007, pp. 22-42 (p. 39).
  11. ^ In the 1980s, ink drawings were cheap to print unlike charcoal/pencil work that required negatives & plates. For more about zine production see Zine Production.
  12. ^ Liz. The Legacy of K/S in Art. Dribbling Scribbling Women: The History of Our Art, in: Legacy Vol. 3, 2007, pp. 22-42 (p. 38).
  13. ^ Liz Woledge. The Legacy of K/S in Art. Dribbling Scribbling Women: The History of Our Art, in: Legacy Vol. 3, 2007, pp. 22-42 (p. 31).
  14. ^ Liz Woledge. The Legacy of K/S in Art. Dribbling Scribbling Women: The History of Our Art, in: Legacy Vol. 3, 2007, pp. 22-42 (p. 33).
  15. ^ Liz. The Legacy of K/S in Art. Dribbling Scribbling Women: The History of Our Art, in: Legacy Vol. 3, 2007, pp. 22-42 (p. 26).
  16. ^ Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Suzan Lovett
  17. ^ The Declassizing of Bodie
  18. ^ See the original photo reference .
  19. ^ Source: Morgan Dawn's personal notes, accessed May 25, 2012.
  20. ^ comments by Sandy Herrold at Virugle-L, quoted with permission (Sep 8, 1995)
  21. ^ a link to a larger version here, The Circuit Archive, accessed September 5.2012
  22. ^ Excerpts from Suzan’s interview in the zine Legacy.
  23. ^ The Bizarro Coloring Book
  24. ^ Source: Megan Kent's Virgule-L discussion of why Manacles Press did not accept pre-orders or include little fanart in their zine publishing. Date: November 1992, quoted with permission.
  25. ^ Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Suzan Lovett
  26. ^ from a fan in Strange Bedfellows (APA) #6 (August 1994)
  27. ^ from a July 2006 discussion at CI5hq
  28. ^ Morgan Dawn's personal notes drawn from online discussions in the mid-1990s about fan art styles and whether fans preferred explicit vs. non-explicit art and whether they wanted spare or detailed art. These discussions were hampered at the time by the fact that few fans had access to the art being discussed and therefore lacked a common reference point. Without the ability to see and access art online, most conversations in letterzines and over email took place in a vacuum.
  29. ^ Art review posted to the Virgule-L mailing list in May 1994, quoted anonymously with permission.
  30. ^ 1997 ZCon report posted to the Virgule-L mailing list.
  31. ^ Influences and inspiration listed in the artist's email dated May 29, 2012 when granting Fanlore permission to upload a larger version of her artwork. See enednoviel's page for a complete list of her fan art influences. Additional artists will be listed above as they are confirmed. Confirmations are in progress.
  32. ^ Liz Woledge. The Legacy of K/S in Art. Dribbling Scribbling Women: The History of Our Art, in: Legacy Vol. 3, 2007, pp. 22-42 (p. 33).
  33. ^ Lysator, Sue C., dated September 13, 1994.
  34. ^ A Lovett MUNCLE art piece sold for over $400 at the 1994 Zebracon art auction. In 2003, Suzan's art used on the cover of Timeless sold for $3,000. Not all the pieces that sold for a high price were originals, however. Even art prints could command high prices. At the 1997 MediaWest art auction Suzan sold multiple Professionals art prints for $300-$500 each. A print that sold for $95 at the same convention was considered to be a bargain. Morgan Dawn's personal notes, accessed May 25, 2012.
  35. ^ See Discussions of selling fan art.
  36. ^ From a comment one zine publisher posted to the Virgule-L mailing list September 1994, quoted with permission:
    "Do Lovett's covers sell zines? One of the reasons I'm curious about this is that Lovett is doing a drawing for me (a result of the Z-con charity auction), and I was thinking of using it for the cover of the next... zine. Now, are fans going to think, "It's got a Lovett cover--I'll buy it no matter what's inside", or are fans going to think "It's got a Lovett cover--wonder if they used it 'cause they knew it would sell zines, and the fiction isn't any good? I'm staying away from it." Or are they going to buy it for what's inside, and ignore the cover? Should I just put my own art on the cover instead?"

  37. ^ Two formats were considered: a half color, half B&W, about 50 multifandom illos, one sided print at 8x10 suitable for framing, on heavy 100 lb laser, perfect bound book. The cost was estimated at $40. The other format would have used the same basic idea and layout, but as a digest size, for about $32. The art portfolios would be part of a limited release. Source: Morgan Dawn's notes, accessed May 25, 2012.
  38. ^ FanStitch sells these Lovett patterns for $10 plus shipping (Accessed 30 May 2012); WebCite. It also sells adult themed Lovett patterns (Accessed 30 May 2012); WebCite. The seller notes that:
    "Suzan's art prints are so full of detail that they're both a challenge and a delight to translate into cross stitch...For the courageous stitcher, I have made a second pattern on a larger scale. The detail is much better on this pattern, but the size is correspondingly greater. In fact, I would recommend stitching this pattern on 10 count double thread needlepoint canvas, using 9 strands of DMC floss for a truly impressive result."

  39. ^ Mugs: Martha's Mugs, Archived version. T-shirt Transfers: T-Shirt Transfers, Archived version. The popularity of Suzan's art and the number of art prints, mugs and t-shirts in circulation means that her art routinely shows up on eBay and, in one case, even in a Goodwill online auction (Suzan Lovett Vampire Print for sale at Goodwill on 11/24/2011;WebCite).
  40. ^ from Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Suzan Lovett
  41. ^ from Psst... Hey Kid, Wanna Buy a Fanzine? #6.
  42. ^ from Psst... Hey Kid, Wanna Buy a Fanzine? #6.
  43. ^ Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Suzan Lovett
  44. ^ "Suzan's comments", a post on The Pits, used on Fanlore with Flamingo's permission (December 25, 1999)
  45. ^ Meet your Starsky and Hutch fic writers/artists: Suzan Lovett (2016)
  46. ^ Sandy Herrold's post to the Virgule-L mailing list dated September 1995, quoted with permission.
  47. ^ from Datazine #37
  48. ^ from The K/S Press #6
  49. ^ 4 September 2009 Master List of K/S Favorites *Updated Nov 19, 2013*, Mary Monroe
  50. ^ The K/S Press #127
  51. ^ from Sarah Thompson at Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 site
  52. ^ Charlotte Hill's post to the Virgule-L mailing list in May 1994, quoted with permission.
  53. ^ Post to the Virgule-L mailing list dated April 10, 1995, quoted with permission.
  54. ^ aralias reviewed this zine in 2013 on Dreamwidth; [www.webcitation.org/6IKvWj2Pv reference link].
  55. ^ from Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Suzan Lovett (2017)
  56. ^ from Datazine #53
  57. ^ fri=om A Random Pile of Stuff; archive link
  58. ^ from A Random Pile of Stuff; archive link (25 January 2016)
  59. ^ Charlotte Hill's post Virgule-L mailing list in May 1994, quoted with permission.
  60. ^ a comment at Virgule-L mailing list in 1999, quoted with anonymously.
  61. ^ from a letter of comment in "Southern Seven" #7
  62. ^ from Chalk and Cheese #9
  63. ^ comments on a mailing list, quoted anonymously (April 25, 1994)
  64. ^ from Psst... Hey Kid, Wanna Buy a Fanzine? #3
  65. ^ from Psst... Hey Kid, Wanna Buy a Fanzine? #3
  66. ^ from a fan's top five favorite zine list in Psst... Hey Kid, Wanna Buy a Fanzine? #4
  67. ^ from Partner Mine
  68. ^ Posted to the Virgule-L mailing list March 23, 1996.
  69. ^ from a LoC in "Chalk and Cheese" #6
  70. ^ from a LoC in "Chalk and Cheese" #6
  71. ^ Charlotte Hill's post to the Virgule-L mailing list in May 1994, quoted with permission.
  72. ^ from issue #5 of Wanna Buy a Fanzine
  73. ^ A fan describes a near miss regarding the Postal Service in from DIAL #10
  74. ^ A review posted to the Virgule-L mailing list in November 1994, quoted anonymously with permission.
  75. ^ comments by Aralias at Iowa Fanzine Archive (visit May 21st 2014)
  76. ^ from anon at Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 site
  77. ^ original art was for sale here
  78. ^ Charlotte Hill's discussion of Explicit Slash Art on the Virgule-L mailing list in May 1994, quoted with permission.
  79. ^ from a review by Sonja at Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 site, Archived version.
  80. ^ Roj Blake and unicorn is on the cover of Songs of Innocence.
  81. ^ Rallying Call #13
  82. ^ from Psst... Hey Kid, Wanna Buy a Fanzine? #6.
  83. ^ In 1995, Michelle Christian posted the this review to the Virgule-L mailing list. It is reposted here with permission
  84. ^ from SoHo Cafe
  85. ^ from the editorial of that zine
  86. ^ from DIAL #3
  87. ^ Flamingo. Crystal Blue Persuasion: Author's note (Accessed 04 October 2009)
  88. ^ from Virgule-L, quoted anonymously with permission (17 Sep 1997)
  89. ^ In 1997 Michelle Christian posted this review to the Virgule-L mailing list. It is quoted here with permission.
  90. ^ comment by Jane Mailander, see ZebraCon/1997
  91. ^ see Escapade/Escapade 1998