The Lucky & the Strong

Zine
Title:	The Lucky & the Strong
Publisher:	Idiot Triplets Press
Editor(s):	Linda McGee, assistant editor: Nancy Goodwin, art liaison: Kathy Sanders
Date(s):	September 1993
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Starsky and Hutch
Language:	English
External Links:	Publisher's Website: 2008 -- S/H Zines from Idiot Triplets Press, Archived version SHareCon 2010: Idiot Triplets Press, Archived version
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The Lucky & the Strong is a gen and slash Starsky and Hutch fanzine. It has 156 pages (78, 100 words) and one single piece of interior art by Baravan. It required an age statement to purchase.

This zine accomplished a rarity -- it was published ahead of schedule, premiering at ZebraCon II.

The name of this zine comes from "The Rose" lyrics by Amanda McBroom which was used for the very, very early songvid, The Rose.

The title page of the zine asks that fans "do not list this or any Idiot Triplets zine on any computer network." In 2008, the publisher created her own website to facilitate the selling of her zines.

From the editorial: "Probably everyone agrees that mixing S&H and S/H in one zine is not the ideal method of presentation. However, that's the way the contributions came in, and we didn't have enough to make separate zines. For the readers' convenience, we've separated the two genres. Everything up to and including the 'Decorated for Death' stories is '&'; after that we have '/'. We hope this delineation is helpful."

Some History and a Zine Name Change

From the zine:

The good news is that there will be a zine. The not-so-good news is that it's not going to be the zine we expected.

When my fellow Idiots and I conceived this idea, we visualized a zine which contained mostly slash stories, with maybe a "gen" or two thrown in. "...Turned to Fire" seemed to be the perfect name.

What we have is a happy mix of tales which are about equally divided between the two genres. We became concerned that the title "...TTF" does not accurately convey the actual contents of the zine. So we began to consider options.

We decided on "The Lucky & the Strong," from Bette Midler's song, "The Rose." Now there's a phrase that accurately describes our heroes, in any universe. So, "TL&TS" is scheduled to debut at ZebraCon in September.

We would still like to do "...Turned to Fire," on the theory that this is too good a title to let go to waste. (So speaks the fool who hasn't typed the first zine, yet.) This one will be all slash. No, it doesn't have to be graphic. If you're currently at work on something, if any story ideas have been percolating, or if you have the germ of an idea you'd like to discuss, please feel free (if not actually compelled) to get in touch. Our hopeful release date will be 1994.

We seem to be experiencing a resurgence of interest in Starsky & Hutch, so I'm hopeful that there will also be "food" coming for you gen aficionados, as well. May we all be feasting in the future!

From a 2017 interview:

As God is my witness, I didn’t have any ambitions to publish, but the situation at the time was that Starsky and Hutch fandom was kind of dying out, and there weren’t many zines being published, and those that were being published, could be difficult to get hold of. So, I was afraid that if I didn’t do it, nobody would, and we even made up some flyers at MediaWest convention, and they would be down in the lobby pit area that I told you about. There, it’s surrounded by marble walls with flat tops, and people would put out flyers for different zines they were planning, or conventions, or whatever. And, we made up a flyer that said, “Yes, Virginia, there is a fandom for Starsky and Hutch," and it listed contact information for three people. I was one of them, and a couple of others, that you could contact if you were interested in finding out more. So I was only going to do one zine. My friend Cath, we also called her the art liaison—she was had gotten me this gorgeous Suzan Lovett cover, and I called the zine “Turned to Fire,” you know, ooooh. So great title, great zine. The submissions starting coming in, and they were almost all gen, and I hadn’t specified, and they were good stories, but you can’t put a hot Suzan Lovett cover and call the zine “Turn to Fire” on a zine that is two-thirds gen. So, then I had to do at least two, and (mock groan) the rest is history.

I went ahead and published “The Lucky and the Strong.” That was the first one.

[...]

It had some excellent, excellent stories in them... I just did for that on my old-fashioned printer with an incompatible font, I just put the title of the zine on it, and some good advice I got from somebody was “put the name of the fandom on the front of the zine so people know what they’re getting.” So it said, like, “A Starsky and Hutch, Starsky/Hutch anthology zine.” And I had some little doo-dahs on the corner and a border, and so that was the first publication, and then “Turned to Fire” was the next one.

Conflict Regarding a Review

In a 2017 interview, Linda McGee said:

One of the women involved in the anti-slash group had a — I guess you’d call it a letterzine that she published online, and the subscribers included children, police officers, who knows who, and without asking for my consent, she published a review of “The Lucky and the Strong,” the first zine, and she did not — let’s see how to phrase this — she made a point of mentioning that, for religious reasons, she didn’t read the slash stories. But she did reviews on the gen stories, and she made a point of mentioning every single slash writer by name. She didn’t even mention the title of the story, as in, “In Linda McGee’s story, blah blah blah blah blah,” and that just — that didn’t make you feel real safe. And, as I said, this had a readership of people in all kinds of professions. Things were certainly better than they’d been 20 or 30 years before, but homophobia was still alive and well. You could be killed just for choosing to be gay, and writing about two guys in bed together? Not really a safe topic. So, it didn’t seem safe for my writers or me to make it all public. The stories had a happy ending. The internet probably helped open up the world a lot to the idea of fan fiction, but I couldn’t predict that in 1993.

Table of Contents

• A Great Ending by Lynna Bright (1) (They meet at the Academy. Excerpt: "It wasn't like he wanted the man in his bed. Nothing like it. He didn't go that way and neither did Hutch. He felt he was on the threshold of loving someone in the best possible way; the way you loved your very best friend when you were a kid, unconditionally, and somehow -- long before you knew what sex was about -- passionately.")
• Echoes of Fear by Londa Pfeffer (12) (a post-"Bloodbath" piece. Hutch, feeling guilty about not rescuing him in time, takes care of Starsky after the kidnapping; there is some Gen Bed Sharing.)
• The Company You Keep by Linda McGee (19) (a post-"Nightmare" piece, Hutch leaves Starsky to go to a cabin with some friends and overhears their disdain for his "low-class" partner. Author's Note: "The scenes with Hutch on the boat with Courtney (originally Caroline), were adapted from a segment cut from the first draft of "Risk" (Nightlight #1). The rest of the story was woven around those events.")
• Until the Stars Grow Cold by Theresa Kyle (28) (Starsky and Hutch, both 13 years old, meet at camp and become blood brothers.)
• Ken’s Friend by Tabby Davis (56) (Takes place immediately after the episode "Gillian")
• Officer Friendly by MRK (70) (Starsky and Terry meet when Starsky does a stint for Safety Week at her school.)
• Violations by Eleanor Burke Marshall (77) (a short piece in which Starsky kicks Hutch out of the Torino, writes him tickets, makes him walk on the freeway, and finally sends a cab to pick him up.)
• Requiem for Vanessa by Theresa Kyle (79) (a prequel to the show, Starsky arrives at Hutch's place just after Vanessa scratches him. Hutch tells his partner she wants a divorce. She and Starsky have a confrontation.)

interior art by Baravan

• The Sixth Seal (a prequel) by Terri Beckett (91) (part of the Decorated for Death series: (The editor notes that "for those interested in reading "Decorated for Death," one copy is available on a loan basis from [P M].")
• Not Skin Deep (a sequel) by Pat Charles (95) (part of the Decorated for Death series)
• Epitaph (poetry) by Michelle Christian (107)
• Hiding (poetry) by Michelle Christian (107)
• You’re in My Heart byPam Talbott (108) (a story that takes place immediately after "Sweet Revenge" where they finally admit their "feelings" for each other and have sex, but only in a shared dream)
• Shadows by Leah S. (115) (takes place right after "Vendetta"; Abby figures out they're too important to each other and tells Starsky she's going to leave Hutch)
• The Right to Touch by Mary Millard (117) (takes place right after the tag for "Partners"; Starsky takes care of Hutch, and they admit their feelings)
• Into the Sunset by (poem) MRK (132)
• Milestone on a Long, Long Trip by Kath Moonshine (133) (sequel in Turned to Fire -- The Last Mile on a Long, Long Trip) (post-"Fix," Hutch has doubts about his ability to be a cop...)
• “Forever” by Linda McGee (143) (Diana Harmon returns for revenge.)

Reactions and Reviews

See reactions and reviews for A Great Ending.